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I " V

THE

ICORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS

THE ADDRESSES AND PAPERS

DELIVERED

BErORE THE PARLIAMENT.

AND

AN ABSTRACT Or TME CONGRESSES

HELD IN THE ART INSTITUTE.
Chicago. Illinois, U.S.A.,
AUGUST 25 TO OCTOBER 15. 1893,

Under the Auspices of

The World's Columbian Exposition.

_ PROrUSELY ILLUSTIiATED.
WITH MAIJGINAL NOTtS

KDITED BY J. W. HANSON, D. D.

'For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight •
He can t be wrong, whose life is in the right:' -Vovk.

J. M. MacGKEGOR PUBLISHING 6U.,

VANCOUVER, B. C.

1894

tntereJ .Koraintr t" Act of Contjress in llio ye.ir A. I). 1803, by tht

W. B. CONKEY COMPANY,

In the .iffice of the Librarian i>f Congross at Washington. D. C

PREFACE.

ITIC Parliamcntof Rcliffions and the World's Re-
ligious Congresses attracted the attention of
mankind all over the earth. Those who lis-
tened to the valuable papers read antl ad-
dresses made regretted that millions could
not read what oidy hundreds had heard. IJut
it would require a library of encyclopa-dic vol-
umes to contain all that was said at those great
assemblages. The only feasible method of ex-
tending their circulation in a concise form is
to print the .iiost of the best and the best of the
most of the Parliament papers, and condense the
.siiiistancc of the Congresses into what might be termed a literary pem-
niican, omitting, as far as possible, all personal and petty details con-
nected with the conception, origin and progress of the meetings. Such
matter, however interesting to those mentioned, is of minor impor-
tance to the public, and if indulged in excludes the far more valuable
l)apcrs themselves, and is at the expense of the increase of the size and
cost of the volume, thus reiTioving it beyond the reach of many who
iiii_t;ht otherwise possess it."

This volume contains the most and the best of the Parliament and
the Congresses. The Parliament papers arc largely from authors' manu-
scri[)tsor stenographic reports, and the Congresses are mainly written
by eminent clergymen and others who participated in them.

If the reader will compare this book with others that profess to
cover the same ground, he will discover that the important papers arc
not "edited" in a manner to break the hearts of their authors by the
^mission of vital portions, nor disfigured by such errors as were ex»

FREFACS.

cusable in the haste incidental to their original appearance in the
daily press, but discreditable in a permanent volume; that papers de
livered to the Congresses do not appear in the proceedings of the
Parliament, nor vice versa; that papers never read are not printed in
these pages, nor are important ones read omitted; in a word, that the
documents themselves are given as nearly as possible within the com-
pass of a single volume, without note or comment.

Mechanically, this work is all that any one would desire. Its large,
legible type, beautiful illustrations and handso. le binding constitute
it by far the most elegant book among those devoted to the laudable
purpose of preserving the valuable words sooken at the World's Parlia-
ment and Congresses,

A complaint has been made by some of those who were prominent
in the Parliament that their prerogatives have been invaded by others
who have published the proceedings. Even Christian clergymen, who
profess to be anxious that their utterances may reach the widest cir-
culation, have attempted to confine the publication of their papers to
one particular work. But it must be apparent that the great Parlia-
ment and Congresses were the property of mankind. No one pos-
sesses any monopoly in them. They were made successful by the
generous contributions, and the unpaid time and toil of thousands. It
was the constant announcement of the prominent promoters of the
Parliament, that the unique gatherings were for the moral and religious
welfare of mankind, and multitudes of men and women worked with-
out money and without price to render the great occasion the mag-
nificent success that it was. The statement will, therefore, doubtless
occasion surprise, yet it is true, that some of those most prominent in
making this proclamation have not only availed tho.'iselves of their
opportunities to promote their personal emolument, but have attempted
to confine the circulation of the valuable documents to the publications
in which they are financially interested.

The publishers of this volume have proceeded on the ground that
no private individual or corporation has any exclusive property in the
papers of the World's Parliament and Congresses of Religion, but that
they are entitled rather to the widest possible circulation — a view which,
it is pleasing to state, has been very heartily indorsed by the majority of
those who participated in the Congresses — and they desire to do their
part in spreading them before the world. To this end a large amount
of money has been expended, and the present volume is the result; and
they trust it will be a means to extend the beneficent work pf the

PREFACE, „,

greatest religious event of the Nineteenth Century, and, with con-
fidence m its merits, they send it out to the world

In the compilation and preparation of this volume the publishers
are mdebted for valuable aid and services to a large number of gln^^^^^
men who were prommently identified with the great religious gather-
ings, among whom may be specially mentioned' Rev. Simeon GHber .

R.bhi T Tq. r^r5- ^'"°''°^ Mccormick Theological Seminary
Rabb. Joseph Stolz, Bishop B. W. Arnett, D. D., Rev. J P Hale D D
Rev. George Hall Rev. D. R. Mansfield, Rev. Lee M^HeHman R^v'
^ftPT^' ^'"'"^u ""^ ^°""' W'"'^'" J- Onahan, Secretary of the

due to ther'^T- ."^'"^ '"' "*^^" --^"^^^^^ -»-^'- -^. -el in-
due to them and a pleasure to us, to acknowledge their services.

THE PUBLISHERS.

■!™i>W

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGES.

Preface ,^ ; 5 to 7

Index of Papers 9 " 10

Index of Authors 11

Index of Illustrations 12 13

Opening of Parli am ent 1.5 " 45

God 47 " 82

Immortality 84 " 97

Scriptures ; 98 " 142

( 143 " 152

Comparative Religions J 253 •< 340

Judaism 154 " 195

Christ...... 197 " 251

Hinduism '. 341 " 876

Buddhism 377 " 427

-"he Bramo-Somaj 428 " 440

aiNToisM AND Other Oriental Religions 441 " 469

,ONFUCIANISM 471 " 490

( 491 " 504

Mohammedanism J 523 •« roe

„ e i 536 " 639

Practical Subjects i .^29 " 938

(507 " 621

Miscellaneous J g^j ,. 1^27

Close of Parliament 939 " 951

Denominational Congresses 953 " 1196

INDEX TO PAPERS.

r
o
1

3
5

!2
17
12
>2
10
)5
51
76
!7
,0
>9

PAOE.

Armenia, Spirit and Mission of the Apoetolio

Church of 487

Amqrioa, World's Debt to 77E

Amtrioa, What Christianity hue WrouKht for. 887
Anglican Chnrch and Church of FiretAttes,
Relation Between 787

Bible; What it has Taufjht .. 1S9

Brahnio-Somaj, The Principles of 428

Bnihino4ioma3, The Hpiritual Ideas of 435

Buddha 419

Buddha, Law of Cause and Kfiect Taught by . 388

Buddha, The World's Debt to 377

Buddhism 409

Buddhism and Christianity 413

Buddhism, As it Exists in Situn 404

Buddhism, Man's Relation to God 395

Buddhism, What it has Done in Japan 401

€

Catholic Church, Needs of Humanity Sup-
plied by 810

Catholic Church, Relation to Poor ... 58tl

Children, The Religious Training of 851

China, America's Duty to 507

Church, The Civic 763

Christendom, The Reunion of 613

Christianity and the Social Ouestion 901

Christianity, A Reli^on of Facts 129

Cliristianity as a Social Force 863

Christianity as Interpret<>d by Literature 664

Christianity to Other Religions, The Message

of 605

Christ the Unifier of Mankind 241

Confucianism, Prize Essay 471

Confucianism 480

Confucianism, Genesis and Development of. 489
Criminal and Erring Classes, Religion and.. 911
Crime and the Remedy 738

Ethical Ideas, The Essential Oneness of,

Amon^allMen S3b

Evangelism in America 752

Evolation, Christianity and 779

Faiths, Harmonies and Distinctions in the
Theistio Twtchingsof the Various Historic. 319

Germans Religious State of 743

God, Argument for 64

God, BninRof 47

God, Moral Evidence of Existence 75

PAGE.

' ;od. Rational Demonstration of the Being

of 51

Ireek Church, Orthodox 547

Gi'eek Philosophy and the Christian Religion 217

Hinduism 847

Hinduiam as aReligion 866

Hinduism, Concessions to Native Religions,

Ideas^aving Special Reference to 841

Htbdu Thought, The Contact of Christian

and 868

Human Progress, Spiritual Forces in 790

Immortality, Argumentfor 84

InternationaJ Arbitration 757

Incarnation Idea in History and in Jesus

Christ 197

International Justice and Amity 718

Incarnation of GodinClirist 206

Indians, North American, Religion of 541

Japan, Christianity, its Present ('ondition

and Prospects 281

JaiuH, The Ethics and History of 445

Jews, Errors About 187

Judaism, The Outloolc for 172

Judaism, The Relation of Historic and its

Future 162

Judaism, Theology of 154

K
Koran, Extracts from 588

Labor, Church and.. 86g

Man From aChristian Point of View 917

Man's Place in Nature "" 698

Marriage Bond, The Catholic Chnrch and 840
Mohammedanism and Christianity, Points

of Contact 491

Music, Emotion and Morals ' '.. 698

Negro, Christianity, and..... 747

Negro Race, The Catholic Church and 898

Negro, Religious Duty to 898

Parliament, Opening of 15

Pekin, Religion of 617

Parliament, e!nd of 939

INDEX TO PAIERS.

PAGE.

BeoonoUiation, VitAl, Not Vicariou* 248

Itofonn. Social. The Work of, in India 82S

Relision, CertaintiM of tlM

Reliifion and Condact, Relation Between tnu

Religion, Elemente of Uni venal S2»

ReliKion and the Lovp of Mankind B9n

Religion, Essentials of 8H3

Religion Essentially Charact«riBtio of Hn.

manity 040

Religion and Wenltli HM

Religion of the World 892

Religion, The Ultimate «88

Religion, Science of. Aid to, From Philosophy 707

Religion, Hapreme End andOiticeof HO!i

Religions, Comparative Stody - ' the World's 301
Religions, Importance of the btudy of Oom>

parative 289

Religions, Inflaence of Ancient Egyptian, on

Other Religions 148

Religions, Swedenborg and the Harmony of. 818

Religions, The Present Oatlook of (r29

Religions, The Sympathy of 264

Religions, What the Dead, Have Bequeathed

to the Living 269

Religio ScientitB 728

Religions as Distingnished From Moral Life. 729

Religions Feeling, The Social Office of 821

Religions Intent, The.. 081

Religions Mission of ' English Speaking

Nations 798

Relit, .ons Unification, Only Possibln Method

of.. 268

Religions Unify, Practical Service of the Sci-
ence of Religions to the Canee of 817

Rest Day. The Divine El«ment In Weekly 061

Hevelatfon, Need of a Wider Conception of . . 257

Sacred Books of the World as Literatare.... 872

Savionr of the World, Christ 230

Scriptures, Catholic Church and 100

Scriptures, Character and Degree of the InspU

rationof US

Scriptures, Influence of the Hebrew 120

SoriptorM, Truthfnlneas of M

Soriptn -es. What they have Taught 189

ShintoLm 441

Social Condition, The Influence of 820

Social Uneation, The Voice of the Mother of

Religfonson 181

Somerset, Lady Henry, Letter From 860

Soul and its Fntnre Life M

Sympathy and Fraternity, Groundsof 600

Theology, Study of Comparative 280

Toleration, Plea for 880

Woman and the Pulpit 551

Women, Influence of Religion on 568

Women of India 677

Women and Men, Cooperation of 558

Woman. A New Testament 580

Women, What Judaism haa done for 887

Zoroaster, Belief and Ceremonieaof 458

Denominational and Other Congresses.

PAGE.

JewibJi 955

Jewish Women's 969

Catholic 984

Lutheran 1025

Lutheran Women's 1032

Presbyterian 1085

Congregational : 1045

Uethodist Episcopal 1068

Reformed Episcopal 1077

Universalist 1078

Unitarian 1098

African Methodist Episcopal 1102

Friends (Hicksite) 1121

Friends (Orthodox) 1126

Cumberland Presbyterian , IISO

Adventists 1184

Seventh-Day Baptists 1140

Evangelical Association 1145

Wales and International Eisteddfod 1161

Disciples of Christ UBS

Missiona 1160

Christian Science 1174

New Jerusalem Church 1181

Reli^ous Unity 1185

Evangelical Alliance 1180

Young Women's Christian Association 1187

Evolutionists 1180

United Brethren in Christ 1191

King's Daughters 1199

German Evangelical Church 1193

Theosophists 1198

Buddhist.^ 1108

Free Religionists 1104

Yonng Men's Christian Association UUft

Ethical Culture 1196

Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant 1190

Reformed Church in the United States 1190

?■ ^> '

INDEX TO AUTHORS.

PAOK.

Abbott, Rev. Lyman, D.D MO

Alger, Wm.R... 253

Amett, HiHhopB.W., D. D 747

Ashitsu, ZitMuzen 419

Azarias, Brother 861

Baldwin, Rev. 8. J., D, D 71H

Brown, Rev.Olynipia 78H

Berkowitz. Rabbi H., U. U IHl

BemBtorff, Count A 74S

Blackwell, Rev. Antoinette Itriiwu. . . . SM

Brand, Ilev. Jamee - - 752

Boardman, ReT. Dr. George Dana 241

Briggs, Charles A., D.D IW

Bruce, Prof. A. B -- <»«

Burrell. David James. D.I) H87

Byrne, Rev.Tho8.8.,D. D »17

Carpenter, J. Estlin 2.'>7

Ohatflchnmgan.OhanneB 4tl7

Chndha<lham. Prinze Chitmlradat 404

Cleary, Rev. James M »»

Cook, Joseph 13^^fl.^8

Dawson, Sir William, F. K. 8 72»

Dickinson, Mrs. Lydui H ."SiW

Dennis, Rev. James S- tiOS

Dharmapala.H 877,418

D'Harlez, Mgr. C. I) 9M

Donnelly, Charl.'H V ft3«

Dvivedi, ManilBl N 847

Dmmmond, Prof. Henry 779

Kastman, Uev. Mrs. Anuis, F. V 5tW

Elliott, Rev. Walter H05

Ely, Prof. Richard T 863

Fab )r. Dr. Ernest 4«»

Field, Dr. Henry M 8«0

Fisher, Prof.O. P., D. D 129

Fletcher, Miss Alice t; !M1

v^andlhi.VirchandA 445

Gibbons, His Eminenfe Cardinal 810

Gladden, Rev. Washington H35

Hoodspeed, Prof.G.8 269

Srant, J. A. 8. (Bey) 143

HHld, Rev. Edward Everett 796

Harris, Hon. W.T 64

H8wei8.Bev. H. R 688

Headland, Isaac T 517

Hewit,Very Rev. Angnatine F 51

Higginson. Col. T. W 264

Hir80h,Dr Emil Q 829

Ho, Knng Helen 471

Hirai, Kinza Binge 395

Hoyt, Ex..Qov. J.^ 595

Holtin, Rev. Ida C 886

Hame,P?v. R. A 868

Jeesap, Bov. Henry H 788

Reane, Rt-Rev. John J., D. D 197, 988

Kohnt, Dr. Alexander 120

Koeakl, Prof. Hamichi 231

PAO».

Landis, Prof. J. P.,D.D .. 1W

Lazarus, Miss Josephine, Pli. D 172

Lewis, Rev. A. H.,D. D 685

Latas, Most Rev. Dionysios 547

M^tin, Dr. W. A. P Wl

Meudes, Rev. H. Pereira 162

MttUer. Prof. Max 217

Mills, Rev. B. Fay 220

Mo<li, Jinanji Jamshedji 452

Moraerie. Rev. Alfred W 75, 888

Mercer, Rev. L. P 818

Moxom. Rev. Philips 84

Mozoomdar, Protap Chandpr 428

Mnnger. Rev. Theodore T.,D. D 664

Mardoch, Miss Marion 580

Nagarkar, B 43!», 825

NiccolKS.J., D. D.,LL. 1) 47

Noguchi, Zonshori 892

Peabody, Prof. F. O 901

Pentecost, Rev.Oeo. F 629

Powell. A. M .• 600

Rexford,Rev. E. L., D. D 651

Kichey, Itev. Thomas 781

Bchaff, Uev. Philip. D. I) 615

Scovell, PrpHidont (of Woostur College) ... 729

8emmee, Thomas J 757

Seton, Rt-Rev. M»»r 106

Sewull, Rev. Frank 118

Shibata, Rt.-Rev. ReucM 441

8ilvenp«n, Rabbi Joseph 187

Slater, Rev.L. E 841

81attery, Rev. J. R 898

8mytb, Kov. Julian K 206

Snell, Merwin— Marie 817

Somerset, Lady Henry.. 566

Soraoji, Mrs. Jeanne 577

Soyen.Shakn 888

Spencer, Rev. Anna G 911

Stead, W. D 768

Sunderland, Mrs. Eliza R., Ph. D 289

Szold, Miss Henrietta 587

Terry, Milton S 672

Tiele, Prof.C.P 280

Toki, Horin 401

Toy, Prof.C. H 876

Vivekananda Swami 866

Valentine, Prof. M 819

Wade, Prof . Martin J 840

Warren, Rev. Samuel M 98

Washburn, Rev. George D. D 491

Webb, Mohammed Alex Russell 528

Williams, Mrs. Fannie B 898

Wright, Itev. Theodore F., Ph. D 248

Wise, Dr. Isaac M 1S4

Wolkonsky, Prince Serge 821

Wooley, Mrs. Olia P 778

Yatsnbnohi, Banrien 409

¥n. Hon Pnng Kwang 48Q

INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS.

, . PAGE.

Art Institute, Chicago, whpre the World's

Congress of Religions was Held 2

Officers of the World's Congress Auxiliary. . U

Charles Carroll Bonney, Chicago 27

Rev. Dr. John Henry Barrows, Chicago 33

Rev. Dr. Augosta J. Chapin, Chicago 41

Rer. Samuel T. Niccolls, D. D., LL. D., St.

Louis, Mo H\

Very Bev. Augustine P. Hewit, New Yorlt BO

Valley of Jehosaphat 63

Hon. W. T. Harris, Washington, D. C 6.')

Rt-Rev. Wm. E. McLaren, Bishop of Chicago 74

House of Pontius Pilate, Jerusalem 83

Rev. Philip S. Moxom, D. D., Boston «»

Mt. Lebanon and Cedars 02

Rev. Charles A. Briggs, D. D.. New York.... 9»

Rt.-BeT. Mgr. Seton, Newark, N. J 107

Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem 112

Fountain of the Apostles, Bethany 119

Dr. Alexander Kohut, New York 121

Rev. Prof. George P. Fisher, Yale College... 128

Joseph Cook, Boston 138

Sontn Sea Island Chief; Convert to Christian-
ity 148

Hcinnt Carmel, Where Elijah Killed Baal's

Prophets 158

Dr. Isaac M. Wise, Cincinnati 155

Tombof Rachel 180

Gate of Damascas, Jerusalem 179

Rabbi Joseph Silverman, New York 186

Rt.-Bev. John J. Keane^ D. D. (Rector Catho-
lic University), Washington, D. C 196

Tombs in the Valley of Jehosaphat, Jerusa-
lem 205

R«T. Julian K. Smyth (Church of the New

Jerusalem), Boston. Mass 207

Prof. Max MttUer, Oxford University 216

Rev. B. Fay Mills, lihode Island 221

Rev. George Dana Boardman, Philadelphia,

Pa 240

Church of St. John the Baptist, Samaria 247

TheGateof Jerusalem 252

African Mission Children of the Upper Congo 263

Rt.-Rev. Bishop C. E. Cheney. Chicago 288

Interior of the Free Church, Copenhagen,

Denmark 279

Mrs. Eliza R. Snaderland, Ph.D., Ann Arbor,

Mich , 288

Mission House, Upper Congo, Africa 312

Rabbi E. G. Hirech, Chicago. 828

Interior of the Church of Ecce Homo, Jerusa-
lem 885

A Hindu Temple, Colombo, Ceylon 316

Dagoba (Sacred Shrine), Anuradhapnra—

Buried City, Ceylon 862

Group of Foreign Representatives 367

Buddhist Priest, Siam 383

Buddhist and Aztec Idols 891

Buddhist Temple, Bangkok, Siam 400

Interior of Buddhist Temple, Canton, China.. 412

Buddhist Priest, Ceylon 418

Prayer in a Moorish Mosque 434

PAOB.

Mohammedan Mother and Children at the

Door of the Mosone.. 451

Mohammedans of Dam"8cns 466

Bedouin Sheik (Mohammedan) 470

Caravan tothe Pyramids 479

Interior of the Mosque of Sultan Hassan 488

Tombs of the Mamluks 606

Procession of the Holy Carpet to Mecca 510

Mohammed Alexander Russell Webb, New

York 622

Mosque of Omar, Jerusalem. 582

Sunka-Gi and Family, Indian Police .MO

Dionysios Latas, Archbishop of Zante, Greece !M

Idol Deesse Thoneris in Ghiza 550

The Door of the Temple of Dendereh 557

Rev. Annis F. Eastman, West Bloomfield,

N.Y 569

Mosque of Mabmoudleh 576

Miss Marion Murdoch, Cleveluid, Ohio ■'i81

Miss Henrietta Szold, Baltimore, Md .588

Mosque of Sultan Barkonk 594

Mosque of Mohamet Aly 599

Prof. Philip Schaef, New York 6W

Tombs of Queen Taia, 18th Dyuasty: King
Menephtah,19th Dyna8ty(ExoduB);aDd Un-
known 628

Rev. Lyman Abbott, D. D., New York 641

Rev. E. L. Rexford, Boston, Mass 680

Mosque of Aboubakr— Moorish Sanctuary... 648
Prof. Milton 8. Terry, D. D.. Evanston, 111.. 678

Rev.A. H.Lewis, D.D.,Plainfield, N.J 683

Mosque of El-Azhar in Cairo 693

Rev. H. R. Haweis, London, Eng 699

Prof. J. P. Landis, D. D.. Ph. D., Dayton, O . 707
Sir William Dawson, ¥. R. S., Montreal,

Canada 722

Head of King Tahraka 728

Mahommedan Funeral Procession in Tan-

giers, Morocco 787

Bishop B.W.Arnett,D. D.,Wilberforce,0.. 749

Mosque of Kaid Bey 761

W. T. Stead, London, Eng 762

Bev. Thomas Richey, D. D., New York 786

Chancel and Altar of Modern Lutheran

Church, Denmark 792

Rev. Edward Everett Halo, D. D., Boston... 797

Tribal Chief, U pper Congo (Hbathen) 804

His Eminence, Jiimes Cardinal Gibbons,

Archbishopof Baltimore 809

Japanese Idols— Dragon of the Typhoon 820

Facade of Church of Our Lady (Lutheran),

Copenhagen, Denmark 884

Prof. M. J. Wade, Iowa City, la 889

The late Kev. Bro. Azarias ^.-. 880

Prof. Richard T. Ely, University of Wis-
consin 862

Rev. James M. Cleary, Minneapolis 868

Entrance to the Temple of Thotmes III 910

Very Rev. Thomas S. Byrne, ('inoinnati 918

Interior of St. Peter's Cathedral, Rome 983

Rev. John Z. Torgersen, Chicago 989

itU)BX to ILLUSTJiATIONS.

Rabbi Joseph Stolz. ChicSSo «?

R-bbiG.GottheiL w yS*:::; ^

Kabbi AjMosee, Lonisville, Ky SSo

8..C. Mdridge, Ban Antonio, Texa» mr

Mies Ray Frank, Oakland, tal S??

M«.Hel.m^ WeiJ.K«.^-City ^\

Mrs. Henry Solomon, CUoago ^ ma

Archbishop P. A. BW?: ChiS ' X

Rev. Simeon GUbert, D D.. Chicaao iM7

ftL^*"'"''" McKenzie, D. 1>'.? Cambri.ige.*"*^
Prof. WUiiston Walked; Hartfo^^^^ {SI?

§|I-&5'7A- Stimson. New York? ■ mk

R^j^. A. Miier; d:-d:; ll: D.--B6iton. ^"^^

Rev.J.sVCMtwelhDVD.rcWoaio ?S?

Mrs.M. R. M. Wallace cilcwS^ i^

Rev. Robert CpllPllew & Jggi

5P^JenkinUoydione8.Chica«6 iim

LL^ Bishop Danief A. K^ne. Kd.".

Rev. J. if.'Araistrong,'D.'b JJm

H^nlL^^*!^?!'' Wllbirforce,o UU

M^"" I'^ff*"^ ^£o«tlw, Washingtin.D. C" ' Uli
nm ^V^L ^""'y' Nashville, Tenn "' "• ^ " " J{i?

H. T. Johnson, PhiladelpLia. Pi uf,

Jonathan W. PInmmer, L'bicago mm

Anna M. Starr. Richmoml. IncT ::.;: ui

Kev. H. 8. Williams, Chicago. . 1131

Rev. p. R. Mansfield, CW^o ngs

^J- ^.J.^ ^'yey* .HaverhUjfMiss:"": im

^venth-Day Baptists (Group).... "I" Jim
Rev. David Swing, Cbicaso 1117

rIv- ^ ^F ^B°i^1j V' ^^«-io-'"""-":;:: "S

n i VU.f.\ ™ack, Chicago iirh

R^'-Tnhn'p**Sy"'J?«'Afi»'«'°'d- <'onn-"-"- 1 81
r!I' iVfcLfi.^f'^' ?,• D.. Chicago 1171

-- u>

Opening of the Parliament.

HIS great religious gathering, never possible
before in the history of the world, nor even
now, perhaps, possible anywhere else than in
the great "city by the unsalted sea," was in-
augurated in the Art palace (see frontispiece),
on Monday, September 1 1, 1893, and con-
tinued eighteen days. All nations, tribes and
tongues seemed assembled in the Hall of Co-
lumbus. The orient and the Occident clasped
hands. From "India's coral strand," from
Japan and China, clad in robes of white, and
red and orange, the oriental priests mingled
with the sober-clad re^jresentati ves of the West,
and the group on the platform gave to the
four thousand spectators in the auditorium
such a picture as was never before seen on earth. It would he im-
possible, short of a library of volumes, to report the speeches made.
A single volume can only give the best, and abstracts of others, and in
these days when readers remember the brevity of life, and the multi-
tude of books, in making which there is no end, they will be glad to
know that the cream of the great religious parliament and congresses is
in this volume. This work is not devoted to glorifying the names of
those who suggested, or launched, or were conspicuous in this greatest
of religious gatherings. It aims, in the shortest, most compact form,
to present the gist of the World's Parliament and Congresses.

Grouped on the platform were: Bishop D. A. Payne, Rajah Ram,
of the Punjab; Carl von Bergen, President of the Swedish Society for
Psychical Research, Stockholm, Sweden; Birchand Raghavji Gandhi, B.
A., Honorary Secretary of the Jain Association, of India, Bombay; Rev.
P. C. Mozoomdar, India; H. Dharmapala, India; Miss Jeanne Serabji,
Bombay; Archbishop Ryan, Philadelphia; Rev. Alexander McKenzie,
Massachusetts; Count A. Bernstorff, Berlin; Piince Serge Wolkonsky,
Russia; Most Rev. Dionysios Latas, Archbishop of Zante, Greece;
Homer Perati, Archdeacon of the Greek church; Pung Quang Yu, of
China; Bishop B. W. Arnett; H. Toki, Japan; Rev. Takayoshi Matsuga-
ma, Japan; Right Rev. Reuchi Shibata, Japan; Rev. Zitsuzen Ashitsu,
Japan; Kinza Riuge Hirai, Japan; Swami Vivekananda, Bombay;

The Orient
and Occident
Clasp Hands,

On the Plat-
form.

^FW^e^

aMWa»nMiW»iiiimiui«W'

7"///; IVOKLDS CO.VGKESS OF KELIGIONS.

Professor Chakravarti, Hombay; H. B. Najjarkar, Homiiay, representative
of the reli^jion of tlie Jinihmo, Somaj; Jiiula Ram, India; Rev. P. G. Phi-
anibolic Occonomus, a priest of the Greek chureh; Ikinriu Vatsubuchi,
President of IIojii, lUiddhist society, Japan; Shaku Soyen, Archbishop
of the Zen, of tiie liuddhist sects; Bishop Saniiki, Japan; Nojruchi and
Nomura, Interpreters, Tokio, Japan; G. Honet-Maiuy, Paris; Prince
Momulu Massaquoi, of Liberia; liishopjenner, Anf,dican I'lve church;
Rev. Alfred Williams Momerie, 1). 1)., London, l<:n},dand; Rev. Mau-
rice Phillips, of Madras; Professor N. Valentine, William T. Harris.
Dr. Krncst Taber, Rev. (Jeorj^e T. Canillin, Professor Kosaki, Bishop
C"«>tter, of Winona; Dr. Adolph Brodbeck, Z. Zimigrowski, Principal
(irant, of Canada.

After the Universal Prayer had been recited, led by Cardinal Gib-
bons, President C. C. Bouncy ^ave the Atldress of Welcome.

WoKSUii'KKs OK God and T.ovkrs ok Man: Let us rejoice that we

have lived to see this {glorious ilay ; let us give thanks to the Eternal God,

whose mercy eudureth forever, that we are permitted to take part in

the solemn and majestic event of a Workl's Congress of Religions.

The importance of this event cannot be overestimated. Its influence

on the future relations of the various races of men cannot '■)C too

highly esteemed.

PreHiilont ^^ this coiigress shall faithfully execute the duties with which it

BtmneyV Ail- has been charged, it will become a joy of the whole earth, and stand

conn..' ' in human history like a new Mount Zion, crowned with glory, and

marking the actual beginning of a new epoch of brotherhood antl

peace.

For when the religious faiths of the world recognize each other as
brothers, children of one leather, whom all profess to love and serve,
then, and not till then, will the nations of the earth yield 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 ear-
nest prayer for the harmony and success of this congress. To them
our own hearts speak in love and sympathy of this impressive and
prophetic scene.

In this congress the word "religion" means the love and worship
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 confidence and respect, without the least
surrender or compromise of anything which we respectively believe
to be truth or iuty, with the hope that mutual acquaintance and a free
and sincere interchange of views on the great questions of eternal
life and human conduct 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 indi-
vidual opinions of the divine nature and attributes will differ. But,

I I

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

irc

ce
al

li-
lt,

Tlio UoliKious
Fttitim of tliu
World.

properly understood, tli« sc varieties of view are not eauses of discord
and strife, but rather incentives to deeper interest and examination.
Necessarily God reveals Himself tlifferently to a child than to a man;
to a philosopher than to one who cannot read. I'.ach must see God
with the eyes of his own soul. I'^ach one must Iji;hold 11 im throuj^h
the colorecl ^lass of his own nature. ICach one must receive I Mm
according to his own capacity of reception. The fraternal union of
the relij^ions of the world will come when each seeks truly to kncnv
how God has revealed Himself in the other, and remembirs the inex-
orable law that with what judgment it juilf^es, it shall itself be judged.

The relijjious faiths of the workl have most seriously misunder-
stood and misjudged each other from the use of words in meanin^^s
radically different from those which they were intended to bear, and
from a disregard of the distinctions between appearances and facts;
between signs and .symbols anil the things signified ami represented.
.Such errors it is hoped that this congress will do much to correct and
to render hereafter impossible.

He, who believes that (iod has revealed Himself more fully in his
religion than in any other, cannot do otherwise than desire to bring
that religion to the knowledge of all men, with an abiding conviction
that the God who gave it will preserve, protect, and advance it in
every expedient way. And hence he will welcome every just oppor-
tunity to come into fraternal relations with men ui other creeds, that
they may see in his upright life the evidence of the 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 Con-
gress of 1893, there came with th... idea a profound convicti(jn that
the crowning 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 (iovernment 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 differ-
ent people."

At first the proposal of a World's Congress of Religions seemed
impracticable. It was said that the religions had never met but in con-
flict, and that a different result could not be expected now. A com-
mittee of organization was, nevertheless, appointed to make the nec-
essary arrangements. This committee was composed of representa- OrgtinizationT
tives of si.xteen religious bodies. Rev. Dr. John Henry Harrows was
made chairman. How zealously and efficiently he has performed the
great work committed to his hands this congress is a sufficient witness.

The preliminary address of the committee, prepared by him and
sent throughout the world, elicited the most gratifying responses, and
proved thav. the proposed congress was not only practicable, but also
that it was most earnestly demanded by the needs of the present age.
The religious leaders of many lands, hungering and thirsting for a
larger righteousness, gave the proposal their benedictions, and prom-
ised the congress their active co-operation and support.

C^oramitteuof

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

KreHB.

si-

To most of the departments of the World's Congress' work a
single week of the exposition season was assigned. To a few of the
most important a longer time, not exceeding two weeks, was given.
In the beginning it was supposed that one or two weeks would suffice
for the department of religion, but so great has been the interest, and
so manj' have been the applications in this department, that the plans
for it ha\e repeatedly been rearranged, and it now extends from Sep-
tember 4th to October 15th, and several of the religious congresses
have, nevertheless, found it necessary to meet outside of these limits.

The programme for the religious congresses of 1893 constitutes
what may with perfect propriety be designated as one of the most
remarkable publications of the century. The programme of this
of^'?h™"™n- Ji[cncral parliament of religions directly represents 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, includes many other countries.
This remarkable programn e presents, among other great themes to be
considered in this congress. Theism, Judaism, Mohammedanism, Hin-
duism, Huddhism. Taoism, Confucianism, .Shintoism, Zoroastrianism,
Catholicism, the (ircek ciiurcli, I'rotestantism in many forms, and also
refers to the nature and intluence of other religious sj-stenis.

This programme also announces for presentation the great sub-
jects of revelation, immortality, the Incarnation of God, the universal
elements in religion, the ethical unity of different religious systems,
the relations of religion to morals, marriage, education, science, phi-
losophy,evolution, music, labor, government, peace and war, and many
other hemes of absorbing interest. Tiie distinguished leaders of
human progress, by whom these great topics will be presented, con-
stitute an unparalleK'd galaxNof eminent names, but we may not pause
to call the illustrious roll.

]''or the execution of this part of the general progrannne seven-
teen days have been assigned. During substivUtially the same, period
the second part of the programme will be executed in the adjoining
Hall of Washington. This will consist of what arc termed presentations
of their distinctive faith and achievements by tne different churches.
These presentations will be made to the world, as re|)resented in the
World's Religious Congresses of 1893. All persons interested are
cordially invited to attend.

The third part of the general programme for the congresses of
this department consists of separate and independent congresses of
the different religious deii.)niinations f.)r the purpose of more fully
setting forth their d<jctrines ami the service they have rendered to man-
kind. These special congresses will be held, for the most i)art, in the
smaller halls of this meiuorial building. A few of them have, for
special reasons, already been held. It is the special object of these
denominational congresses to afford opportunities for further informa-
tion to all who may desire it. The leaders of these several churches
most cordially desire the attendance of the representatives of other

tHE WORUyS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

religions. The denominational congresses will each be held dunngthe
week in which the presentation of the denomination will occur.

The fourth and final part of the programme of the department of
religion will consist of congresses of various kindred organizations.
These congresses will be held between the close of the parliament of
religions and October 15th, and will include missions, ethics, Sunday
rest, the evangelical alliance, and other similar associations. The con-
gress on evolution should, in regularity, have been held in the depart-
ment of science, but circumstances prevented, and it has been given a
place in this department by the courtesy of the committee of organ-
ization.

To this more than imperial feast, I bid you welcome.

We meet on the mountain height of absolute respect for the relig-
ious convictions of each other, and an earnest desire for a better
knowledge of the consolations which other forms of faith than our
own offer to their devotees. The very basis of our convocation is the
idea that the representatives of each religion sincerely believe that it
is the truest and the best of all; and that they will, therefore, hear with
perfect candor and without fear the convictions of other sincere souls
on the great questions of the immortal life.

Let one other point be clearly stated. While the members of this
congress meet, as men, on a c immon ground of perfect equality, the
ecclesiastical rank of each, in his own church, is at the same time gladly
recognized and respected, as the just acknowledgment of his services
and attainments. But no attempt is here made to treat all religions
lis of equal merit. Any such idea is expressly disclaimed. In this con-
gress, each .syi>.v.m of religion stands by itself in its own perfect integrity,
uncompromised, in any degree, by its relation to any other. In the
language of the preliminary publication in the department of religion,
we seek in this congress "to unite all religion against all irreligion; to
make the golden rule the basis of this union; and to present to the
world the substantial unity of many religions in the good deeds
of the religious life." Without controversy, or any attempt to
pronounce judgment upon any matter of faith, or worship, or religious
opinion, we seek a better knowledge of the religious condition of all
mankind, with an earnest desire to be useful to each other and to all
others who love truth and righteousness.

This day the sun of a new era of religious peace and progress rises
over the world, dispelling the dark clouds of sectarian 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.

Welcome to
the Imperial
Feast.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

Adilrexs by
T)r. HBrrowH,

He was followed by the Rev. John Henry Barrows, D. D., chair-
man of the general committee:

Mr. Presidknt and Friends: If my heart did not overflow 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 forsaken by the spirit of God. The whitest snow on the sacred
mount of Japan, the clearest water sprinj|;ing 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 furthest isles of Asia; from India, the mother of religions;
from Europe, the great teacher of civilization; from the shores on which
breaks the "long wash of Australasian seas;" that from neighboring
lands, and from all parts of this republic which wc love to contemplate
as the land of earth's brightest future, you have come here at our invi-
tation in the expectation that the world's first parliament of religions
must prove an event of race-wide and perpetual significance. ♦ * *

Welcome, most welcome, O wise men of the East and of the West!
May the star which 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 representativesofGotl's aspiring and believing
children everywhere, has been conceived and carried on through
strenuous and patient toil, with an unfaltering heart, with a devout
faith in God and with most signal and special evidence of His divine
guidance and favor. * ♦ *

What, it seems to me, should have blunted some of the arrows of
criticism shot at the promoters of this movement is this other fact,
that it is the representatives of that Christian faith which we believe
has 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 com-
parative religions, wherein devout men of all faiths may speak for
themselves without^ hindrance, without criticism, and without com-
promise, 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?

On the contrary, you agree with the great mass of Christian schol-
ars in America in believing that Christendom may proudly hold up
this congress of the faiths as a torch of truth and of love which may
prove the morning star of the twentieth century. There is a true and
noble sense in which America is a Christian nation, since Christianity
is recognized by the supreme court, by the courts of the several states,
by executive officers, by general national acceptance and observance,
as the prevailing religion of our people. This does not mean, of
course, that the church and state are united. In America they are

m
's

•^■M

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

cotn-

ppeal

■^ou if

ent of

will

schol-
Id up
may
and
ianity
itates,
ance,
n, of
ly are

separated, and in this land the widest spiritual and intellectual freedom

is realized. Justice Ameer Ali, of Calcutta, whose absence we lament

today, has expressed the opinion that only in this western republic '

would such a congress as this have been undertaken and achieved.

I do not forget — 1 am glad to remember— that devout Jews, lovers
of humanity.have co-operated with us in this parliament; that these men
and women representing the most wonderful of all races and the most
persistent of all religion.s — who have come with good cause to appreci-
ate the spiritual freedom of the United States of America — that these
friends, some of whom are willing to call themselves Old Testament
Christians, as I am willing to call myself a New Testament Jew, have i

zealously and powerfully co-operated in this good work. But the
world calls us, and we call ourselves, a Christian people. We believe
in the Gospels and in Him whom they set forth as "the Light of the
World," and Christian America, which owes so much to Columbus and
Luther, to the pilgrim fathers and to John Wesley, which owes so much
to the Christian church and the Christian college and the Christian
school, welcomes today the earnest disciples of other faiths and the
men of all faiths who, from many lands, have flocked to this jubilee of
civilization.

Cherishing the light which (iod has given us and eager to send \ Divine
this light everywhither, we do not believe that God. the Eternal .Spirit, ^'«''*'
has left Himself without witness in non-Christian nations. There is
a divine light enlightening every man.

"One accent of tlie Holy (Ihnst
The hee(lless world has never lost."

I'rof. Ma.\ iSIiiller. of O.xford, who has been a friend of our move-
ment and has .sent a contribution to this parliament, has gathered
together in his last volimie a collection of prayers -I^gyptian. .\ccadian,
Babylonian, Vedic, Avestic, Chinese, Mohammctlan and modern
Hindu — which make it perfectly clear that the sun which shone over
Bethlehem and Calvary has cast some celestial illumination and called
forth .some devout and holy aspirations by the Nile and the Ganges, in
the deserts of Arabia and by the waves of the Vellow sea.

It is perfectly evident to all illuminated minds that we should
cherish loving thoughts of all people and humane views of all the
great and lasting religions, and that whoever would advance the cause
of his own faith must first discover and gratefully acknowledge the
truths contained in other faiths. * * *

Why should not Christians be glad to learn what God has wrought
through Buddha and Zoroaster — through the sage of China and the
prophets of India and the prophet of Islam!

We are met together today as men, children of one God, sharers
with all men in weakness and guilt and deed, sharers with devout souls
everywhere in aspiration and hope and longing We are met as relig-
ious men, believing even here in this "capital of material wonders— in
the presence of an exposition which displays the unparalleled marvels
of steam and electricity— that there is a spiritual root to all human

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Theology.

)rogrcss. VVc arc met in a school of comparative theology, which I
lope will prove more spiritual and ethical than theological; we are
/;oraparaUve met, I bclievc, 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 indi-
vidual convictions, and where, I will add, no one would be worthy of
a place if he did.

We are met in a great conference, men and women of different
minds; where the speaker will not be ambitious for short-lived, verbal
victories over others, where gentleness, courtesy, wisdom and moder-
ation will prevail far more than heated argumentation. I am confi-
dent that you appreciate the peculiar limitations which constitute the
Eeculiar glory of this assembly. We are not here as Baptists ;.nd
uddhists. Catholics and Confucians, Parseesand Presbyterians, Meth-
odists and Moslems; we are here as members of a parliament of re-
ligions over which flies no sectarian flag, which is to be stampeded by
no sectarian war cries, but where for the first time in a large council is
lifted up the banner of love, fellowship, brotherhood. We 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 pub-
licly, or personally; your silence will be a graver and severer rebuke.
* ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

It is a great and wonderful programme that is to be spread befo.e
you; it is not all that I could wish or had planned for, but it is too
large for any one mind to receive it in its fullness during the seven-
_ _ teen days of our sessions. Careful and scholarly essays have been

Scholarly Es- prepared and sent in by great men of the old world and the new, which
are worthy of the most serious and grateful attention, and I am confi-
dent that each one of us may gain enough to make this parliament an
epoch of his life. You will be glad with me that, since this is a world
of sin and sorrow, as well as speculation, our attention is for several
days to be given to those greatest practical themes which press upon
good men everywhere. How can we make this suffering and needy
world less a home of grief and strife and far more a commonwealth of
love, a kingdom of heaven? How can we abridge the chasms of alien-
ation which have kept good men from co-operating? How can wo
bring into closer fellowship t'lose who believe in Christ as the .Saviour
of the world? And how can we bring about a better understanding
among the men of all faiths? I believe that great light will be thrown
upon these problems in the coming days. * ♦

Welcome, one and all, thrice welcome to the World's first Parlia-
ment of Religions! Welcome to the men and women of Israel, the
standing miracle of nations and religions! Welcome to the disciples
of Prince Siddartha, the many millions who cherish in their hearts
Lord Buddha as the light of Asia! Welcome to the high priest of the
national religion of Japan! This city has every reason to be grate-

Carefnl and

aaye.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

arlia-
thc
iples
earts
f the
rate-

HpiritH of

fill to the enlightened ruler of the sunrise kingdom. Welcome to the
men of India and all faiths! Welcome to all the disciples of Christ,
and may God's blessing abiile in our council and extend to the twelve
hundred millions of human beings, the representatives of whose faiths
I address at this monient!

It seems to me that the spirits of just and good men hover over
this assembly. 1 believe that the spirit of Paul is here, the zealous
missionary of Christ, whose courtes)-, wisdom and unbounded tact were
manifest when he preached Jesus and the resurrection beneath the
.shadows of the I'artiienon, I belie\e the spirit of the wise ami humane
l^uddha is here, and of .Socrates, tlie siarciicr after truth, and of Jeremy .iiiHt'iind Good
Taylor and John Milton and Kogrr Williams and Lessing, the great *'*'"
lapostles of toleratitju. I believe tli.i; the spirit of Abraham Lincoln,
who sought for a church founded on love for (iod and man, is not far
from us, and the spirit of Tennyson anil Whittier and Phillips Brooks,
who h)oked forward to this parliament as the realization of a noble
idea.

When, a few days ago I met for the first time the delegates who
have come to us froui Japan, ami shortly after the delegates who have
come to us from India, 1 felt that the arms of human brotherhood had
reached almost around the globe. Jiut there is something stronger than
human love and fellowship, and what gives us the most hope and
happiness today is our conlidence that

'The whiile roinul world is every w.iy
Bound l)y j^old cliiii:is about the feet of God."

He was followctl by Archbishop l'"eehan, of Chicago: On this
most interesting occasion, ladies and gentlemen, a privilege has been
granted to me--that of giving greeting in the name of the Catholic
church to the members of this parliament of religion. Surely we all
regard it as a time and a day of the highest interest, for we have here
the commencement of an assembly unique in the history t)f the world.
One of the representatives from the ancient Kast has mentioned that
his king in early days held a meeting sonielhinglike this, but certainly
the modern and historical world has had no such thing
come from distant lands, from many shores. They represent many Feehan
types of race. They represent many forms of faith; sonic from the
distant East, representing its remote antiquity; some from the islands
and continents of the West. In all there is a great diversity of opinion,
but in all there is a great, high motive.

Of all the things that our city has seen and heard during these
passing months, the highest and the greatest is now to be presented to
it. For earnest men, learned and elocpient men of different faiths, have
cotne to speak and to tell us of those things that of all are of the
highest and deepest interest to us all. We are interested in material
things; we are interested in beautiful things. We admire the won-
ders of that new city that has sprung up at the southern end of our great
city of Chicago; but when learned men, men representing the thought
of the world on religion, come to tell us of God and of His truth, and

IMCn nave Archbishop

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

B««ponae by
Cardinal Qib.
boni.

of life and of death, and of immortality and of justice, and of good-
ness and of charity, then we listen to what will surpass, infinitely,
whatever the most learned or most able men can tell us of material
things.

Those men that have come together will tell of their .systems of
faith, without, as has been well said by Dr. Harrows, one atom of sur-
render of what each one believes to be the truth for him. No doubt
it will be of exceeding interest; but whatever may be said in the end,
when all is spoken, there will be at least one great result; because no
matter how we may iliffer in faith or religion, there is one thing that is
common to us all, and that is a common humanity. And those men
representing the nices and the faiths of the world, meeting together
and talking together and seeing one another, will have for each other
in the end a sincere respect and reverence and a cordial and fraternal
feeling of friendship. As the jirivilegc which I prize very much has
been given to me, I bid them all, in my own name, and of that I rep-
resent, a most cordial welcome.

Response by Cardinal Gibbons: Your honored president has in-
formed you, ladies and gentlemen, that if I were to consult the inter-
ests of my health I should perhaps be in bed this morning, but as I
was announced to say a word in response to the kind speeches that
have been offered up to us, I could not fail to present myself at least,
and to show my interest in your great undertaking.

I would be wanting in my duty as a ministerof the Catholic church
if I did not say that it is our desire to present the claims of the Catholic
church to the observation and, if possible, to the acceptance of every
right-minded man that will listen to us. But we appeal only to the
tribunal of conscience and of intellect. I feel that in possessing my
faith I possess a treasure compared with which all treasures of this
world are but dross, and, instead of hiding those treasures in my own
coverts, I would like to share them with others, especially as I am
none the poorer in making others the richer. Hut though we do not
agree in matters of faith, as the Most Reverend Archbishop of Chicago
has said, thanks be to God there is one platform on which we all stand
united. It is the platform of charity, of humanity, and of benevolence.
And as ministers of Christ we thank him for our great model in this
particular. Our blessed Redeemer came upon this earth to break
down the wall of partition that separated race from race, and people
from people, and tribe from tribe, and has made us one people, one
family, recognizing God as our common Father, and Jesus Christ as
our Brother.

We have a beautiful lesson given to us in the Gospel of Jesus Christ —
that beautiful parable of the good .Samaritan which we all ought to
follow. We know that the good Samaritan rendered assistance to a
dying man and ban. aged his wounds. The Samaritan was his enemy
in religion and in faith, his enemy in nationality, and his enemy in
social life. That is the model that we all ought to follow.

I trust that we will all leave this hall animated by a greater love for

.. % L , JJ

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF KEUGIONS.

one another, for love knows no distinction of faith. Christ the Lord
is our model, 1 say. We cannot, like our Divine .Saviour, give sight t(»
the blind, and hearing to the deaf, and walking to the lame and
strengti) to the paralyzed limbs; we cannot work the miracles which
Christ wrought; but there are other miracles far more beneficial to our-
selves that we are all in the measure of our lives capable of working,
and those are the miracles of char't'' of mercy, and of love to our
felluwman.

Let no man say that he cannot serve his brother. Let no man
say, "Am I my brother's keeper?" That was the language of Cain, and
1 say to you all here today, no matter what may be your faith, that
you arc and you ought to be your brother's keeper. What would be-
come of us Christians today if Christ the Lord had said, "Am 1 my
brother's keeper?" We would be all walking in darkness and in the
shadow of death, and if today we enjoy in this great and beneficent
land of ours blessings beyond comparison, we owe it to Christ, who
redeemed us all. Therefore, let us thank God for the blessings He
has bestowed upon us. Never do we perform an act so pleasing to
God as when we extend the right hand of fellowship and of practical
love to a suffering member. Never do wc approach nearer to our
model than when we cause the sunlight of heaven to beam upon a
darkened soul; never do we prove ourselves more worthy to be called
the children of God, our Father, than when we cause the flowers of joy
and of gladness to grow up in the hearts that were dark and dreary and
barren and desolate before.

For, as the apostle has well said, "Religion pure and undefiled
before God and the Father is this: To visit the orphan and the
fatherless and the widow in their tribulations, and to keep one's self
unspotted from this world."

The Rev. Augusta J. Chapin, U. D., chairman of the women's
committees, then said:

I am strangely moved as I stand upon this platform and attempt
to realize what it means that you all are here from so many lands rep-
resenting so many and widely differing phases of religious thought
and life, and what it means that I am here in the midst of this unique
assemblage to represent womanhood and woman's part in it all. The
parliament which assembles in Chicago this morning is the grandest
and most significant convocation ever gathered in the n:ime of religion
on the face of this earth.

The old world, which has rolled on through countless stages and
phases of physical progress, until it is an ideal home for the human
family, has, through a process of evolution or growth, reached an era
of intellectual and spiritual attainment where there is malice toward
none and charity for all; where, without prejudice, without fear and
with perfect fidelity to personal convictions, we may clasp hands
across the chasm of our indifferences and cheer each other in all that
is good and true.

The World's first Parliament of Religions could not have been

Remirks by
Rev. AaRQBta
•T. ChapiD, \i.
D.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

cilk'd sooner and have ^athcrccl the rcli<^ionists of all these lands
to^fether. We had to wait li r the hour to strike, until the steamship,
the railwa)' and the telej^raph had brou<jht men tof^ether, leveled their
walls of separation and made them acquyinted with each other; until
scholars had broken the \va\' throiij^h the p.ithless wilderness of ii^nu-
rance, superstition and falsehood, ami con^jelled them to respect each
other's honest)', tievotion and intelliti^ence. A hundred years a,n"() the
world was not read)' for this ])arliament. '^'ift)' years at^o it could

hut a siiiLjle genera-
tly

not \\A\v heeii roineiied, and had it been ■:;

Jl'

-f tl

le relisjious world eould 'U'

t h;

ive heen diret

tion a_L;<). due lial
represented.

WOniaii iiiuld not ha\e iiad a part in it in her own rii^dit for two
reasons: ( )iie, thai her presence would not ha\ e been tiioui;ht o! nor
tolerated; and the otiu'r was that she, luMself, was still too weak, too
timid and too uiiseliooK'd to a\ail herself of such an opportunit)' ha<l
it been olfen-d. i'ew, indeed, were the)' ;i cpiarter of a eentur)'ap[o
who talki'd alioiit till- i)i\ini' l'"atIu-rhood and Human lirolhcrliood,
and fewi-r still w eie tiie\' who realized the practical reliijious power
of tlicsi' ((uuept ions. Now lew an- found to (pu'stion them.

1 am not an old woman, \et m\' meniorx' runs iasil\- back 'o the

tune w hen, in all tl

e modern world

lere was not one wi'

e(|ui|)i)e(

I'P

"ollej^e or universit)- open to women students, ;iiid when, in all tlu-

H i K h .. .
Ho.\..rH for modern world, no woman had been ord.iined, or e\ en acknow ledi
Women.

Pfpsi-
dent n i f{ i n-
bothum Hiiid,

a |)reaciier ontsidi- the denomination of l-'rieiuls. Now tlu- doors are
thrown open in our own and man)' other lands. WOmen are becoming'
masteisdl tlu- lanmiaL'es in which tlu- yreat sacred litt'ratures of the

world ai'c w litteii. 'I'lu'V' are w inninsj the hi<jlu'st honors tiiat tlu-

unix'crsit ies h,i\c tn bestow, and ahead)' in the t'leld of iclii^ion hmi-
dreds ha\e Ixiii ordained, ami tiious.uids are fieel)' speakiiiL; and
teachiiiL; this new (ios|)i'l ol freedom and L;entli'ness that h,is come to
bless mankind.

eaiestill.it the dawn of this new er.i. its ^rand possibilities

are all bi-fori' us, and its heii^lits are ours to reach. W i' are assembk'd
in this j^reat paiiiament to look for the first time in each other's faces
and to speak to each other our best and triu'st words. I can onl)- ad<
my he.irtielt wmd of ^reetiu!.;' to those )'oii ha\ e al.'catl)' lie.ird.
welcome \ou I)rotheis, of e\er\' n.ime and land, who ha\e wrouL;nt si
1 ■ '

oni^' ;iiid so well in accordance with the wisdom hi^li heaven has L,M\ei
to ) oil ; and 1 w elcome )ou, sisters, w ho ha\e come w ith beating;' heart;
■ ind eariU'st purpose to this <;reat feast, to participate not onl)' in this
parliament, but in the ^reat conj^resses associ.iled with it. Isabella, the
Catholic, had m it old)' the perception of ;i new world, but of an enliijht-
ened and einaiu i|)ated womanhood, which should streiii^then reli_t,M'on
il bless mankind. I welcome \'ou to the fultillment of her prophetic

vision.

President II. N. I ligrinbotham said: It affords me ininite pleasure
to welcome the distinjjuished ^a-ntlemeii who compose this auti^ust
bod)', it is a iiiatter of satisfaction and pride that the relations exisl-

■I:

Charles Carroll Bonney, President World's Congress Auxilliary,

::^«B«pisiiaKiatisafc-««5

!lf!

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

!Sd

ing between the peoples and nations of the earth are of such a friendly
nature as to make this gathering possible. I have long cherished the
hope that nothing would intervene to prevent the full fruition of the
labors of your honored chairman.

I apprehend that the fruitage of this parliament will richly com-
pensate him and the world and prove the wisdom of his work. It is a
source of satisfaction that, to the residents of a new city in a far
country should be accorded this great privilege and high honor. The
meeting of so many illustrious and learned men under such circum-
stances evidences the kindly spirit and feeling that exists throughout
the world. To mc this is the proudest work of our exposition.
[Cheers.] There is no man, high or low, learned or unlearned, but will
not watch with increasing interest the proceedings of this parliament.
Whatever may be the differences in the religions you represent, there
is a sense in which we are all alike. There is a common plane on which
we are all brothers. We owe our beings to conditions that are exactly
the same. Our journey through this world is by the same route. We
have in common the same senses, hopes, ambitions, joys and sorrows,
and these to my mind argue strongly and almost conclusively a
common destiny.

To me there is much satisfaction and pleas'Tc in the fact that we
are brought face to face with men that come to us bearing the ripest
wisdom of the ages. They come in the friendliest spirit that, I trust,
will be augmented by their intercourse with us and with each other. I
hope that your parliament will prove to be a golden milestone on the
highway of civilization, a golden stairway leading up to the tableland
of a higher, grander and more perfect condition, where peace will
reign and the enginery of war be known no more forever.

These addresses were responded to by many from the most emi-
nent representatives of the world's religions present, extracts from
which here follow:

The Rev. Alexander McKenzie, of Harvard university, said: I
suppose that everybody who speaks here this morning stands for some
thing. The very slight claim I have to be here, rests on the fact that ____

I am one of the original settlers. I am here representing the New R'»v!Aiex. m"o1
England Puritan, the man who has made this gathering possible. The
Puritan came early to this country, with a very distinct work to do,
and he gave himself tlistinctly to that work, and succeeded in doing
it. There are some who criticise the Puritan, and say that if he had
been a different man than he was he would not have been the man he
was. ♦ * * The little contribution that he makes this morning, in the
way of welcome to these guests from all parts of the world, is to congrat-
ulate them on the opportunity given them of seeing something of the
work his hands have established. We are able to show our friends
from other countries, not that we have something better than what
they have, but that we have that which they can see nowhere else in
the world. It would be idle to present trophies of old countries to
men from India and Japan. We cannot show an old history or stately

Remarks
<<v. All
Kunzie.

.by

^^m

i^.-""-P'fl

r//£ IVOKLUS CONGRESS OF KEUGWNS.

architecture. We cannot point to the castles and abbeys of Eng-
land, but we can show a new country which means to be old. VVc can
show buildings as tall as any in the world, and we can show the dis-
placement of buildings that are a few score years old by the stately
and elegant structures of our time. But there is another thing we can
show, if our brethren from a'.)road will take pains to notice it. I am
not exaggerating when I say that we can show what can be shown no-
where else in the world, and that is, a great republic, and a republic in
the process of making by the forces of Christianity. * * * ihe
beginning of this republic was purely religious. The men who came
to start it came from religious motives. Their religion may not have
been exactly what other people liked, but they worked with a distinct-
ively religious jjurpose. They came here to carry out the work of
God They worked with energy and perseverance a, id steadfastness
to that end. They started on Plymouth Rock a i)arliainent of religion.
He said, in concluding, "We have not built cathedrals \et,l)ut we have
built log schoolhouses, and if you visit them you will see in the cracks
between the logs the eternal light streaming in. And for the work we
arc d()in<i, a io<i schoolhouse is better than a cathedral.

Addrpss
Archbia
Lataa.

\ M

p. r.

Z u o lit d
speakM for
HinduH,

e .Most

Rev. Pionysios Latas, Archbishoi) of Zante. Greece,
representing the (ireck Catholic church, saiil: * * I consider my-
, self very happy in having set my feet on this platform to take part in
hop the congress of the different nations and i)eoples. I thank the great
American nation, and especially the superiors of this congress, for the
high manner in wiiich they have honored me by inviting me to take
part, ami I thank the ministers of divinity of the different nations and
peoples which, for the first time, will write in the books of the history
of the world. * * * Rc\erend ministers of the elociuent name of
God, the Creator of your earth and mine, I salute youonthe 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 tli-
vinely ins])ired Gospel, which, according to our faith, is the salvation
of the soul of man and the hapi)iness 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 without any distinction of clime or race, without distinction of
nationality or ancestry, of name or nobility; all men have a common
Creator, and consequently a common Father in (iod.

I raise up my hands and I bless with heartfelt love the great
country and the happy, glorious people of the United .States!

The elocjuent 1'. C. Mozoomdar, of the Hrahmo-.Somaj:

LlC.NDKKS OK TllK 1'AKI.IAMKNT OK RkI-ICIONS, .IMlCN AM) WoMEN OF

y\MEKK.A: The recognition, sjnipathy, and welbome you have given
to India today arc gratifj-ing to thousands of liberal Hindu religious
Mo. thinkers, whose representatives I see arountl me, land on behalf of my
a •■ countrymen, I cordially thank you. India claims her place in the
brotherhood of mankind, not only because of her great antiquity, but
equally for what has taken piace there in recent times. Modern India

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Address from
Hun. I> u n K
Quung Yu.

has sprung from ancient India by a law of evolution, a process of
continuicy which explains some of the most difficult problems of our
national life. In prehistoric times our forefathers worshiped the threat
living Spirit, God, and after many strange vicissitudes we, Indian
theists, led by the light of ages, worship the same living .Spirit, God,
and none other. No individual, no denomination, can more fully
sympathize or more heartily join your conference than we men of the
Hrahmo-Somaj, whose religion is the harmony of all religions, and
whose congregation is the brotherhood of all nations.

An address from Hon. Pung Quang Vu, secretary of the Chinese
legation, Washington, was read by Chairman Barrows: On behalf of
the imperial government of China, I take great pleasure in responding
to the cordial words which the chairman of the general committee and
others have spoken today. 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 honored not only by the
millions of our own land, but throughout the world, believed that duty
was summed up in reciprocity, and I think that the word reciprocity finds
a new meaning and glory in the proceedings of this historic i)arliament.
I am glad 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 comparative religion. Only the happiest results will
come, I am sure, from our meeting together in the spirit of friendliness.
Kach may learn from the other some lessons, I trust, of charity and
good will, and discover what is excellent in other faiths 'han his own.
In behalf of my government and peojile I extend to the re])resentatives
gathered in this great hall the friendliest salutations, and to those who
have spoken I give my most cordial thanks.

Prince Serge Wolkonsky, of Russia, described the feeling of
fraternity everywhere present in the religious congresses, which he ^ Rnssian
illustrated by a Russian legend. The story, he said, may appear rather LegBnd.
too humorous for the occasion, but one of our nntional 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 congress.

There was an old woman, who for many centuries 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 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:

■semimc'.;^

32 r//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

" Ask her whether she has done any good to anyone 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 he.'.
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 another 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
S' seem to be any heavier than the small carrot could support, and they

all were lifted in the air. But the old wo.nan suddenly took fright.
Too many people were availing themselves of her last chance of salva-
tion, and, kicking and pushing those who were clinging to her, she
exclaimed: " Leave me alone; hands off; the carrot is mine."

No sooner had she pronounced this word "mine" than the tiny
stem broke, and they all fell back to hell, and forever.

In its poetical artlessnessand popular simplicity this legend is too
eloquent to need interpretation. If any individual, yj:v\y community,
any congregation, 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 substitution 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 men.

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 these
splendid words: "E Pluribus Unum."

The Rev. Reuchi Shibata voiced the feelings of those of the
Th^^'of" the Shinto faith, Japan, and expressed the hope that the parliament might
Shinto Faith, "increase the fraternal relations between the different religionists in
investigating the truths of the universe, and be instrumental in uniting
all the religions of the world, and in bringing all hostile nations into
peaceful relations by leading them into the way of perfect justice."
Here three Buddhist priests from Japan were introduced: Zitsuzen

Rev. Dr. John Henry Barrows, Chicago.

^Va-

J^PIP^H^Mptfra*' 'f ^ ■■ ■","

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Ashitsu, Shaku Soyen and Horiu Toki. Through their spokesman,
Z. Noguchi, they expressed their appreciation of the cordial welcome
they received.

Count Bernstorff, of Germany, expressed his delight at being
present on an occasion when religion for the first time was officially
connected with a world's exposition.

The basis of this congress is common humanity. Though the
term humanity has often been used to designate the purely human
apart from all claims of divinity, I hesitate not, as an evangelical
Christian, to accept this thesis. It is the Bible which teaches us that
the human race is all descended from one couple, and that they are,
therefore, one fan'.ily. Let us not forget this; but the Bible also
teaches that man is created after the image of God. Therefore, man
as such, quite apart from the circumstances which made him be born
among some historic religion, is meant to come into connection with
God.

This parliament teaches us that other great lesson. Not that —
some one might say, and I have heard the objections expressed before
—this idea of humanity will tend to make religion indifferent to us.
I will openly confess that I also for a time felt the strength of this ob-
jection, but I trust that nobody is here who thinks light of his own
religion.

I, for myself, declare that I am here as an individual evangelical
Christian, and that I should never have set my foot in this parliament
if I thought that it signified anything like a consent that all religions
are equal and that it is only necessary to be sincere and upright. I
can consent to nothing of this kind. I believe only the Bible to be
true and Protestant Christianity the only true religion. I wish no
compromise of any kind.

vVe cannot deny that we who meet in this parliament are sepa-
rated by great and important principles. We admit that these differ-
ences cannot be bridged over, but we meet, believing everybody has
the right to his faith. You invite everybody to come here as a sincere
defender of his own faith, * * ♦

But what do we then meet for if we cannot show tolerance. Well,\
the word tolerance is used in a very different way. If the words of
the great King Frederick, of Prussia, "In my country everybody can
go to heaven after his own fashion," are used as a maxim of states-
manship, we cannot approve of it too highly. What bloodshed, what
cruelty would have been spared in the history of the world if it had
been adopted. But if it is the expression of the religious indiffer-
ence prevalent during this last century and at the court of the monarch
who was the friend of Voltaire then we must not accept it.

St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Galatians, rejects every other doc-
trine, even if it were taught by an angel from heaven. We Christians
are servants of our master, the living Saviour. We have no right to
compromise the truth He intrusted to us, either to think lightly of it,
or withhold the message He has given us for humanity. But we meet

Address b] -
Coant Bern-
storff, of Oer-
manjr.

.r'V

«A

O-

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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Prof. Bonet-
Maary Speaks
for France.

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AddresB by
Archbishop
Redwood.

together, each one wLshing to gain the others to his own creed. Will
this not be a parliament of war instead of peace? Will it bring us
further from, instead of nearer to, each other? I think not if we hold
fast our truths that these great vital doctrines can only bu defended
and propagated by spiritual means. An honest fight with spiritual
weapons need not estrange the combatants; on the contrary, it often
bring them nearer.

Prof. G. Bonet-Maury spoke for France, and as " a Christian
Frenchman and liberal Protestant," alluding to the purposes of the
parliament, he said:

There is also at Paris a similar institution in our religious branch
of the " Ecole fratiqiie des hauter etude." You might have seen for
six years in the old Sorbama's house, just now pulled down, Roman
Catholics and Protestant ministers, Hebrew and Ikiddhist scholars
commenting on the sacred bcoks of old India anil Egypt, Cirecce and
Palestine, or telling the history of the various branches of the Christian
church.

Well now, gentlemen, you have resumed the same work as the
Conqueror Akbar, and more recently the French republic. You have
convoked here, in that tremendous city which is itself a wonder of
human industry and, as it were, a modern pluenix springing again from
its ashes, representative men of all great religions of the earth in order
to discuss, on courteous and pacific terms, the eternal problem of
divinity, which is the torment, but also the sign of sovereignty of man
over all animal beings. I present you the hearty messages of all friends
of religious liberty in P'rance and my best wishes for your success.
May God, the Almighty P'ather, help you in your noble unrlertaking.
May He give us all I lis spirit of love, of truth, of liberty, of mutual help,
and unlimited progress, so that we may become pure as He is pure,
good as Me is good, loving as He is love, perfect as He is perfect, and
we shall find in these moral improvements the possession of real liberty,
equality and fraternity. For, as said our genial poet, Victor Hugo:
All men are sons of the same father,
They are the same tear and pour from the same eycl

Archbishop Redwood, of Australia, represented "the newest
phase of civilization of the Anglo-Saxon race and the P^nglish speaking
people." He closed an eloquent address by saying:

Man is not only a mortal being, but a social being. Now the con-
dition to make him happy and prosperous as a social being, to make
him progress and go forth to conquer the world, both mentally and
physically, is that he should be free, and not only to be free as a man
in temporal matters, but to be free in religious matters. Therefore, it
is to be hoped that from this day will date the dawn of that period
when, throughout the whole of the universe, in every nation the idea
of oppressing any man for his religion will be swept away. I think I
can say in the name of the young country I represent, in the name of
New Zealand, and the church of Australasia, that has made such a
marvelous progress in our day, that we hope God will speed that day.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Less than a century ago there were only two Catholic priests in the
whole of Australasia. Now we have a hierarchy of one cardinal, six
archbishops, eighteen bishops, a glorious army of priests, with brother-
hoods and sisterhoods, teaching schools in the most practical manner.
The last council of the church held in Sidney sent her greeting to the
church in America, and the church in America was seized by surprise
a'nd admiration at the growth of Christianity in that distant land. It
is in the name of that church I accept with the greatest feeling of thank-
fulness the greeting made to my humble self representing that new
country of New Zealand and that thriving and advancing country of
Australasia.

H, Dharmapala, of Ceylon, representing Huddhism, followed, bring-
ing the good wishes of four hundred and seventy-five millions of Ikid-
dhists, the blessings and peace of the religious founder of that system
which has prevailed so many centuries in Asia, which has made Asia
mild, and which is today, in its twenty-fourth century of existence, the ,,„oj wishee
prevailing religion of the country. I have sacrificed the greatest of all j'j!j"L*''*' ^"**"
work to attend this parliament. I have left the work of consolidation
— an important work which we have begun after seven hundred years —
the work of consolidating the different Buddhist countries, which is
the most important work in the history of modern Huddhism. When
I read the programme of this parliament of religions I saw it was simply
the re-echo of a great consummation which the Indian Buddhists
accomplished twenty-four centuries ago.

At that time Asoka, the great emperor, held a council in the city
of I'atma of one thousanil 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-off beautiful isles, the empire of the
ri.;ing sun; and the influence of that congress held twenty-one centur-
ies ago is today a living power, because you everywhere see mildness
in Asia.

Go to any Buddhist country and where do you 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 today? 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 parliament would
be a success. Then I wrote to Dr.. Barrows that this would be the
proudest occasion of modern history, and the crowning work of nine-
teen centuries. Yes, friends, if you are serious, if you are unselfish, if
you arc altruistic, this programme can be carried out, and the twenty-

THE WORLiyS CONGRESS OF REUG/ONS.

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other Vi>ip«'H
of KnuonruKe-
inunt.

fifth century will sec the teachings of the meek and lowly Jesus accom*
pHshecl.

Dr. Carl von Bergen, of Stockholm, s[)()kc for Sweden, and de-
scribed the mental and spiritual afifinit>' between the leaders of relig-
ious thought in Sweden and the United States. The best in Sweden and
America, he said, were nio\ed by the same impulses.

Virchand A. Ciandhi, of liomba)-, re])resented Jainism, a faith, he
said, oilier than liuddhism, similar to it in its ethics, but different
froiii it in its p.sychology, and professed by one million five hundred
thousand of India's most ])eaceful and law-abiding citizens. You have
heard so man\' speeches from eloquent members, and as I shall speak
later on at some length, I will, therefore, at jjresent, only offer, on
behalf of my community and their high priest, Moni Atma Ranji,
whom I especially represent here, our sincere thanks for ti'e kint' wel-
come you ]ia\e given us. This spectacle of the learned Icatlers of
thought and religion meeting together on a common platform, and
throwing light on religious ])roblems, has been the dream of Atma
Ranji's life. lie has commissioned 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.

Prof. Minas Tcheraz spoke for Armenia. A pious thought
animated Christopher Columbus when he directed the prow of his shij)
toward this land of his dreams: To convert tlie natives to the faith of
the Roman Catholic church. A still more])ious thought animates you
now, noble Americans, because you try to convert the whole of human-
ity to the dogma of universal toleration and fraternity. Old Armenia
blesses this grand undertaking of young America, and wishes her to
succeed in laying on the extinguished volcanoes of religious hatred
the founilation of the temple of peace and concord.

At the beginning of our sittings, allow the liumble representatives
of the Armenian ])eople to invoke the Divine benediction on our labors,
in the very language of his fellow country: Zkorzs tserats nierots
ooghecgh ora i mc/-, Der, yev zkorzs tserats mcrots achoghia mez.

Prof. C, N. Chakravarti represented Indian theosophy. He said:
I came here to rrprcsent 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 beginnings the plummet
of history has not been able to sound. From time immemorial spirit has
been represented by white, and matter has been represented by black,
and the two sister streams which join at the town from which I came,
Allahabad, represent two sources of spirit and matter, according 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,

''.''

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUGIONS.

"Why?" Because here, even here, I find the same two sister
streams of spirit and matter, of the intellect and physicality, joininjj
hand in hand, representing the symbolical evolution of the universe.
I need hardly tell you that, in huldini^ this parliament of religions,
where all the religions of the world are to he represented, you have
acted worthily of the race that is in the vanguard of civilization — a
civilization the chief characteristic of which, to my mind, is widening
toleration, breadth of heart, and liberality toward all the different re-
ligions of the world. In allowing men of different shades of religious
opinion, and holding different views as to philosophical and metajjhys-
ical problems, 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 1 have come to reiiresent today. The
fundamental principle of that society is universal tolerance; its car-
dinal belief that, underneath the superficial strata, runs the living water
of truth.

Swanii Vivekananda, of Bombay, India, a monk, responded:
It fills my heart with joy unspeakable 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 religion, 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 th.it these men from tar-off nations may well claim the
honor of bearing to the ilifferent lands the idea of toleration. I am
proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both toler-
ance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal tol-
eration, 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 .Sanskrit,
the word seclusion is untranslatable. I am proud to belong to a na-
tion which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all relig-
ions 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 wliich their holy temple was shattered 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 remem-
ber 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 places, all mingle their water in the
sea, oh, Lord, so the different paths which men take through differ-
ent tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead
to Thee."

The present convention, which is one of the most august assem-
blies ever held, n in itself a vindication, a declaration to the world of

(JnspeBkabla
Joy.

;>^/;'

a."--

* '1-

rm: world's coxcress of REi.mioNS.

FrntiTiiitj.

llu- WDiuloil'ul (IdctriiU" priMrlird in (iita. " Wluisorvi-r comes lo I'.Tc,
thr<)ii,i;ii \\li,its<ir\cr form 1 itMili Iiim, lliry ,iri' all .slni.L;L;liii,L;' llirouLjii
paths that in tin- i-mi always li-ai! to Mr." S<.-it.iriaiiism, hi^titry ami
its lioiiihli- ilcscciulaiit, laiiatitism, li.ixi- posse^'^fd loiit;' ti'is Itranliliil
iMitli. It lias t"illi-il llu- rarth w itli \ ioKiu c, diriic'ii d i; v;ftiii ami oitrii
w it h li lima II Mom I, ticsl toyed ei' ili/at ion and si'iil w In >le nations to de-
spair, i lad it not lui n lor tins lion ihle (K'lnon, linmaii soeiety would he
tar iiion' ad\ aneed tli.in it is now . Hut its t ime li.is eonie, and 1 lei\ eiitly
hope til, It ilu' lull that tolled this nuunini; in honor ol this eoip.entiim
williie the death Iviiell to all ianal ii'ism, to all piTseent ions with tlu-
sword or tin- pen, and to all uneharitahle leeliiij^s hetwecMi |)ersons
wemliiiL; their w,iy to tlu- same t4o,il.

rrineipal (ir,int,oi Canada, leleniiiL; to the ieelini; ol Iraternity
lietwi-iii Cinad.i and the United St,ilis, lemaiked: l'".iL;hteen \iars
ai;o, tor i;;st,inee, all tlii' riesl)\ieii,iii di-iioniin.ilions united into one
ehiireh in t he l)oniinion td ( an,id,i. !ninu'di,ilel\- theiealter all the
Methodist ehiirehes took tin." s.iine sti'p, ami now , ill tlu- I'lotestanl
ehinees h,i\ e appointed eoniniillie> to see whether it is not jiossihli'
to li.ue a Kilmer union, and all thi' yount', liie ol ( ,in,id,i says ".\men"
to the iiiopos.d.

Now it is i-as\- lor a people with .sueli ,iii eiixiroiinieut to undiT-
staml tli,it wluri'iueii diller they must he in enof, tli,it tiutli i^^tliat
which unites, tli.it i-\ery ai;e h, is its piohlenis to sol\ x', tli,it it is the
i^loiN' ol the hum. in mind to sol\e them, and ih.it. no ( liuiili h.is ;i
nUMiopoK' ol the truth or ol tin- spirit ol tlie lixiii'^' (iod.

It seems to me tli.it we should heqin this p.irli.iment of relii;ions,
not with a eonseiousiuss tli.it we are doiiii;" a i^ieat tliiiii;, but with an
luimhlo and low ly eonfessicm of sin and failure. \\'h\'ha\e not the
inhabitants of the woild f.ilh'ii before truth ? The fault is ours. The
Apostle r.iui, lookiu!.; b.iek on centuries of m.irxi'lous ( iod-i;ui(k'<l
histor\', s.iw .is the key to all its ma.xims this: That |elio\ah had
strctcheil out his liaiuls all da}' Ioiil;' to a ilisobedient and L;,iins,iyiiii;
people; th.it altlioiii;h there was always a remnant, i^i the rii;liteoiis-
ness, Israel as a n.iiion did not imderst.iml jehoxah, ,uid therefore f.iiled
to understaiul her own marvehms mission.

If .'^t. r.uil were here toda\' would he not utter the s.ime sad con-
fession w ith re;4,ird to the niiu'teenth ce,ntiiry of (."hristemlom. Would
lie not have to savthat we ha\e been proud of our C'hristi.inity instead
of allowing" our C"hristianit\- to humble and crncily us; that we lia\c
boastoil id' Ch.ristianity as somethinLj wc posscsseil.inste.id of allowini^
it to possess us; that wc have tlivorced it from the moral aiul spiritual
order of the worUI, instead of seeing;' that it is that which interpei

ctrates, interprets, completes ami verities

that (udi'r, and that so we

have hiihleii its i;lories aiul obscured its |)ower. .\11 da\' lonL,"- our

Sa\iour has been saxiiiL

1 ha\e stretched out Vix hands ti

) a ciiso-

jeci'cnt and i;ainsa\inL;' peoi)le

lint, sir, the onl\' one iiulis|KMisabk" condition of success is that \vc

rect)Lrnize the cause of our failure, that we coidess it with hum

ibK

Rev. Dr. Augusta J. Chapin, Ch'.igo,

ji3to^i^Iii^£_£5J' ■ '

suiicuaSK^aiAdaHtt

iitliinmirir-rTI

^.''n

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

KemarkH of a
(Converted Par-

,K-'

l.-'f'

lowly, penitent and obcdien.; minds, and that with quenchless western
courage and faith we now go forth and do otherwise.

Miss Jeanne Serabji, a converted Parsee woman, of Bombay, spoke:
When I was leaving the shores of Bombay the women of my coun-
try wanted to know where 1 was going, and I tolil them I was going to
y\merica on a isit. They asked me whether 1 would be at this con-
gress. I thought then 1 would only come in as one of the audience, «eeWoman,
but I have the great privilege and honor given tome to stand here and
speak to you, and I give you the message as it was givt n to me. The
Christian women of my land said: "(live the women of iVmerica our ' ^^f

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 I)e 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 1 haven't words enough in which to
thank you for the welcome jou have given to all those who have come
here from the Kast. When I came here this morning and saw my
countrymen my heart was warmed, and 1 thought I would never feel
homesick again, and I feel today as if 1 were at home. Seeing your
kindly faces has turned away the heartache.

We are all under that one banner, love. In the name of the Lord
jesus Clirist 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 t)f these, My brethren, ye have done it unto Me."

H. H. Nagarkar spoke for the Hrahmo-Somaj. lie said: The
Hrahmo-Somaj is the result, as )'ou know, of the influence oi various
religions, and the fundamental principles of the theistic church, in ."•'?• ^if**"";
India, are universal love, harmony of faiths, unity of prophets, or rather the 'Snihiuo-
unity of prophets and harmony of fait'.s. The reverence that we pay '**"""J-
the other prophets and faiths is not mere lip loyalty, but it is the uni-
versal love for all the prophets and for all the forms and shades of
truth !>y their own inherent merit. We try not only to learn in an in-
tellectual way what those prophets have to teach, but to assimilate
and imbibe these truths that are very near our spiritual being. It was
the grandest and noiilest aspiration of the late Mr Senn to establish
sucli a religion in the lantl of India, which has been well known as the
hirthjilace of a number of religious faiths. This is a marked charac-
teristic of the Kast, and especially India, so that India and its outskirts
iiave been glorified l)y the touch and teachings of the prophets of the
world. It is in this way that we live in a spiritual atmosphere.

The Rev. Alfred W. Momerie, D. D., of London, closed an elo-
quent address, thus: The fact is, all religions are, fundamentally, more
or less true; and all religions are, superficially, more or less false. True. '"*'"°*
Antl I suspect that the creed of the universal religion, the religion of
the future, will be summed up pretty much in the words of Tenny^son,
words which were (juoted in that magnificent address which thrilled

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T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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Africa-

US this morning: "The whole world is everywhere bound by gold
chains about the feet of God."

Bishop Arnctt, of the African Methodist church, rejoiced that
through him Africa had been welcomed. Africa has been welcomed,
and it is so peculiar a thing for an African to be welcomed, that I con-
gratulate myself that I have been welcomed here today. In res])ond-
ing to the addresses of welcome I will, in the first place, respond for
Wpicome to the Africans in Africa, and accept your welcome on behalf of the Afri-
can continent, with its millions of acres, and millions of inhabitants,
with its mighty forests, with its great beasts, with its great men, and
its great possibilities. Though some think that Africa is in a bad way,
1 am one of those who has not lost faith in the possibilities of a re-
' • 'on of Africa. I believe in providence and in the prophesies of
G^ iat Ethiopia yet shall stretch forth her hand unto God, and,
alth gh today our land is in the possession of others, and every foot
of land, and every foot of water in Africa has been appropriated by
the governments of Europe, yet I remember, in the light of history,
that those same nations parceled out the American continent in the
past.

Hilt America had her Jefferson. Africa in the future is to bring
forth a Jefferson, who will write a declaration of the independence of
the dark continent. And, as you had your Washington, so God will
give us a Washington to lead our hosts. Or, if it please God, Me may
raise up not a Washington, but another Toussaint L'Ouvertiire, who
will become the pathfinder of his country, and, with his sword, will, at
the head of his people, lead them to freedom and equality. He will
form a republican government, whose corner-stone will be religion,
morality, education and temperance, acknowledging the Fatherhood of
God, and the Brotherhood of Man; while the Ten Commandments and
the golden rule shall be the rule of life and conduct in the great
republic of redeemed Africa.

But, sir, I accept your welcome, also, on behalf of the negroes of
t. c American continent. As early as 1502 or 1503, we are told, the
negroes came to this country. And we have been here ever since, and
we are going to stay here too — some of us are. Some of us will go to
Africa, because we have got the spirit of Americanism, and wherever
there is a possibility in sight, some of us will go. We accept your
welcome to this grand assembly, and we come to you this afternoon
and thank God that we meet these representatives of the different
religions of the world. Wc meet you on the height of this parliament
of religions and the first gp.thering of the peoples since the time of
Noah, when Shem, I lam and Japhet met together. I greet the chil-
dren of .Shem, I greet the children of Japhet, and I want you to under-
stand that Ham is here. ♦ * *

We come last on the programme, but I want everybody to know,
that although last, wc are not least in this grand assembly, where the
Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of Man is the watchword of us
all; and may the motto of the church which I represent be the motto of

mE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

"God our Father. Christ our Redeemer, and

the coming civilization:
mankind our brother "

that Follow.

fir

fl t

1 .ill

- ill

if fit i

I'i

:! 1 i.'l ! 1

Rev. Samuel J. Niccolls, D. D.,L.L.D.,St.Louis,|Mo-J'^4j;

Being of Qo^-

Introductory Address by the REV. S. J. NICCOLLS, D. D.,LL. D., of

St. Louis.

ii<vu;^*:i

EMHl'.RS of the Parliament, Sons of a
Common Heavenly I'^ither and Broth-
ers in a Common Humanity: It is with
special jjleasure that I assume the task
now assigned to me. Happily for me
at least it involves no serious labors,
and it recjuires no greater wisdom than
to mention the naines of the speakers
and the subjects placed upon the pro-
gramme for today. And yet, when I
mention the name of the subject that is
to invite our consideration today, I
place before you the most momentous
theme that ever engaged human thought,
-the sublimest of all facts, the greatest^
dl thoughts, the most wonderful of all real-j
; and yet when I mention the name it points (
to a law, not to a principle, not to the ex-
planation of a phenomenon, but it points us to a living person.

The human mind, taught and trained bj- human thoughts and
human loves, points us to One who is over all, above all and in all, in
whom we live, move and have our being, with whom we all have to do,
light of our light, life of our life, the grand reality that underlies all
realities, the Being that pervades all beings, the sum of all joys, of all
glory, of all greatness; known yet uid<nown, revealed yet not revealed;
far off from us yet nigh to us; for whom all men feel if happily theyj
might find Him; for whom all the wants of this wondrous nature of
ours go out in inextinguishable longing; One with whom we all have to
do and from whose dominion we can never escape. [Applause.] If
such be the subject that we are to ccmsider toilay, surely it becomes
us to undertake it in a spirit of reverence and of humility. We cannot
bring to its contemplation the exercise of our reasoning faculties in
the same way that we would consider some phenomenon or fact of
history. He who is greater than all hides Himself from the proud and

Being that ia
Infinite.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS

.i I

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GotiaPertioii.

the self-sufificient; He reveals Himself to the meek, lowly and the hum-
ble in heart. It is rather with the heart that we shall find Him than
by measurinfT Him merely with our feeble intellects. Today, as
always, the heart will make the theologian.

Perhaps some one may say: " Alter so long a period in human
history, why sluniUl we come to consider the existence of Ciod? Is the
fact so obscure that it must take long centuries to prove it? Has He
so hidilen Himself from the world that we have not yet exactly found
out that He is or what He is?"

This is only apparently an objection of wisdom. If God were sim-
ply a fact of history, if I le were simply a phenomenon in the past, then
once found out or once discovered it would remain for all time. Hut
since He is a person each age must know and find Him for itself; each
generation must come to know anil find out the living God from the
standpoint which it occupies. It is not enough for you and for me
that long generations ago men found Him and bowed reverently before
Him and adored Him.

We must find Him in our age and in our day to know how He fills
our lives and guides us to our destiny. This is the grand fact that lies
before us, the great truth that is to unite us. Here, if anywhere, we
mu^it find God and unite in our beliefs. We could not afford to begin
the discussions of a religious parliament without placing this great
truth in the foreground. A parliament of religious belief without the
recognition of the living God -that were impossible. Religion with-
out a God is only the shadow of a shade; only a mockery that rises up
in the human soul. [Applause.]

After all, we can form no true conception of ourselves or of man's
Conceptionof greatness without God. The greatness of human nature depends upon
its conceptions of the living God. All true religious joy, all greatness
of aspiration that has wakened in these natures of ours, comes not
from our conception of ourselves, not from our own recognition of the
dignity of human nature within us, but from our conception of God
and what He is, and our relation to Him. [ A])pla'ise.]

No man can ever find content with his ow.i attainments or find
peace and satisfaction in his own achievements. It is as he goes out
toward the infinite and the eternal and feels that he is linked to Him
that he finds satisfaction in his soul, and the peace of (iod, which
passcth understanding comes down into his heart. There are
many reasons, therefore, why we should begin today with the study
of Him who holds all knowledge and all wisdom. If there is a God
Explanation or a Creator, a Lord of all things, beginning of all things and end of all
"Nature"' things, iov whom all things are, then in Him we are to find the key to
history, the explanation of human nature, the light that shall guide us
in our pathway in the future. You can all readily see, if you will
reflect a moment, how everything would vanish of what we call great
and glorious in our material achievements, in our literature, in all our
civil and social institutions, if that one thought of the living God were
taken away.

M a u'g
neea,

Urent-

ilffli^iiW iff^ I I I ' '■"*^i*

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIOXS.

id the luim-
I Ilim than

Today, as

■'■&

in human

od? Istlie

? lias He

actly found

dwere sim-

%
'9

e past, then

time. But

itself; each

d from the

and for me

:ntly before

low He fills

ict that lies

)• where, we

rd to be^fin

-ft

' this great

without the

if^ion with-

liat rises up

or of man's

Dends upon

■3^,

1 fjreatness

■s^

, conies not

'I'ySm

ition of the

on of God

ents or find

le goes out

'^H

:ed to Him

W^m

.iod, which

■WK

There are

'i^^B

1 the study

;^H

^ is a God

''^f

d end of all

the key to

:'^B

all guide us

^^B

if you will

;^H

i call great

•flB

i, in all our

'U|.

g God were

''>'^^HB

But utter that simple name and straightway there comes gather-
ing around it tlie clustering of glorious words slUning and leaping out
of the darkness until they blaze hke a galaxy of glory in the heavens
-law, order justice, love, truth, immortality, righteousness, glory!
Blot out that word and leave n ts nlace simnlv th-,t ,.fi,^.. ,. j Effe
"atheism," and then in the surroundilig blaXS wfn^^ Sordini' ""^'
shadowsofanarchy. lawlessness, despair, agony, distress; and if such
words as law and order remain they are mere echoes of somethinir
that has long since passed away. [Cheers ] ^nnug

We need it. then, first of all for ourselves that we may understand
the d.gmty of human nature, that this great truth of God's existence
should be brought close to us; we need it for our civilization

Effect of tlmt
le Name.

; (

I I

:' :"n

1 :'i! i

i !

Very Rev. Augustine F. Hewitt, C. S. P., New York.

^i^

Rational Demonstration of the ^e'mg of

God.

Paper by VERY REV. AUGUSTINE F. HEWITT, C. S. P., of New York.

N honorable and arduous task has been assigned
me. It is to address this numerous and dis-
tinguished assembly on a topic taken from
the highest branch of special metaphysics.
The thesis of my discourse is the *' Rational
Demonstration of the Being of God." as pre-
sented in Catholic philosophy. This is a
topic of the highest importance and of the
deepest interest to all who are truly rational,
who think and who desire to know their
destiny and to fulfill it. The minds of men
always and e\erywhere, in so far as they
have thought at all, have been deeply interested in
all questions relating to the divine order and its
relations to nature and humanity.

The idea of a divine principle and power, superior to
sensible phenomena, above the changeable world and its
short-lived inhabitants, is as old and as extensive as the human race
Among vast numbers of the most enlightened part of mankind it has
existed and held sway in the form of pure monotheism, and even
among tho-se who have deviated from this original religion of our first
ancestors the divine idea has never been entirely effaced and lost. In
our own surrounding world and for U classes of men differing in
creed and opinion who may be represented in this audience, this theme
is of paramount interest and import.

Christians, Jews, Mohammedans and philosophical theists are
agreed in professing monotheism as their fundamental and cardinal
doctrine. Even unbelievers and doubters show an interest in discuss-
ing and endeavoring to decide the question whether God does or does
not exist. It is to be hoped that many of them regard their skepti-
cism rather as a darkening cloud over the face of nature than as a light
clearing away the mists of error; that they would gladly be convinced

Idea of a Di.
rine Principle.

■^

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RE/./G/ONS.

! -ni

that God docs exist and ffovcrn a world which He has made. I may,
therefore, hope for a welcome reception to my thesis in this audience.

I have said that it is a thesis taken from the special metaphysics
of Catholic philosophy. I must explain at the outset in what sense
the term Catholic philosophy is used It does not denote a system
derived from the Christian revelation and imposed by the authority of
the Catholic church, it sifjnifies only that rational scheme which is
received and taufjht in tlie Catholic schools as a science proceeding
from its own proper principles by its own methods, and not a subal-
rnw^lunco?* ^^'''" science to do^Muatic tiieolo^y It has been adopted in ^'reat part
from Aristotle and Plato and does not disdain to borrow from any pure
fountain or stream of rational truth. The topic before us is, therefore,
to be treated in a metaphysical manner on a ground where all who pro-
fess philosophy can meet and where reason is the only authority which
can be appealed to as umpire and judge. All who profess to be stu-
dents of philosophy thereby proclaim their conviction that metaphysics
is a true science by which certain knowledge can be obtained.

. jNIetaphysics, in its most general sense, is ontology, ;. <•., discourse
concerning being in its first and universal prin ^les. Being in all its
latitude, in its total extension and compre' on, is the adequate
object of intellect, taking intellect in its ab . essence, excluding

all limitations. It is the object of the human intellect in so far as this
limited intellectual faculty is proportioned to it and capable of appre-
hending it. Metaphysics seeks for a knowledge of all things which
are within the ken of human faculties in their deepest causes. It in-
vestigates their reason of being, their ultimate, efficient and final
causes. The rational argument for the existence of God, guided by
the principles of the sufficient reason and efficient causality, begins
from contingent facts and events in the world and traces the chain of
causation to the first cause. It demonstrates that God is, and it pro-
ceeds, by analysis and synthesis, by induction from all the first princi-
ples possessed by reason, from all the vestiges, reflections and images
of God m the creation, to determine what God is, His essence andHis
perfections.

Let us then begin our argument from the first principle that
everything that has any kind of being, that is, which presents itself as
a thinkable, knowable or real object to the intellect, has a sufficient
reason of being. The possible has a sufficient reason of its possibility.
There is in it an intelligible ratio which makes it thinkable; without
this it is unthinkable, inconceivable, utterly impossible; as, for
instance, a circle, the points in whose circumference are of unequal
distances from the center. The real has a sufficient reason for its real
existence. If it is contingent, indifferent to non-existence or existence,
it has not its sufficient reason of being in its essence. It must have it,
then, from something outside of itself, that is, from an efficient cause.

All the beings with which we are acquainted in the sensible world
around us are contingent. They exist in determinate, specific, actual,
individual forms and modes. They are in definite times and places.

SofficieutRea-
80D of BeiDK.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

They have their proper substantial and accidental attributes; they have
(jualitics and relations, active powers and passive potencies. They do
not exist by any necessary reason of beinf^; they have become what
they are. They are subject to many chanj^es even in their smallest
molecules and in the combinations and movements of their atoms.
This changeablencss is the mark of their contingency, the result of
that potentiality in them, which is not of itself in act, but is brought
into act by some moving force. They arc in act, that is, have actual
being, inasmuch as they have a specific and inilividuai reality. Hut
they are never, in anyone instant, in act to the whole extent of their
capacity. There is a dormant potency of further actuation always in
their actual essence. Moreover, there is no necessity in their essence
for existing at all. The pure, ideal essence of things is, in itself, only
possible. Their successive changes of existence are so many move-
ments of transition from mere passing potency into act under the im-
pulse of moving principles of force. And their very first act of exist-
ence is by a motion of transition from mere possibility into actuality.
The whole multitude of things which become, of events which happen,
the total sum of the movements and changes of contingent being"
taken collectively and taken singly, must have a sufficient reason ui
being in some extrinsic principle, some efficient cause.

The admirable order which rules over this multitude, reducing it
to the unity of the universe is a display of efficient causality on a most
stupendous scale. There is a correlation and conservation of force
acting on the inert and passive matter, according to fixed laws, in
harmony with a definite plan and producing most wonderful results.
Let us take our solar system as a specimen of the whole universe ofi
bodies moving in space. According to the generally received and
highly probable nebular theory, it has been evolved from a nebulous'
mass permeated by forces in violent action. The best chemists afifirm
by common consent that both the matter and the force are fixed
quantities. No force and no matter ever disappears, no new force or
matter ever appears. The nebulous mass and the motive force acting
within it arc definite quantities, having a definite location in space, at
definite distances from other nebulas. The atoms and molecules are
combined in the definite forms of the various elementary bodies in
definite proportions. The movements of rotation are in certain direc-
tions, condensation and incandescence take place under fixed laws,
and all these movements are co-ordinated and directed to a certain
result, viz., the formation of a sun and planets.

Now, there is nothing in the nature of matter and force which
determines it to take on just these actual conditions and no others.;
By their intrinsic essence they could just as well have existed in greater
or lesser quantities in the solar nebula. The proportions of hydro-,
gen, oxygen and other substances might have been different. The',
movements of rotation might have been in a contrary direction.
The process of evolution might have begun sooner and attained its
finality ere now, or it might be beginning at the present moment. The

IiIpaI EHsence
of Things.

Solar Syatom
as a Specimen.

T — -

nmnn^

I s

Si .

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

marks of contingency are plainly to be discerned in the passive and
active elements of the inchoate world as it emerges into th* consist-
ency and stable equilibrium of a solar system from primitive chaos.

Equally obvious is the presence of a determining principle,
[acting as an irresistible law, regulating the transmission of force, along
A FirstCftase idefinite lines and in an[harmonious order. The active forces at work in
emon e . (nature, giving motion to matter, only transmit a movement which
Uiey have received; they do not originate. It makes no difference
now far back the series of effects and causes may be traced, natural
forces remain always secondary causes, with no tendency to become
primary principles; they demand some anterior, sufficient reason of
their being, some original, primary principle from which they derive
the force which they receive and transmit. They demand a first
cause.

In the case of a long train of cars in motion, if we ask what moves
the last car, the answer may be the car next before it, and so on until
we reach the other end; but we have as yet only motion received and
transmitted, and no sufficient reason for the initiation of the move-
ment by an adequate efficient cause. Prolong the series to an indefi-
nite length and you get no nearer to an adequate cause of the motion;
you get no moving principle which possesses motive power in itself;
the i^eed of such a motive force, however, continually increases. There
is more force necessary to impart motion to the whole collection of
cars than for one or a few. If you choose to imagine that the series of
cars is infinite you have only augmented the effect produced to infinity
without finding a cause for it. Vou have made a supposition wl ich
imperatively demands the further supposition of an original principle
and source of motion, which has an infinite jjower. The cars
singly and collectively can only receive and transmit motion. Their
passive potency of being moved, which is all they have in themselves,
would never make them stir out of their motionless rest. There must
be a locomotive with the motive power applied and acting, and a con-
nection of the cars with this locomotive, in order that the train may be
propelled along its tracks.

The series of movements given and received in the evolution of
the world from primitive chaos is like this long chain of cars. The
question, how did they come about, what is their efficient cause, starts
up and confronts the miiul at every stage of the process. You may
trace back consequents to their antecedents, and show how the things
which come after were virtually contained in those which came betore.
The present earth came from the paleozoic earth, and that from the
azoic, and so on, until you come to the primitive nebula from which
the solar system was constructed.

Hut how did this vast mass of matter, and the mighty forces act-
ing upon it, come to be started on their course of evolution, their
I movement in the direction of that result which we see to have been
'accomplished? It is necessary to go back to a first cause, a first mover,
an original principle of all transition from mere potency into act, a

Chance
AbRardity.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

being, self-existing, whose essence is pure act and tiic source of all
actuality. The only alternative is to fall back on the doctrine of
chance, an absurdity long since exploded and abandoneil, a renuncia-
tion of all reason aiid an abjuration of the rational nature of man.

Toi'-ethcr with the question " How" and the intjuiry after efficient
causes of movements and changes in the world, t,,r question "Why"
also perpetually suggests itself. This is an inquiry into another class
of the deepest causes of t'lings, vi/., final causes. Final cause is the
same as the end, the design, the purpose toward which movements,
changes, the operation of active forces, efficient causes, are directed,
and which are accomplished by their agency.

Mere the (piestion arises, how the enil attained as an elTect of
efficient causality can he properly named as a cause. How can it
exert a causative influence, retroactively, on the means and agencies
by which it is proiluced? It is last in the series and does not exist at
the beginning or during the progress of the events whose final term it
is. Nothing can a':t before it exists or gi\e existence to itself. Final
cause does not, tlierefore, act physically like efficient causes. It is a
cause of the movements which precede its real and physical existence,
only inasmucli as it has an ideal pre-existence in the foresight and
intentit)n of an intelligent mind. Regard a masterpiece of art. It is
because the artist conceived the idea realized in this piece of work j
that he employed all the means necessar)' to the fulfillment of his
desired end. riiis finished work is, therefore, the final cause, the
motive of the whole series of operations performed b)- the artist or
his workmen.

The multitude of causes and effects in the world, reduced to an
admirable liariuoiu' and unit)-, constitutes the order of the universe..
In this order then; is a multifarious arrangement and co-ordination of
means to ends, denoting design and jnirpose, the intention and art of
a supreme architect and builder, who impresses his itleas upon what
we may call the raw material out of which he forms and fashions the
worlds which move in s[>ace, and their various innumerable contents.
From these final causes, as ith-as and types according to which all
movements of efficient causality are ilirected, the argument proceeds
which demonstrates the nature of the first cause, as in essence, intelli-
gence and will.

The best and highest (Jreek philosophy ascended by this cosmo-
logical argument to a just and sublime conception of God as the
supremely wise, powerful aid good .Author of all existing essences in
the universe, ami of al! it • complex, harmonious order. Cicero, the
Latin inter|)reter of (ire. k philosoi)hy, with cogent reasoning and in
language of unsurpassoil beauty, has summarized its best lessons in "hoV
natural theology. In brief, his argument is that since the highest
human intelligence discovers in nature an intelligible object far sur-
p.assing its capacity of apprehension, the design and construction of the
whole natural order must proceed from an author of supreme and
divine intelligence.

Final Causee.

PuriHjBo.

and

A S.'i rptiip
anil Divijie An-

mnji

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

\ I

\ ■■

;:fl

Demand
Reason.

The questioning,^ and the demand oi reason for the deepest causes
of tliinj^s is not, however, yet entirely and explieitly satisfied. The
concept of God as the first builder and mover of the universe comes
short of assit^niuLj the first and final cause of the underlj'int^ subject
matter which recei\es formation and motion. When and what is the
first matter of our solar nebula? How and why did it come to be in
hand and lie in readiness for the divine architect and artist to make it
burn and whirl in the process of the evolution of sim and planets?
Plato is understood to have tauij^ht that the first matter, which is the
term receptive of the di\ine action, is self-existing and eternal.

The metaphysical notion of first matter is, however, totally differ-
ent from the concept of matter as a constant cjuantity and distinct from
force in chemical science. Metaphysically, first matter has no
specific reality, no quality, no quantity. It is not as sej)arate from
active force in act, but is onlj- in potency. Chemical first matter exists
in atoms, sa\' of h\clroi:;en, oxypjen or some other sui)stance, each of
which has definite weiii^ht in proportion to the weight of different
atoms. It would be perfectly absurd to imat^ine that the primitive
nebulous vapor which furnished the material for the evolution of the
solar s)-stem was in any wa\' like the platonic concept of orit^inal chaos.
We may call it chaos, relatively to its later, more developed order.
The artisan's workshop, full of materials for manufacture, the edifice
which is in its first stas^e of construction, are in a comparative disorder,
but this disorder is an inchoate order.

.So, our solar chaos, as an inchoate virtual system, was full of ini-
tial, elementary principles and elements of order. The platonic first
matter was supposed to be formless and void, w ithout cpiality or quan-
tity, devoid of every ideal element or aspect, a mere recipient of ideas
which God impressed upon it. The undermost matter of chemistry
has definite cpiiddity antl (piantity, is never separate from force, and as
it was in the primitive solar nebula, was in act and in violent activity
of motion. It is obvious at a fflance that a platonic first matter, exist-
ing eternally by its own essence, without form, is a mere vacuiuu, and
only intelli.L,nb!e under the concept of pure possibility. Aristotle saw
and demonstrated tiiis truth clearly. Fherefore, the analysis of mate-
rial existences, carried as far as experiment or hypt)thesis will admit,
finds iiothint^- except the changeable and the contingent.

Let us supi'ose that underneath the so-called simple substances,
such as ox)'gen ;.nd hydrogen, there exists, and nia>- hereafter be dis-
cerned by chemical analysis, some homogeneous basis, there still
tctnains something which tloes not account for itself, ami which
dcmaiuls a sufficient reason for its being, in the efficient causality of
the first cause. The ultimate molecule of the ctunposile substance
and the ultinuite atom of the simple substance, each bears the marks
of a mamifactured article. Not only the ortler which combines and
arranges all the sim|)le elements of the corporeal world, but the gath-
ering together of the materials for the onlerly structure; the union
and relation of nuitter and force; the beginning of the first motions,

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIG/ONS.

Crontive
of Ood.

act

and the existence of the movable element and the motive principle in
definite quaiUilies and proportions, all demand their origin in the
intellitjence and the will of the first cause.

In God alone essence and existence are identical. 1 le alone exists
by the necessity of His nature, and is the eternal self-subsisting beinjj^.
There i:- nothinj^ outside of His essence which is coeval with Him, and
which presents a real cxistintj^ term for His action. If He wishes to
communicate the t^ood of beint^ beyond Himself I le must create out of
nothimj the ol)jective terms of His beneficial action. He must give
first beintf to tlie recipients of motion, change and every kind of tran-
sition from potency into actuality. The first and fundamental tran-
sition is from not being, from the absolute non-existence of anything'
outside of (iod, into being and existence by the creative act of God;i
called by His almighty word the world of finite creatures into real
existence. i

In this creative act of God the two elements of intelligence and
volition are necessarily contained. Intelligence perceives the possi-
bility of a finite, created order of existence, in all its latitude. Possi-
bility docs not, however, make the act of creation necessary. It is the
free volition of the creator which determines him to create. It is
likewise his free volition which determines the limits within which he
will give real existence and actuality to the possible. We have al-
ready seen that final causes must have an ideal pre-existence in the
mind, which designs the work of art and arranges the means for its
execution. The idea of tiie actual universe and of the wider universe
which He could create if He willed must have been present eternally
to the intelligence of the Divine Creator as possible.

Now, therefore, a further (juestion about the deepest cause of Eternal Fo*
being confronts the ni'"d w ith an imperative demand for an answer. sibUity.
What is this eternal p ilujity which is coeval with God? It is evi-
dently an intelligible obje^ ;, an idea ( '|ui\alent to an iiitiiiite number
of i)articular ideas of essences and orders, which are thinkable by in-
tellect to a certain extent, in proj, .tion to its ciipacity, and exhaust-
ively by the divine intellect. The di\ :ie essenei alone is eternal anil
necessary self-subsisting being. In the formula of St. Thomas:
"Il)sum esse subsistens." It is pure and perfect a :, in the most
simple, indivisible unity.

Therefore, in God, as Aristotle demons* rales, intelligent subject
and intelligible object arc identical. I'ossibilit)' has its foundation in
the divine essence. Gotl contemplates His ow\i essence, which is the
plentiiude of being, with a comprehensive intelligt i e. In this con-
templation He perceives His essence as an arelu i ^tc which eminently
and virtually contains an infinite multitude of ty[,.v.al essences, capable
of being made in various modes and degrees a likeness to Himself.
He sees in the comprehension of His omnipotence the power to create
whate\cr He will, according to His divine ideas. And this is the
total ratio of possibility.

These arc the eternal reasons according to which the order of

"-"M'l'H'iji'ir ]sis^

memm

dlM

•I t

T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Something
Divine.

Mental Con-
cepts.

nature has been established under fixed laws. They are reflected in
the works of God. By a perception of these reasons, these ideas im-
pressed on the universe, wc ascend from single and particular objects
up to universal ideas and finally to the knowledge of God as first
and final cause.

When wc turn from the contemplation of the visible word, and sen-
sible objects to the rational creation, the sphere of intelligent spirits
and of the iiitcllcctual life in which they live, the argument for a first
and final cause ascends to a higher plane. The rational beings who
are known to us, ourseKes and our fellowman, bear the marks of con-
tingency in their intellectual nature as plainly as in their bodies. Our
individual, self-consci)us, thinking souls ha\e come out of non-exist-
ence only yestirday. They begin to li\e with onlja dormant intellect-
ual capacity, without knowleilge orthe use of reason. The soul brings
with it no memories and no ideas. It has no immediate knowledge of
itself and its nature. Nevertheless the light of intelligence in it is
something divine, a spark from the source of light, and it indicates
clearly that it has receiveil its being from (iod.

In the material tilings we see the vestiges of the Creator, in the
rational soul His very image. It is capable of appreheniling the eternal
reasons which are in the mind of (i(jd; its intelligible object is being
in all its latitude, according to its specific and finite mode of apprehen-
sion and the proportiiui which its cognoscitive facult)' has to the think-
able and knowable. y\s contingent beings, intelligent spirits come into
the universal order of effects from which by the argument, a posteriori,
the existence of the first cause, as supreme intelligence and will is in-
ferred, ami likew ise the iileas of necessary and eternal truth which, as
so many mirrors, reflect 'he eternal reasons of the divine mind, sub-
jectively consideretl, come uniler the same category as contingent facts
and effects produccil l)y second causes and ultimately by the first
cause.

These ideas are not, however, mere subjective concepts. They
are, indeed, mental concepts, but they have a foundation in reality,
according to the fanu)us formula of .St. Thomas: " Uuiversalia sunt
conceptus mentis cum fumlamento in re." They are originally gained
by abstraction from the single objects of sensitive cognition; for
instance, from singU things wliich have a concrete existence, the idea
of being in general, llie nu)st extensive and universal of all concepts
is gained. .So, also, the notions of species and genus; of essence and
existence; of beaut)-, goodness, space and time; of efficient anil final
cause; of the first principles of meta])hysics. mathematics and ethics.
But, notwithstanding this genesis of abstract ami uni\ersal concepts
from concrete, cijiitingent realities, they become free from all con-
tingency and (k-i)en(liMii c on contingent things, and assume the char-
acter of necessarj- and uni\ersal. and therefore of eternal truths, {'"or
instance, that the three sides of a triangle cannot exist without three
angles, is seen to be true, supp ing there had never been any bodies
or minds creatid. There is an intelligible world of iileas, super-sensible

if Ui

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

and extra-mental, within the scope of intellectual apprehension; they
have objective reality, and force them Ives on the intellect, com-
pelling its assent as soon as they are clearly perceived in their self-
evidence or demonstration.

Now, what are these ideas? Are they some kind of real beings,'
inhabiting an eternal and infinite space? This is absurd and they can- ,
not be conceived except as thoughts of an eternal and infinite mind. \
In thinking them we are re-thinking the thoughts of God. They are
the eternal reasons reflected in all the works of creation, but especially
in intelligent minds From these necessary and eternal truths we
infer, therefore, the intelligent and intelligible essence of God in which Necessarjand
they have their ultimate foundation. This metaphysical argument is Eternal Truths,
the apex and culmination of the cosmological, moral, and in all its
forms the a posteriori argument from effects, from design, from all
reflections of the divine perfections in the creation to the existence
and nature of the first and final cause of the intellectual, moral and
physical order of the universe. It goes beyor.d every other line of
argument in one resi)ect. From concrete, contingent facts we infer
and demonstrate that God does exist. We obtain only a hypothetical
necessity of His existence; /. i., since the world does really exist it
must have a creator.

The argument from necessary and eternal truths gives us a glimpse
of the absolute necessity of God's existence; it shows us that He must
exist, that His non-existence is impossible. We rise above contingent ■
facts to a consideration of the eternal reasons in the intelligible and
intelligent essence of (iod. We do not, inilced, perceive these eternal
reasons immediately in Ciod as divine ideas itlentical with his essence.
We have no intuition of the essence of (iod. God is to ms inscrutable,
incomprehensible, dwelling in light, inaccessible. As when the sun is
below the horizon we perceive clouds illuminated by his rays, and
moon and planets shining in his reflected light, so we see the reflection
of God in His works. We perceive Him immediately, by the eternal
reasons which are reflected in nature, in our own intellect, and in the
ideas which, have their foundation in His mind. Dur mental concepts
of the divine are analogical, derived from created tmngs, and inade-
quate. They are, notwithstanding, true, and give us unerring knowl-
edge of the deei)est causes of being. They give us metaphysical
certitude that Ciod is. They give us also a knowledge of what God is,
within the limits of our human mode of cognition.

All these metaphysical concepts of liod are summed up in the:
formula of .St. Thomas: " Ipsum esse subsistens." Being in its in-i
trinsic essence sulisisting. He is the being whose reason of real, sclf-1
subsisting being is in His essence; He subsists, as being, not in any
limitation of a particular kind and moile of being, but in the whole
intelligible ratio of being, in every respect which is thinkable and
comprehensible by the absolute, infinite intellect. He is being in all
its longitude, latitude, profundity and plentitude; He is being subsist-
ing in pure and perfect act, without any mixture of potentiality or

• If.

m I

^l I;

i ^ '1

ii s

: 1

1 '

^■' *

(

1 '

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Nat a re and
PerfoctionB of
God.

possibility of change; infinite, eternal, without before or after; always
being, never becoming; subsisting in an absolute present, the now of
eternity. Boethius has expressed this idea admirably: "Totasiniul
ac perfecta possessio vit;e interniinabilis." The total and perfect pos-
session, all at once, of boundless life.

In order, therefore, to enrich and complete our conceptions of the
nature and perfections of God, we have only to analyze the compre-
hensive idea of being and to ascribe to God. in a sense free from all
limitations, all that we find in His works which comes under the gen-
eral idea of being, lieing. good, truth, are transcendental notions
which imply each other. They include a multitude of more specific
S terms, expressing every kind of definite concepts of realities which
are intelligible and desirable. Beauty, splendor, majesty, moral excel-
lence, beatitude, life, love, greatness, power and every kind of per-
fection are phases and aspects of being, goodness and truth. Since
all which presents an object of intellectual apprehension to the mind
and of complacency to the will in the effects produced by the first
cause must exist in tlie cause in a more eminent way, we must predi-
cate of the Creator all the perfections found in creatures.

The vastness of the universe represents His immensity. The
multifarious beauties of creatures represent His splendor and glory as
their archetype. The marks of design and the harmonious order
which are visible in the world manifest his intelligence. The faculties
of intelligence and will in rational creatures show forth in a more per-
fect image the attributes of intellect and will in their Author and orig-
inal source. All created goodness, whether physical or moral, pro-
claims the essential excellence and sanctity of (iod. He is the source
of life, and is, therefore, the living God. All the active forces of
nature witness to His power.

All finite beings, however, come infinitely short of an adequate
representation of their ideal archetype; they retain something of the
intrinsic nothingness of their essence, of its potentiality, changeable-
ness and contingency. Many modes and forms of created existence
have an imperfection in their essence which makes it incompatible
with the perfection of the divine essence that they should have a for-
mal being in God. We cannot call him a circle, an ocean or a sun.
Such creatures, therefore, represent that which exists in their arche-
type in an eminent and divine mode, to us incomprehensible. And
those qualities whose formal ratio in God and creatures is the same,
being finite in creatures, must be regarded as raised to an infinite
power in God. Thus intelligence, will, wisdom, sanctity, happiness
are formally in God, but infinite in their excellence.

All that we know of God by pure reason is summed up by Aris-
totle in the metaphysical formula that God is pure and perfect act,
logically and ontologically the first principles of all that becomes by
a transition from potential into actual being. And from this concise,
comprehensive formula he has developed a truly admirable theodicy.
Aristotle says: "It is evident that act (energeia) is anterior to

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

:r; always
le now of
rota sinuil
;rfcct pos-

ons of the
e compre-
e from all
;r the fjjen-
al notions
re specific
itics which
oral excel-
iid of per-
ith. Since
o the mind
Dy the first
nust predi-

isity. The
lid glory as
lious order
lie faculties
a more per-
jr and orig-
moral, pro-
■i the source
forces of

in adequate

ling of the

hangeable-

l existence

compatible

ave a for-

in or a sun.

leir arche-

ible. And

the same,

an infinite

happiness

ip by Aris-
)erfcct act,
ecomes by
lis concise,
e theodicy,
anterior to

potency (dunamis) logically and ontologically. A being does not^
pass from potency into act and become real except by the action of a
principle already in act." (Met. viii, 9.) Again, "All that is pro-
duced comes from a being in act." (De Anim. iii, 7.)

"There is a being which moves without being moved, which is
eternal, is substance, is act. * * ♦ The immovable mover is
necessary being, that is, being which absolutely is, and cannot be
otherwise. This nature, therefore, is the principle from which heaven
(meaning by this term immortal spirits who are the nearest to God)
and nature depend. Beatitude is his very act. * * * Contempla-
tion is of all things the most delightful and excellent, and God enjoys
it always, by the intellection of the most excellent good, in which
intelligence and the intelligible are identical. God is life, for the act
of intelligence is life and God is this very act. Essential act is the
life of God, perfect and eternal life. Therefore we name God a perfect
and eternal living being, in such a way that life is uninterrupted;
eternal duration belongs to God, and indeed it is this which is (iod."
(Met. xi., 7.) I have here condensed a long passage from Aristotle
and inverted the order of sonic sentences, but I have given a verbally
exaa statement of his doctrine.

I will add a few sentences from Plotinus, the greatest philosopher
of the Neo-Platonic school. "Just as the sight of the heavens and the
brilliant stars causes us to look for and to form an idea of their author,
so the contemplation of the intelligible world and the admiration
wliich it inspires lead us to look for its father. Who is the one, we
exclaim, who has given existence to the intelligible world? Where
and how has he begotten such a child, intelligence, this son so beau-
tiful? The supreme intelligence must necessarily contain the universal
archetype, and be itself that intelligible world of which Plato dis-
courses." (Ennead iii. L viii. 10 v. 9.) Plato and Aristotle have both
placed in the clearest light the relation of intelligent, immortal spirits
to God as their final cause, and together with this highest relation the
subordinate relation of all the inferior parts of the universe. Assimi-
lation to God, the knowledge and the love of God, communication in
the beatitude which God possesses in Himself, is the true reason of
being, the true and ultimate end of intellectual natures.

In these two great sages rational philosophy culminated, Clem-
ent, of Alexandria, did not hesitate to call it a preparation furnished
by divine Providence to the heathen world for the Christian revela-
tion. Whatever controversies there may be concerning their explicit
teachings in regard to the relations between God and the world, their
principles and premises contain implicitly and virtually a sublime nat-
ural theology. St. Thomas has corrected, completed and developed
this theology with a genius equal to theirs, and with the advantage of
a higher illumination.

It is the highest achievement of human reason to bring the intel-
lect to a knowledge of God as the first and final cause of the world.
The denial of this philosophy throws all things into night and chaos,

God n Perfec*.
ami E t p r n a ;
LiviuK ReiDK.

Hixheat

Acliievement

of Human

liMMon.

u r

<■ i1iii»iilftW

77//i IVOJiLD'S CONGRESS OF JiELIUIONS.

ruled over by blind cIkiiicc or fate. Philosophy, however, by itself
docs not siififice to give to mankind that relijjion the excellence and
iteLastLes- necessity of which it so brilliantly manifests. Its last lesson is the
""• need of a divine revelation, a divine relij^ion, to lead men to the

knowlcdjTc and love of God and the attainment of tluir true destiny
as rational and immortal creatures. A true and practical philosopher
will follow, therefore, the example of Justin i\Iart}'r; in his love of and
search for the hit^hest wisdom he will seek for the genuine religion
revealed by God, and when found he will receive it with his whole
mind and will.

' jii

i:'

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1 1]

i'l

•, by itself
llcnce and
isson is the
nen to the
rue destiny
)hilosopher
love ol and
inc religion
I his whole

o
Ji

ii|

Tfhe A^*§^^^rit for the [)ivine B^'"^-

Paper by HON. W. T. HARRIS, United States Commissioner of Education.

;::!

III'", first thinker wlio discovcrccl an adt.'(iuatc
proof of the existence of (iod was I'lato. He
devoted his life to thinkin<^ out tlie necessary
conditions of independent bein^. or, in otlier
words, the form of an)" wholeortotalityof beinj^
Dependent liein^ implies somethiii},'' else
than itself as that on which it depends. It
cannot l)e said to derive itsht-inLj from another
dependent orderi\ati\el)ein,ij, because that has
no bein^f of its own to lend it. Awholeseries
of connected dependent beint^s must derive
their origin and present subsistence from an
independent beini^^ that is to sa\- from what
exists in and through itself and ini])arts its l)e-
int;' to others or derived beiiif^s. llence the
Independent beinjjf. which is presupposed b\' the dependent beint:^, is
creative and active in the sense that it is self-determined and deter-
mines others.

I'.'ato i?i most |)assa_t:^es calls this presu|)posed independent being
by the woril idea ex sos or itlea. lie is sure that there are as many
ideas as there are total beinijs in the universe, lie reasons that there
are two kinds of motion — that which is deri\ed from some other mover
and that which is derived from self; tiuis the self-moved and the
moved-throULjh-others includes all kinds of bein<^s. Hut the moved-
throuLfh-others presii|)|)oses the self-movi'd as the source of its own
motion. I lenco the ixplanation or all that exists or moves must be
sought and found in the self-moved. (Tenth l)()ok of Plato's laws.)
In his dialogue named "The Sophist" he argues that ideas or inde-
pendent beings must possess activity and, in siiort, be think'i.g or
rational beings.

This great disco\ery of the principle that there must be indepen-
dent being if tlu-re is ilependent l)eiug is the foundation of philosophy
of ' 'I'jinTwopiiy and also of theolog)'. iAtlmit that there may be a world of dependent
uai liiLooKj. ij^jip^j, (jach one of whii h depends on another and no one of them nor
all of them depend on an independent being, and at once philosophy

Fniuidiit ion

^eing.

Education.

an adequate
s riato. lie
lie necessary
, or, in other
iilityotbcin^^
nielhiiiK^ else
Icpends. It

from another
:ause that has
'\ whole series
must derive
;nce from an

y from what

I'nparts its be-

llcnce the

lent beintj, is

d and deter-

)cndent being
are as many
)ns that there
c other mover
;)ved and the
, the moved-
c of its own
.oves must be
I'lato's laws.)
Ideas or inde-
think'i g or

^t be indepen-
)f philosophy
of dependent
c of them nor
c philosophy

Hon. W. T. Harris, Washington, D. C

mmm

YfF^

ikA.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUGIONS.

is made impossible and theologv deprived of its subject matter. But
such admission .vould destroy thought itself.

Let it be assumed, for the .sake of considering where it would
lead, that all existent beings are dependent; that no one possesses
any other being than derived being. Then it follows that each one
borrows its being from others that do not have any being to lend.
Each and all are dependent and must first obtain being from another
before they can lend it. If it is said that the series of dependent
beings is such that the last depends upon the first again, so that there
is a circle of dependent beings, then it has to be admitted that the
whole circle is independent, and from this strange result follows that
the independence of the whole circle of being is something transcend-
ent—a negative unity creating and then annulling again the particu-
lar beings forming the members of the series.

This theory is illustrated in the doctrine of the correlation of) (
forces. The action of force number one gives rise to force number/ "'
two, and so on to the end. Hut this implies that the last of the series)
gives ri.se to the first one of the series, and the whole becomes a self-j
determined totality or independent being. Moreover, tlie persistent,
force is necessarily different from any one of the series- it is not heat
nor light nor electricity nor gravitation, nor any other of the series,
but the common ground of all, and hence not particularized like any
one of them. It is the general force whose office it is to energize and
produce the series — originating one force and annulling it again by
causing it to pass into another. Thus the persistent force is not one
of the series but transcends all of the particular forces — they are de-
rivative; it is original, independent and transcendent. It demands as
the next step of explanation the exhibition of the necessity of its
production of just this series of particular forces as involved in the
nature of the self-determined or absolute force It involves, too, the
necessary conclusion that a self-determined force which originates all
of its special determinations and cancels them all is a pure Ego or
self-hood.

For consciousness is the name given by us to that kind of being
which can annul all of its determinations. For it can annul all ob-
jective determination and have left only its own negative might while
it descends creatively to particular thoughts, volitions or feelings. It
can drop them instantly by turning its gaze upon its pure self as the
creator of those determinations. This turn upon itself is accomplished
by filling its objective field with negation or annulment — this is its
own act and in it realizes its personal identity and its personal tran-
scendence of limitations.

Hence we may say that the doctrine of correlation of forces pre-
supposes a personality creating and transcending the series of forces
correlated. If the mind undertakes to suppose a total of dependent
or derivative beings, it ends by reaching an independent, self-deter-
mined being which, as pure subject, transcends its determinations as
object and is therefore an Ego or person.

Again, the insight which established this doctrine of independent

orrplntion
ForcfB.

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T//£ IVOKLD'S COIVGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Mumun KeU'
Hon.

beings or Platonic "ideas" is not fully satisfied when it traces depend-
ent or derivafve motion back to any intelligent being as its source;
thcic is a further step possible, namely, from a world of many ideas to
an absolute idea as the divine author of all.

For time and space are of such a natine that all beings contained
by them, namely, all extended and successive beings, are in necessary
mutual dependence and hence in one unity. This unity of dependent
beings in time and space demands a one transcendent being. Hence
the doctrine of the idea of ideas— the doctrine of a divine being, who
is rat'onal ar.d personal and who creates beings in time and space in
order to share his fullness of being with a world of created beings —
created for the special purpose of sharing his blessedness.

This is the idea of the supreme goodness, and Plato comes upon
it as the highest thought of his system. In the Tim;tus he speaks of
the absolute as being without -envy, and therefore as making the world
as another blessed God.

In this Platonic .system of thought wc have the first authentic sur-
vey of human reason. Human reason has two orders of knowing — one
the knowing of dependent beings and the other the knowing of inde-
pendent beings. The first is the order of knowing the senses, the sec-
ontl the order of knowing by logical presupposition. I know by se^^-
ing, hearing, tasting, touching things and events. I know by seeing
what these things and events logically imply or presuppose that there
is a great first cause, a personal reason who reveals a gracious purpose
by creating finite beings in time and space.

This must be, or else hui: an reason is at fault in its very founda-
tions. This n' ist be so or else it must be that there is dependent
being which has nothing to depend on. Human reason, then, we may
say from this insight of P'ato, rests upon this knowledge of transcend-
ental being -a being that transcenils all determinations of extent and
succession such as ajjpertain to space and time, and therefore, that
transcends both time and space. This transcendent being is perfect
fullness of being, vhile the beings in time and s))acc are partial or
impinfect beings in the scMse of being embryonic or undeveloped,
being partially realized and j>artially potential.

At this point the system of Aristotle can be understood in its har-
mony with the Platonic .system. Aristotle, too, holds explicitly that
the beings in the world which derive motion from other beings pre-
suppose a first mover. But he is careful to eschew the first expression
self-moved as applying to the prime movei. God is Himself unmoved,
but He is the origin of motion in others. This was doubtless the true
thought of Plato, since he made the divine eternal and good.

In his metaphysics (book eleventh, chapter seven) Aristotle un-
I'rodf of i)i. folds his doctrine that dependent bein ^s i resuppose a divine being
Whose activity is inire knowing. He alone is perfectly realized — the
school men call this technically "pure act" — all other being is partly
potential, not having fully grown to its perfection. Ari.stotles proof
of the divine existence is substantially the same as that of Plato — an

trine

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

:es depend-
its source;
iny ideas to

s contained
n necessary
■ dependent
ng. Hence
being, who
id space in
cd beings—

omes upon
ic speaks of
g the world

ithentic sur-
owing — one
ing of inde-
xes, the sec-
iiow by se^-
w by seeing
e that there
uus purpose

ery founda-
lependcnt
n, we may

transcend-
xtent and

reforc, that
is perfect
partial or

developed,

ascent from the dependent being by the discovery of presuppositions
to tile perfect being who presupposes nothing else than the identifi-
cation of the perfect or depenilent being with thinking, personal, will-
ing being.

This concept of the divine being is wholly positive as far as !t goes
and nothing of it needs to be withdrawn after further philosophic
rcHcction has discussed anew the logical presuppositions. More pre-
suppositions may be discovered — new distinctions discerneil where
none were perceived before — but those additions only make more cer-
tain the fundamental theory explained first by i'lato and subsequently
byArislotlc. This may beseen by aglanceat the thcoryof Christianity,
which unfolds itself in the minds of great thinkers of the first six cent- iinmnn Nn'-
urics of our era. The object of Christian theologians was to give unity " x;„;j|(, [ ; '
and system to the new doctrine of the divine-human nature of God lUr....
taught by Christ. They discovered, one by one, the logical presuppo-|
sitions and announced them in the creed. \

The Greeks had scjn the idea of the Logos or eternally begotten
son, the word that was in the beginning and through which created be-
ings arose in time and s]);vce. But how the finite and imperfect arose
from the infinite and perfect the Greek did not understand so well as
the Christian.

The Hindu had given up the solution altogether and denied the
l^roblem itself. The perfect cannot be conceived as making the imper-
fect — it is too alisurd to think that a good being should make a bad
being. Only Brahman the absolute exists and all else is illusion — it
is Maya.

How tile illusion can exist is too much to explain. The Hindu
has oiiK' po.->l[)oned tlie problem, and not set it asitle. His philosophy
remains in that contradiction. The finite, including Brahma him-
self, who philosophizes, is an illusion. vXn illusion recognizes itself as
an illusion — an illusion knows true being and discriminates itself
from false being. .Such is the fundamental doctrine of the .Sankhya
])liilosophy, and the .Sankhya is the fundamental type of all Hindu;
thought.

The Greek escapes from this contradiction. He sees that the
absolute cannot be empty, indeterminate, pure being devoiii of all
attributes, without consciousness. IMato and Aristotle see that the
absolute must be pure form — that is to say, an activity which gives
form to itself — a self-determined being with subject and object the
same, hence a self -knowing and self-willed being. 1 lence the absolute
cannot be an abstract unity like lirahma, but must be a self-deter-
mined or a unity that gives rise to dualitj within itself and recovers
its unity and restores it by recognizing itself in its object. ,

The absolute as subject is the first- the absolute as object is the'
second It is Logos. God's object must exist for all eternity, because'
He is always a person and conscious. But it is very important to
recognize that the Logos, God's objcct,is Himself, and hence equal to
Himself, and also self-conscious. It is not the world in time and

(pf^^

mum

miM

! i

1 .'111

J. ■

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUGIONS.

Not a Part of

tho Holy
ity.

Trin-

space. To hold that God thinks Himself as the world is pantheism —
it is pantheism of the left wing of Hegelians.

To say that God thinks Himself as the world is to say that He
discovers in Himself finite and perishable forms, and therefore makes
them objective. The schoolmen say truly that in God intellect and
will are one. This means that in God his thinking makes objectively
existent what it thinks. Plato saw clearly that the Logos is perfect and
not a world of change and decay. He could not explain how the world
of change and decay is derived except from the goodness of the divine
being who imparts gratuitously of his fullness of being to a series of
\ creatures who have being only in part.

! Jiut the Christian thinking adds two new ideas to the two already

1 found by Plato. It adds to the divine first and the second (the
Logos), also a divine third, the holy spirit, and a fourth not divine, but
the process of the third — calling it the processio. This idea of process
explains the existence of a world of finite beings, for it contains
evolution, development or derivation. And evolution implies the
existence of degrees of less and more perfection of growth. The pro-
cession thus must be in time, but the time process must have eternally
gone on because the third has eternally proceeded and been pro-
ceeding.

The thought underneath this theory is evidently that the Second
Person or Logos, in knowing Himself or in being conscious, knows
Himself in two phases — first, as completely generated or perfect, and
this is the Holy Spirit, and secondly, He knows Himself as related to
the First as his eternal origin. In thinking of His origin or genesis from
the Father, Ho makes objective a complete world of evolution con-
taining at all times all degrees of development or evolution and
covering every degree of imperfection from pure space and time up to
the invisible church.

This recognition of His derivation is also a recognition on the part
of the First of His o\\\\ act of generating the Second — it is not going
on, but lias been eternally completed, and yet both the Divine First
and the Divine Second must think it when they think of their relation
to one another. Recognition is the intellectual of the First.and Sec-
ond is the mutual love of the Father and the Son, and this mutual
love is the procession of the Holy Spirit.

Hut the procession is not a part of the holy trinity; it is the crea-
tion in time and space of an infinite world of imperfect beings develop-
ing into self-activity and as self-active organizing institutions — the
family, civil society, the state and the church. The church is the New
Jerusalem described by St. John, the apostle, who has revealed this
doctrine of the third person as an institutional person — the spirit who
makes possible all institutional organism in the world and who tran-
scends them all as the perfect who energizes in the imperfect to
develop it and complete it.

Tims stated, the Christian thought as expressed in the symbol of
the holy trinity, explains fully the relations of the world of imperfect

'S.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

IS pantheism —

) say that He
erefore makes
I intellect and
:es objectively
s is perfect and
how the world
>s of the divine
to a series of

lie two already
: second (the
not divine, but
idea of process
for it contains
)n implies the
rt'th. The pro-
have eternally
md been pro-

at the Second
nscious, knows
or perfect, and
If as related to
3r genesis from
evolution con-
evolution and
and time up to

iop on the part
-it is not going
Divine First
f their relation
First, and Sec-
id this mutual

it is the crea-
leingsdevelop-
stitutions — the
rch is the New

revealed this
the spirit who
ind who tran-

imperfect to

the symbol ot
d of imperfect

beings and makes clear in what way the goodness or grace of God^
makes the world as Plato and Aristotle taught.

The world is a manifestation of divine grace — a spectacle of the
evolution or becoming of individual existence in all phases, inorganic
and organic. Individuality begins to appear even in specific gravity
and in ascending degrees in cohesion and crystallization. In the plant
it is unmistakable. In the animal it begins to feel and perceive itself.
In man it arrives at self-consciousness and moral action' and recog
nizes its own place in the universe.

God, being without envy, does not grudge any good; He accord-
ingly turns, as Rothe says, the emptiness of non-being into a reflection
of Himself and makes it everywhere a spectacle of His grace.

Of the famous proofs of divine existence, St. Anselm's holds the
first place. But St. Anselm's proof cannot be understood without re-
curring to the insight of Plato. In his Proslogium St. Anselm finds
that there is but one thought which underlies all others; one thought
universally presupposed, and this he discribes as the thought of that
than which there can be nothing greater. "Id quo nihil majus cogi-
tari potest." This assuredly is Plato's thought of the totality. Every-
thing not a total is less than the totality. But the totality is the
greatest pos3ible being.

The essential thing to notice, however, is that St. Anselm per-
ceives that this one thought is objectively valid and not a mere sub-
jective notion of the thinker. No thinker can doubt that there is a
totality — he can be perfectly sure that the plus the not me includes all
that there is. Gaunillo, in the lifetime of St. Anselm, and Kant in re-
cent times have tried to refute the argument by alleging the general
proposition — the conception of a thing does not imply its corre-
sponding existence. The proposition is true, except in the case of this
oneontological thought of the totality of the thoughts that can be log-
ically deduced from it. The second order of knowing, by presump-
tions, implies an existence corresponding to each concept. St. Anselm
knew that the person who denied the objective validity of this idea of
the totality must presuppose its truth right in the very act of denying
it. If there be an Ego that thinks, even if it be the P^go of a fool
(insipiens), who says in his heart, "there is no God," it must be cer-
tain that its self plus its not-self makes a totality, and that this totality
surely exists, the existence of his P^go is or may be contingent, but
the totality is certainly not contingent but necessary. This is an onto-
logi<;al necessity and the basis of all further philosophical and theolog-
• .cti thoughts.

St. An.selm does not, it is true, follow out this thought to its con-
templation in his Proslogium nor in his Monologium. He leaves it
there with the idea of a necessary being who is supreme and perfect
because he contains the fullness of being.

He undoubtedly saw the further implication, namely, that the
totality is an independent being and self-existent because it is self-
.ictive He saw this so clearly that he did not think it worth while to

An OutoloK-
ical NecoHfiily.

ft"

'mimm

T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

i ll:

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4 ■a!

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1,5

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stop and unfold it. Hut he did speak of it as a necessary existence
contrasted with a contingent existence. "Everywhere else besides
God," he says, "can be conceived not to exist."

Descartes, in his Third Meditation, has repeated with some modi-
fication the demonstration of St. Anselm. lie holds, in substance, that
the idea of a perfect bein_<f is not subjective, but objective; we see that
he is dealing with the neces.sar)' objectivity of the idea of totality. The
expression "perfect being" is entirely misunderstood by most writers
in the history of philosophy; it must be taken only in the sense of in-
dependent being — being— for itself — being that can be what it is with-
out support from another hence perfectly self-determined being.
The expression "perfect" points directly to Aristotle's invented word,
ontelechy, whose literal meaning is the having of perfection itself The
word is invented to express the thought of the independent presup-
posed by dependent being.

Perfect being, as Aristotle teaches, is pure energy; all of his poten-
tialities are realized; hence it is not subject to change nor is it passive
or recipient of anything from without it is pure form, or rather self-
formative. Read in the light of Plato's idea and Aristotle's cntelachy,
.St. Anselm and Descartes' proofs are clear and intelligible, and are not
touched by Kant's criticism. In his philosophy of religion and else-
where, Hegel has pointed out the source of Kant's misapprehension.
liaunillu instanced the island Atlantis as a conception which does not
imply a corresponding reality. Kant instanced a hundred dollars as a
conception which did not imply a corresponding reality in his pocket,
liut neither the island Atlantis, nor any other island, ncithera hundred
dollars — in short, no finite dependent being is at all a necessary being,
and hence cannot be deduced from its concept. Hut each and every
contingent being presupposes the existence of an independent being
— a self-determined being— an absolute divine reason.

St. y\nselm proved the depth of his thought by advancing a new
Nr« Th.M.rj- theory of the death of Christ as a satisfaction, not of the claims of the
,f Atommcnt. ^,^,^.j,^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^j^^ satisfaction of the claims of God's justice for sin. Al-
though we do not trace out his full thought in the Proslogium we can
see the depth and clearness of his thinking in this new theory of atone-
ment. For, in order to understand it philo.sophically, the thinker must
make clear to himself the logical necessity for the exclusion of all
forms of finitude or dependent being from the thought of the divine
reason who knows Himself in the Logos. To think an imperfection is
to annul it; hence God's thought of an imperfect being annuls it.
T' This logical statement corresponds to the political definition of the

V idea of justice.

:;^ Justice gives to a being its dues; it completes it by adding to it

what it lacks. Add to an imperfect being what it lacks and you
destroy its individuality. This is justice instead of grace, Grace bears
with the imperfect being until it completes itself by its own act of
self-determination. But, in order that a world of imperfect beings,
sinners, may have this field of probation, a perfect being must bear

:y'

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS

iry existence
else besides

I some inodi-
ibstance, that
; we see that
otality. The
most writers
e sense of in-
liat it is with-
nined being,
vented word,
Ml itself The
ident presup-

of hispoten-
ir is it passive
\x rather sclf-
e'sentelachy,
le, and are not
ion and else-
ipprehension.
lich does not
;d dollars as a
in his pocket,
her a hundred

essary being,
1 and every

endent being

-ancing a new
laims of the
for sin. Al-
giuni we can
jry of atone-
thinker must
rclusion of all
of the divine
iperfection is
ng annuls it.
nition of the

theii imperfection. The divine Logos must harbor in His thought all
the stti<;c- of genesis or becoming, and thereby endowed beings in a
finite world xvith reality and self-existence. Thus the conception of
St. Anselm was a deep and true insight.

The older view of Christ's atonement as a ransom paid to .Satan is
not so irrational as it seems, if we divest it of the personification which
figures the negative as a co-ordinate person with God. God only is
absolute person. His pure not-nie is chaos, but not a personal devil.
In order that God's grace shall have the highest possible manifesta-
tion, He turns His not-me into a reflection of Himself by making it a
series of ascending stages out of dependence and nonentity into inde-
pendence and personal individuality. But the process of reflection by
creation in time and space involves God's tenderness and long suffer-
ing; it involves a real sacrifice in the Divine Being, for He must hold
antl sustain in existence by His creative thought the various stages of
organic beings — plants and animals are mere caricatures of the divine
—then it must support iind nourish humanity in its wickedness and
sin— a deeper alienation than even that of minerals, plants and animals,
because it is a willful alienation of a higher order of beings.

Self-sacrificing love is, therefore, the concept of the atonement; it
is. in fact, the true concept of the divine gift of being of finite things;
it is not merely religion, it is philosophy or necessary truth. But it i.s
very important so to conceive nature as not to attach it to the idea of
God by them in Himself; such an idea is pantheism. Nature does not
form a person of the Trinity. It is not the Logos, as supposed by the
left wing of the Hegelians. And yet on the other hand nature is not
an accident in God's purposes as conceived by theologians, who react
too far from the pantheistic view. Nature is eternal, but not self-ex
istent; it is the procession of the Holy Spirit and arises in the double
thought of the First Person and the Logos, or the timeless generation
which is logically involved in the fact of God's consciousness of Him-
self as eternal reason.

The thought of God is a regressive thought — it is an ascent from
the dependent to that on whn:h it det^ends. It is called dialectical by
riato in the sixth Book of the Rej "ublic. "The Dialectic Method,"
says he, "ascends from what has a mere contingent or hypothetic
existence to the first principle by proving the insufficiency of all except
the first principle."

This is the second order of knowing — the discovery of the onto-
logical presuppositions. The first order of knowing sees things and
events by the aid of the senses, the second order of knowing sees the
first cau.se. The first order of knowing attains to a knowledge of the
perishable, the second order attains to the imperishable. The idea of
God is, as Kant has explained, the supreme directive or regulative idea
iii the mind. It is, moreover, as Plato and St. Anselm saw, the most
certain yf all our ideas, the light in all our seeing.

Nmuo II (it
8elf-Es.. tcut.

\f^

^sxMitasaaam

! I

■4

li!

ii^^f

;^i,i;

\
1

1 . '

! ■

Rt. Rev. Wm. E. McLaren, Bishop of Chicago.

(Ueiuber Oeneral Coinmlttee.)J!

Moral j^vidence of a Qivine Existence.

Paper by REV. ALFRED W. MOMERIE, of London, England.

HE evidences for the existence of God may be
summed up under two heads. First of all there
is what I will designate the rationality of the
world. Under this head, of course, comes the
old argument from design. It is often sup-
{)osed that the argument from desig n hasbeen
exploded. " Nowadays," says Comte, " the
heaveh^j declare no other glory than that of
Ilipparchus, N«i\vton, Kej)Icr and the rest who
have found out the laws of their sequence.
Our power of foreseeing phenomena and our
power of controlling them destroy the belief
that they are governed by changeable wills."
Quite so. Hut such a belief — the belief, viz.,
that phenomena were governed by change-
able wills — could not be entertained by any
philosophical theist. A really irregular phenomenon, as Mr. Fiske
has said, would be a manifestation of sheer diabolism. Philosophical
theism — belief in a being deservedly called God — could not be estab-
lished until after the uniformity of nature had been discovered. We
must cease to believe in many changeable wills before we can begin
to believe in one that is unchangeable. We must cease to believe in
a finite God, outside of nature, who capriciously interferes with her
phenomena, before we can begin to believe in an infiuite God, immi-
nent in nature, of whom mind and will and all natural phenomena are
the various but never varying expressions. Though the regularity of
nature is not enough by itself to prove the existence of God, the irreg-
ularity of nature would be amply sufficient to disprove it. The
uniformity of nature, which, by a curious observation of the logical
faculties, has been used as an atheistic argument, is actually the first
btep in the proof of the existence of God. The purposes of a reason-
table being, just in proportion to his rea.sonablcness, will be steadfast
jand immovable. And in God there is no change, neither shadow of
ilurning. He is the same yesterday, today and forever,

BaniH for Ba
lief

tf!!llillBWlS,M&'

'I :::

iii

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

'■I

There is another scientific doctrine, viz., the doctrine of evolu.tion,

which is often supposed to be incompatible with the argument from

V'*" design. But it seems to me that the discovery of the fact of evolution

'y/ was an important step in the proof of the divine existence. Evolution

/j has not disproved adaptation; it has merely disproved one particular

r^' kind of adaptation, the adaptation, viz., of a human artifice. In the

time of Paley God was regarded as a great Mechanician, spelled with
a capital M, it is true, but employing means and methods for the
accomplishment of His purposes more or less similar to those which
would be used by a human workman. It was believed that cverj-
species, every organism and every part of every organism had been
individually adapted by the Creator for the accomplishment of a defi-
nite end, just as every portion of a watch is the result of a particular
act of contrivance on the part of the watchmaker.

A different and far higher method is suggested by the doctrine of

niwo P f t:volution, a doctrine which may now be considered as practically
Evo'inMon'^ii n demonstrated, thanks especially to the light which has been shed on it

^'"^tei^"'^ by the sciences of anatomy, physiology, geology, paleontology ami
embryology. These sciences have placed the blood relationship oi
species beyond a doubt. The embryos of existing animals are found
again and again to bear the closest resemblance to extinct species,
though in the adult form the resemblance is obscured. Moreover, we
frequently find in animals rudimentary, or abortive, organs, which are
manifestly not adapted to any end, which never can be of any use, and
whose presence in the organism is sometimes positively injurious.
There are snakes that have rudimentary legs — legs which, however
interesting to the anatomist, are useless to the snake. There are rudi-
ments of fingers in a horse's hoof and of teeth in a whale's mouth, and
in man himself there is the vermiform appendix. It is manifest, tl.ere-
fore, that any particular organ in one species is merely an evolution
from a somewhat different kind of organ in another. It is manifest
that the species themselves are but transmutations of one or a few
primordial types, and that they have been created not by paroxysm
but by evolution. The Creator saw the end from the beginning. Me
had not many conflicting purposes, but one that was general and all-
embracing. Unity and continuity of design serve to demonstrate the
wisdom of the designer.

The supposition that nature means something by what she does
has not infrequently led to important scientific discoveries. It was in
this way that Harvey found out the circulation of the blood. He took
notice of the valves in the veins in many parts of the body, so placed
as to give free passage to the blood toward the heart, but opposing
its pa.ssagc in the contrary direction. Then he bethought himself, to
use his own words, "that such a provident cause as nature had not
placed so many valves without a design, and the design which seemed
most probable was that the blood, instead of being sent by these veins
to the limbs, should go first through the arteries, should return through
other veins whose valves did not oppose its course." Thus, apart from .

■Ulilw

!wWWW^

of evolution,
rgumcnt from
t of evolution
;c. Evolution
anc particular
tif^cc. In the
I, spelled with
thods for the
o those which
ed that every
isni had been
uent of a dcfi-
of a particular

the doctrine of
as practically
jeen shed on it
eontology and
relationship ot
mals are found
ixtinct species,
Moreover, we
nrans, which are
of any use, and
ively injurious,
hich, however
There are rudi-
e's mouth, and
manifest, tl.ere-
ly an evolution
It is manifest
f one or a few
)t by paroxysm
se^innin^. He
Teneral and all-
lemonstrate the

what she does

iries. It was in

lood. He took

)ody, so placed

but opposini,'

[rht himself, to

nature had not
|i which seemed

by these veins

return throu^di
Ihus, apart from

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

the supposition of purpose, the greatest discovery in physiological
science might not have been made. And the curious thing is — a cir-
cumstance to which I would particularly direct your attention — the
word purpose is constantly employed even by those who are most
strenuous in denying the reality of the fact. The supposition of pur-
)osc is used as a working hypothesis by the most extreme materialists;
_ he recognition of an imminent purpose in our conception of nature'
can be so little dispensed with that we find it admitted even by Vogt.j
Haeckcl, in the very book in which he says that "the much talked-ot!
purpose in nature has no existence," defines an organic body as "one\
in which the various parts work together for the purpose of producing I
the phenomenon of life." And Ilartmann, according to whom the'
universe is the outcome of unconsciousness, speaks of "the wisdom oV
ithe unconscious," of "the mechanical contrivances which it employs,"'
iof " the direct activity in bringing about complete adaptation to the
eculiar nature of the case," of "its incursions into the human brain
hich determine the course of history in all departments of civiliza*'
ion in the direction of the goal intended by the unconscious." I'ur-
ose, then, has not been eliminated from the universe by tiiediscover-
s of physical science. These discoveries have but intensified and
levated our path.

And there is yet something else to be urged in favor of the argu-

ent from design. If the world is not due to i)urpose it must be the

esult of chance. This alternative cannot be avoided by asserting that

he world is the outcome of law; since law itself must be accounted for

n one or other of these alternative ways. A law of nature explains

othing. It is merely a summary of the facts to be explained;

lerely a statement of the way in which things happen, c. ,(,'-., the law

f gravitation in the fact that all material botlies attract one another

■ith a force varying directly as their mass and inversely as the

cjuares of their distances. Now, the fact that bodies attract one

nother in this way cannot be explained by the law, for the law is

othing but the precise expression of the fact. To say that the gravi-

ition of matter is accounted for by the law of gravitation is merely to

ay that matter gravitates because it gravitates. And so of the other

laws of nature. Taken together they are simply the expression, in a

et of convenient formulae, of all the facts of our experience. The

iws of nature are the facts of nature summarized. To say, then, that

ature is explained by la\T is to say that the facts are explained by

hemselvcs. The question remains. Why are the facts what they are?

" nd to this question we can only answer, Either through purpose or

J chance.

In favor of the latter hypothesis it may be urged that the appear-

ice of purpose in nature could have been produced by chance. Ar-

ngements which look intentional may sometimes be purely accidental.

ioiuething was bound to come of the play of the primeval atoms.

'/hy not the particular world in which we find ourselves?

Why not? For this reason: It is only within narrow bounds that

UocotfU.tidli
of u l'uri)OSi'.

A IjiiWdf Nil-
tnnt Kxiiliiiii^
NothiuK-

A.V<i

r^n

■ 1

■ ii '

An InfiniteH-
1 ual Fraotiuu
i.ia Universe.

Evidnncee of
Purpose.

Other Evi-
dencesof u

Supreme
InteUigence.

i M

TJ/£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

seemingly purpo.seful arranjrcments are accidentally produced. And,
therefore, as the signs of purpo.sc increase the presumption in favor of
their accidental origin diminishes. It is the most curious phenomenon
in the history of thought that the i)hilosophers who delight in calling
themselves experienced should have countenanced the theory of the
accidental origin of the world, a theory with which our experience, as
far. as it goes, is completely out of harmony. When only eleven
planets were known De Morgan showed that the odds against their
moving in one direction around the sun with a slight inclination of the
planes of their orbits— iiad chance determined the movement — would
have been twenty billions to one. And this movement of the planets
is but a single item, a tiny detail, an infinitesimal fraction in a universe
which, notwithstanding all arguments to the contrary, still appears to
be pervaded through and through with purpose. Let every human
being now alive upon the earth spend the rest of his days and nights
writing down arithmetical figures; let the enormous numbers which
these figures would represent — each number forming a library in itselt
— be all added togct'^ r; let this result be squared, cubed, multiplied by
itself ten thousand i ics, and the final product would fall short of ex-
pressingthe probabilities of the world having been evolved by chance.

liut over and above the signs of purpose in the world there arc
other evidences which bear witness to its rationality, to its ultimate
dependence upon mind. VVe can often detect thought even when wi
fail to detect purpose. "Science," says Lange, "starts from the prin-
ciple of the intelligibleness of nature." To interpret is to explain,
and nothing can be explained that is not in itself rational. Reason
can only grasp what is reasonable. You cannot explain the conduct
of a fool. You cannot interpret the actions of a lunatic. They arc
contradictory, meaningless, unintelligible. Similarly, if nature were an
irrational system there would be no possibility of knowledge. The
interpretation of nature consists in making our own the thoughts
which nature implies. Scientific hypothesis consists in guessing at
these thoughts; scientific verification in proving that we have guessed
aright. " O, God," says Kepler, when he discovered the laws of plan-
etary motion, "O, God, I think again Thy thoughts after Thee." There
could be no course of nature, no law of sequence, no possibility of
scientific predictions, in a senseless play of atoms. But, as it is, we
know exactly how the forces of nature act and how they will continue
to act. We can express their mode of working in the most precise
mathematical formula;. Every fresh discovery in science reveals anew
the order, the law, the system; in a word, the reason which underlies
material phenomena. And reason is the outcome of mind. It is mind
in action.

Nor is it only within the realm of science that we can detect traces
of a supreme intelligence. Kant and Hegel have shown that the
whole of our conscious experience implies the existence of a mind
other than but similar to our own. For students of philosophy it is
needless to explain this; for others it would be impossible within the

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE REIJGIONS.

)duced. And,
ion in favor ot
s phenomenon
light in calling
: theory of the
experience, as
n only eleven
5 against their
;lination of the
cement — would
: of the planets
»n in a universe
still appears to
;t every human
lays and nights
numbers which
library in itselt
d, multiplied by
[all short of ex-
Ived by chance,
world there an-
:, to its ultimate
it even when wt
s from the prin-
ct is to explain,
tional. Reason
lin the conduct
latic. They arc

nature were an
nowledge. The

n the thoughts

in guessing at
ve have guessed
he laws of plan-

rThee." There
lo possibility of
But, as it is, we
ey will continue

le most precise
nee reveals anew

which underlies
lind. It is mind

can detect traces
shown that the
tence of a mind
philosophy it is
ssible within the

new of the
World.

short time at my disposal. Suffice it to say, it has been proved that
i wliat we call knowlctlge is due subjectively to the constructive activity
of our own individual minds, and objectively to the con.structive
. activity of another mind which is omnipresent and eternal. In other
i words, it has been proved that cur limited consciousness implies the
I existeiice of a consciousness that is unlimited, that the common every-
'} day experience of each one of us necessitates the increasing activity
\ of an infinite thinker.

The world, then, is essentiall\ rational. But if that were all we
could say we should be very far from having proved the existence of
- God. A question still remains for us to answer: Is the infinite
:i thinker good? I pass on, therefore, to speak briefly on the second
^ part of my subject, viz., the progressivencss of the world. The last,
'-the most comprehensive, the most certain word of science is evolution,
i And it is the most hopeful word I know. For when we contemplate
the suffering and disaster around us, we are sometimes tempted to
fthink that the Great Contriver is i/uiifferent to human welfare. But
ievolution, which is only another form for continuous improvement,
finspires us with confidence. It suggests, indeed, that the Creator is
Inot omnipotent, in the vulgar sense of being able to do impossibilities;
but it also suggests that the difficulties of creation are being surely
■ though slowly overcome.

Now, it may be asked, Mow could there be difficulties for God?

'How could the infinite be limited or restrained? Let us see. W'earetoo

?apt to look upon restraint as essentially an evil; to regard it as a sign

iof weakness. This is the greatest mistake. Restraint may be an evidence

:|of power, of superiority, of jjerfectioii. Why is poetry so much more

f beautiful than prose? liecausc of the restraints of conscience. Many

things are possible for a prose writer which are impossible for a poet;

many things are possible for a villain which are impossible for a man

of honor; many things are possible for a devil which are impossible

for a God. The fact is, infinite wisdoni and goodness involve nothing

less than infinite restraint. When we say tliat God cannot do wrong

we virtually admit that He is under a moral obligation or necessity,

nd reflection will show that there is another kind of necessity, viz.,

athematical,by which even the infinite is bound.

Do j'ou suppose that the Deity could make a square with only
hree sicles or a line with only one ii\\i\; Admitting, for the sake of
argument, that theoretically He had the power, do you sui)pose that
under any conceivable circumstances He would use it? Surely not.
t would be pro.stitution. It would be the employment of an infinite
ower for the production of what was essentially irrational and absurd. Necewity
t would be the same kind of folly as if some one who was capable of
riting a sensible book were deliberately to produce a volume with the
ords so arranged as to convey no earthly tneaning. The same kind
f folly but far more culpable, for the guilt of foolishness increases in
roportion to the capacity for wisdom. A being, therefore, who
ttempted to reverse the truth of mathematics would not be divine,
'o ir^tiiematiral necessity Deity itself must yield.

Infinite
atraint.

Re-

Mathematical

il»T

mAilm

PhyHioal R*.
Nt ritiut Muceo-

The Hi)i);nof
Law.

yy/A' irORLD'S CONGKtSS VF RELIGIONS.

Similarly in the physical sphere there must be restraints equally
necessary and equally unalterable, vi/., it may be safely and reverently
aflfirmed that God could not have created a painless world. The iJeity
must have been constrained by His goodness to create the best world
possible, and a world without suffering would have been not better, but
worse than our own. For consider, sometimes pain is needed as a
warning to preserve us from greater pain; to keep us from destruc-
tion. If pam had not been attached to injurious actions and habits, all
sentient beings would long ago have pa.ssed out of existence. Sup-
pose, <•. .^'•., that fire did not cause pain, we might easily be burnt tt)
death before we knew we were in danger. Suppose the loss of health
were not attended with discomfort, we should lack the strongest mo-
tive for preserving it. And the same is true of the pangs of remorse
which follow what we call sin. Further, pain is necessary for the
development of character, especially in its liighcr phases. In some
way or other, though, we cannot tell exactly how, pain acts as an intel-
lectual and spiritual stimulus. The world's greatest teachers, Dante,
Shakespeare, Darwin, etc., have been men who suffereil much. Suffer-
ing, moreover, develops in us pity, mercy, and the spirit of self-sacri-
fice; it develops in us self-respect, self-reliance and all that is implied
in the expression, strength of character. In no other way could such
a character be conceivably acquired. It could not have been bestowed
upon us by a creative fiat; it is essentially the result of personal con-
flict. Even Christ became perfect through suffering. And there is
also a further necessity for pain arising from the reign of law.

There is, no doubt, something awesome in the thought of the abso-
lute inviolability of law; in the thought that nature goes on her way
quite regardless of your wishes or mine. She is so strong and so indif-
ferent! The reign of law often entails on individuals the direst suffer-
ing. But if the Deity interfered with it He would at once convert the
universe into chaos. The first requisite for a rational life is the certain
knowledge that the same effects will always follow from the same
cause; that they will never be miraculously averted; that they will
never be miraculously produced. It seems hard-it is hard— that a
mother should lose her darling child by accident or disease, that
she cannot by any agony of prayer recall the child to life. Hut
it would be harder for the world if she could. The child has
died through a violation of some of nature's laws, and if such viola-
tion were unattended with death men would lose the great induce-
ment to discover and obey them. It .seems hard — it is hard — that the
man who has taken poison by accident dies, as surely as if he had taken
it on purpose. But it would be harder for the world if he did not. If
one act of carelessness were ever overlooked, the race would cease to
feel the necessity for care. It seems hard — it is hard — that children
arc made to suffer for their father's crimes. But it would be harder
for the world if they were not. If the penalties of wrong doing were
averted from the children, the fathers would lose the best incentive to
do right. Vicarious suffering has a great part to play in the moral

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

aints equally
nd reverently
1. TheDeily
e best world
lot better, but
needed as a
[roni destruc-
[ind habits, all
stence. Sup-
be burnt to
loss of health
strongest mo-
rs of remorse
issary for the
ses. In some
ictsasan intel-
ichers, Dante,
much. Suffer-
t of self-sacri-
hat is implied
ay could such
been bestowed
personal con-
And there is
>f law.

ht of the abso-
:s on her way
ig and so indit-
le direst suffer-
icc convert the
e is the certain
rem the same
that they will
hard— that a
r disease, that
to life. Hut
he child has
if such viola-
great induci-
hard— that the
if he had taken
ic did not. It
would cease to
-that children
luld be harder
ng doing were
;st incentive to
in the moral

evelopment of the world. Each individual is apt to think that .in
xception might be made in his favor, liut of course that could not
je. If the laws of nature were broken for one person, justice would
require that they should be broken for thou.sands, for all. And if only
ne of nature's laws could be proved to have been only once violated,
ur faith in law would be at an end; we should feel that we were liv-
,ig in a disorderly universe; we should lose the sense of the para-
lount importance of conduct; we should know that we were the sport

f chance.

Pain, therefore, was an unavoidable necessity in the creation of

^he best of all possible worlds. Hut, however many antl however great

irere the difficulties in the Creator's path, the fact of evolution makes

certain that they are being gradually overcome. And among all the

Changes that have marked its progress, none is so palpable, so remark-

;, so persistent as the development of goodness, hvolution "makes

)r righteousness." That which seems to be its end varies.

"The truth is constantly becoming more apparent that on the whole
in the long-run it is not well with the wicked; that sooner or later,
)th in the lives of individuals and of nations, good triumphs over
;il. And this tendency toward righteousness, by which we find cur-
sives encompassed, meets with a ready, an ever readier response in
\\xx own hearts. We cannot help respecting goodness, and we have
lextinguishable longings for its personal attainment. Notwithstand-
ig "sore lets and hindrances," notwithstanding the fiercest tempta-
|ons, notwithstanding the most disastrous failures, these yearnings
)ntinually reassert themselves with ever increasing force. We feel,
re know that we shall always be dissatisfied and unhappy until the
Bndcncy within us is brought into perfect unison with the tendency
without us, until we also make for righteousness steadily, unremit-
|ngly and with our whole heart. What is this disquietude, what are
lese yearnings but the spirit of the universe in communion with our
_)irits, inspiring us, impelling us, all but forcing us to become cc
rorkers with itself.

To sum up in one sentence — all knowledge, whether practical or
sientinc, nay, the commonest experience of everyday life, implies the
tistence of a mind which is omnipresent and eternal, while the tend-
icy toward righteousness, which is so unmi.stakably manifest in the
)urse of history, together with the response which this tendency
/akens in our own hearts, combine to prove that the infinite thinker
just and kind and good. It must be because he is always with us
lat we sometimes imagine that he is nowhere to be found.

"Oh, where is the sea?" the fishes cried
As they swam the crystal clearness through;

"We've heard from of old of the ocean's tide
And we long to look on the waters blue.

The wise ones speak of an infinite sea;
Oh, who can tell us if such there be?"

Tendeno) Tn.
ward l{ i g li ( .
eounneM.

DeTelopnent
of noodnes*.

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The lark flew up in the morning bright
And sang and balanced on sunny wings,

And this was its song: "I see the light;
I look on a world of beautiful 'ulngs;

And flying and singing everywhere
In vain have I sought to find the air."

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Xhe y^rgument for Immortality.

Paper by REV. PHILIP ;^. MOXOM, of the University of Chicago.

( 'I

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iiuniuu ilipirit

T is impossible, of course, within the lim'ti of
this brief paper even to state the entire argu-
ment for tiie immortality of man. The most
that 1 can hope to do is to indicate those main
lines of reasoniiijj^ which appeal to the average
intelligent mind as confirmatory of a belief in
immortality already existent. Three or four
considerations should he noticed at the outset:
First, it is doubtful if any reasoning on this
subject would be intelligible to man if he did
not have precedently at least a capacity for
immortality. However we may define it, there
is that in man's nature which makes him sus-
ceptible to the tremendous idea of everlasting

istence.

Here sits he, sha]iiii^ wings to fly;
His lieait forebodes a mystery;
He names the name Eternity!

It would seem that only a deathless being, in the midst of a world
in which all forms of life perceptible by his senses arc born and die in
endless procession, could tiiink of himself as capable of surviving this
universal ortler. The capacity to raise and discuss the question of
iinmortality has, therefore, implications that radically separate man
from all the creatiu'es about him. Just as he could not think of virtue
without a capacity for virtue, so he could not think of immortality
without at least a capacity for that of which he thinks.
1 A second preliminary consitleration is that immortality is insej)-

'arably bound up with theism. Theism makes immortality rational:
atheism makes it incredible, if not unthinkable. The highest form ol
the belief in immortality inevitably roots itself in and is part of the
soul's belief in God.
of tho/ A third consideration is that a scientific proof of immortality is, at
present, impossible in the ordinary sense of the phrase "scientific
proof." The life of the human spirit is a transcendent fact. It cannot
be co-ordinated with the phenomena of natin-e on which the scientifii
mind is turned, Even the miracle of a ph)'sical resurrection, while il

lity.

r Chicago.

the lim'ti of
le entire arg.i-
xn. The most
itc those main
to the average
y' of a belief in
Three or four
d at the outset:
asoning on this

man if he did
a capacity for
• define it, there
nakes him sus-
i of everlasting

lidst of a world
]iorn and die in

f surviving this

|he question ot

separate nian

think of virtue
|of immortality

rtality is insej)-
jtality rational:
jiighest form ol
1 is part of the

limortality is, at
Irase " scientific
fact. It cannot
;h the scientifi'
tion, while it

Rev. Philip S. Moxom, D. D , Boston.

'"""" 11 in iiiiiii' inaiirfiiniTiiiiiii

il i

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

would be demonstration of revival from death, would not prove immor-
tality; for it would be a transaction quite as much on the plane of the
material as revival fron- a swoon, and, as death supervened once, it
might supervene again.

Demonstration of immortality lies solely in the sphere of personal
experience. The man who, from blindness, attains sight, has demon-
stration of the reality of vision; but even he could not demonstrate
that reality to blind men. So only the soul that has entered upon
immortality has demonstration of that supreme reality, and "though
one should rise from the dead," yet would he be incapable of demon-
strating immortality to mortal man. It is both interesting and
immensely suggestive that while St. Paul evidently argues immortality
from the attested resurrection of Jesus, Jesus Himself uttered no word
basing the doctrine of immortality on the mere fact of His return from
death in the sphere of sense perception. True, He said to His disciples,
"Because I live ye shall live also;" but that was an affirmation entirely
apart from the implications of physical resurrection.

None of 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 unapproachable 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 demaiuls
scientific proof of immortality, then it is as if he demanded the linear
measurement of a principle, or the troy weight of an emotion, or the
color of an affection, or as if he should insist upon finding the human
soul with his scalpel or microscope.

A fourth consideration is that immortality is inseparable from/
personality. The whole significance of man's existence lies ultiinatelyi
in its discreetness — in the evolution and persistence of tlie self-'
conscious ego. Men cheat themselves with |ihrases who talk about
the re-absorption of the finite soul in the infinite soul. The finite .iiui
the infinite co-exist in this world; that of itself is proof that they may
co-exist in the next world and forever. The absorption of the con-
scious finite into the infinite is unthinkable save as the annihilation of
the finite.

With the semblance of deeply religious self-abnegation, this idea
of human destiny mocks the heart and hope of man by eternally frus-
trating the supreme end of aspiritual creation. The treasures ol life —
of its struggle and passion and pain— are inseparable from personality
the unfolding and perfecting being in whom the • ontiiiuity of
'experience conserves the results of all the divine education of man;
he perfected individual fulfilling himself in the perfected society, the
lever unfolding kingdom of God. The loss of personality is, for man,
ht loss of being. Extinction is remediless waste, In nature there is
o waste. Individuals perish, but the type remains in ever recurring
"orms that but repeat the antecedent forms by absorbing their disor-

DetDDUsir-
tion of iDimor
tality.

Lo"8 of I'ei
Konality.

"♦«■

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r//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS

ganized substance. There is succession and there is economy, but no
advance. In man, because he is a .spiritual personality, there is the
possibility and the realization of endless progress, not the mere recur-
rence of types nourished on the decay of preceding types.

The loss of personality is utter loss of life, and such self-abnega-
tion as the poet contemplates, were it possible, would be suicide and
the lapse of human life into ab.solute, hopeless failure. The plea that
the desire for "personal immortality" (as if there were or could be an
impersonal immortality) is selfish, is at once specious and false. The
greatest service which we can render to our kind, present or future, is
by and through the fullness and strength and sweetness of personality
to which we attain. To covet this is the supreme passion of unselfish-
ness. " One sows and another reaps," said Jesus, but " that both he
that sows and he that reaps may rejoice together "
! The argument for immortality presents as its first, if not its
(Weightiest consideration, the fact that the belief in the survival of the
jsoul after death is well nigh universal. Practically, it is co-extensivt
and co-etaneous with the human race. In this respect it is like the
belief in God. Within the bounds of our knowledge there is no pecpk
nor even a considerable tribe entirely destitute of some idea of God.
Qiiatrefages and other anthropologists make this affirmation. In the
case of rare apparent exceptions it is safe to assume that these are due
to a lack of adequate and accurate knowledge on the part of inves-
tigators. So intimately are these two ideas related— the idea of God
and the idea of the perdurable soul — that it is not surprising to find
them held co-cxtensively by maiikiiul.

Immortality is not merely an idea to which man in his progress
upward from the brute has attained, it is also and increasingly a desire.
I'lioii madest man, he knows not why,
He tliiiiks he was not made to die.

There is in humanity an instinctive revolt against death. This is
far more than our natural recoil from the pain of physical dissolution.
Re»oit ABRinst Indeed the fear of death is in part due to the still imperfect discrim-
ination in the minds of most men between the fact of mere physical
death and the ct)inplete extinction of being. Death is the palpable
contradiction ol life. Man

1 liiiik^ he was not made to die
And instinctively revolts from the threatened termination of his
existence.

The belief in immortality and the aspiration for immortality, not-
withstanding a|)parent exceptions which a particular time, when
special moods are dominant, seems to present, grow stronger with the
growth of men, and tiiey arc strongest in the best. The wisest, the
most spiritual, ma)- be the least dogmatic, but they hold the finest and
the most efHcacious faith in the persistence of the human spirit
through and he><>iid tiie death of the body. We are dealing here
with a broad and multiform fact of experience and observation. Man
does believe that

V - ^vas not made 'o die.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

)nomy, but no
r, there is the
le mere recur-
es.

h self-abnega-
be suicide and
The plea that
or could be an
nd false. The
nt or future, is
; of personality
>n of unselfish-
"that both he

first, if not its
survival of the
is co-extensivi
ct it is like the
2re is no people
lie idea of God.
nation. In the
it these are due
part of inves-
phe idea of God
prising to find

in his progress
Lsingly a desire.

death. This is
cal dissolution.
>erfcct discrim-
f mere physical
s the palpable

ination of \\\>

^mortality, not-
ar time, when
ronger with tlie
The wisest, the
d the finest ami
human spirit
re dealing here
ervation. Man

And that belief, allying with itself the most of the faiths and hopes
and purposes that make life worth living, becomes a reasonable
evidence that the belief is a result and reflex of the possession of

immortality. .,,..,- . •. '

Moreover, the universality and strength of the desire suggests its
fulfillment. There is prophecy in pure and elemental human desire if
wc believe in God. The principle of correlation in natural, gains in
significance as it is carried up into the spiritual realm. The adoption
of supply to need in the whole realm of creature life surely does not
cease the moment we rise above the level of sense.

It is a fair inference that if man has an appetite and a need for an
existence beyond the material life which he shares with plant and ani-
mal, there is provision for that need in the divine ordering of the uni-
verse.

In the experience of men we see instinct growing into idea, and
idea ripening into conviction, and conviction shaping not only philos-
ophy but the entire conduct of life. That conviction gives steadiness
to the thinker, patience to the sufferer and energy and inspiration to
the toiler, for it makes life intelligible when otherwise it would sink in
'' confusion and defeat.

"For my own part," says John Fiske, "I believe in the immortality'
of the soul, not in the sense in which I accept the demonstrable truthfi
. of science, but as a supreme act of faith in the reasonableness of God'si
work." Man is Gods creature, the evolution of His thought and the
product of His love, and his instinctive belief that "life is life forever
"- more" is but his "faith in the reasonableness of God's work."
"i- The denial of immortality is always an artificial product; it is not
" a natural stage in the progress of thought, but the corollary of the
philosophy which regards humanity not as an end, but as "a local inci-
dent in an endless and aimless series of cosmical changes."

An argument for immortality is grounded in the nature of the

human mind, that is, in the nature of man as an intelligent being, I

i cannot pause here to consider the materialistic conception of mind

f which excludes the possibility of life after the organism has perished,

^tbccause it identifies mind with organism. It will suffice to quote these

Itrenchant sentences from Fiske:

"The only thing which cerebral physiology tells us, when studied
fwith the aid of molecular physics, is against the materialist, so far a.s
fit goes. It tells us that, during the present life, although thought and
i feeling are always manifested in connection wjith a peculiar form of
[matter, yet by no possibility can thought and feeling be in any sense
Itlic products of matter. Nothing could be more grossly unscientific
Ithan the famous remark of Cabanis, that the brain secretes thought as
the liver secretes bile. It is not even correct to say that thought goes
)n in the brain. What goes on in the brain is an amazingly complex
series of molecular movements with which thought and feeling are in
some unknown way correlated, not as effects or as causes, but as con-
comitants. ♦ * * The materialistic assumption * ♦ ♦ that

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THE WORLD'S LONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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Drawn from
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the life of the soul accordingly ends with the life of the body, is per-
haps the most colossal instance of baseless assumption that is known
to the history of philosophy."

\ An arjfument for immortality, to many the stronj^est argument of
all, is that which is drawn from revelation. Naturally this argument
appeals chielly to those whose minds have been nourished on the
Scripture's of the Old and New Testaments. The implications of the
most si)iritual utterances of the Hebrew prophets and psalmists are
on the side of man's immortality. The teachings of the New Testa-
ment are surchargeil with the idea anil the atmosphere of immortality
Whoever accepts these needs no other argument To expound them
iiere in detail is unnecessarj', even were there time. l?ut revelation is
bromler than the Bible, for it is the communication of spiritual truth
to man by the immediate action of the divine spirit, and that is not
limited e\en to the great and incomparable writings of Hebrew
prophet aiul Christian seer, liut were we conhned to the sacred
scriptures we should ha\e ample ground and reason for the faith

'I'hat tliose we call the dead
Are breathers of an ampler day.

Whatever the Scrijjtures contain with respect to the triumph of
the sold over death reaches highest expression in the character and
teachings of Jesus. Nowhere does Jesus e.xi)licitly affirm the abstract
truth of man's immortality, but it is the ever-present assiunption that
is absohitel)' necessar\' to the intelligibility of His doctrines and His
life and death. Maii>' are llis sayings which imply the deathlessness
of the human spirit. Many and strong are His affirmations of life
eternal. Ikit uKjre impressive even than His words are His constant
air and temper.

I le speaks out of a consciousness of indwelling iiie to which death,
save as an incident in physical experience, is absolutely foreign. The
three words that are dominantly express!, e of that consciousness are
"light," "life" and "Ciod." .So domesticated is He in the sphere of
eternal moral being that we feel no shock when He speaks of Himsell
as "The .Son of man who is in Heaven." The consciousness of Jesus,
as revealed in His speech, approaches as near to a demonstration ol
immortality as is possible to souls that have not passed through the
gate of death. In His last hours before the betrayal, fully aware of
wliat awaited 1 lim, with the seriousness that imminent death must ever
give to the calm and thoughtful soul. He sjioke to llis disciples words,
the significance of which lies less even in their explicit sense than in
the time and situation and manner in which they were spoken: "Let
not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God and believe in Me. In
iny I'^athcr's house are many abiding places. If it were not so, 1 would
have told you, because I. go to prepare a place for you. And if I go
and prepare a place for you, I am coming again, and will receive you
to Myself, that where I am ye may be also."

One cannot read those words, even at this remote day, without
feeling the calm certainty as of impregnable faith and clear insight

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

1)1

: body, is pcr-
that is known

t argument of
this argument
irislicd on the
cations of the
.1 psalmists are
ic New Testa-
L){ immortality
cxpt)vinil them
It revelation is

spiritual truth
and that is not
ijrs of Hebrew

to the sacred
r the faith

. the triumph of
; character and
irm the abstract
assuniption that
)Ctrines and Hi>
ic deathlessncss
mations of lifc
ue His constant

to which death,
y foreign. Tho
nsciousncss arc
n the sphere of
(caks of Himscll
usness of Jesus,
cnionstration ol
cd through the
fully aware of
death must ever
disciples words,
it sense than in
i spoken: "Let
licvcinMe. In
i not so, 1 would
m. And if I go
will receive you

which breathes through them to infect his heart with happy con-
fidence. . . . .,,..,,

The teaching of Jesus in its entire scope is unintelligible apart
from the fact of immortality,and the unique person of Jesus and His
I transcendent life among men, and His profound and ever deepening
influence on human lives is inexplicable apart from the fact of immor-
tality Out of a full consciousness of an indwelling divine life which
could not know death He said. "IJecausc I live, ye shall live al.so."
Such a personality and such a life would make man immortal by con-
ta<don. With true insight ICmerson exclaimed: "Jesus explained
noUiing. but the influence of Him took people out of time, and they
felt eternity."

Of revelation as a subjective experience in its bearing on the argu-
^mcnt for immortality little has been said, but somewhat has been im-
plied in the preceding pages. The coninniuicatiou of (iod with man
iis not limited to objective means ami forms in the deeper and simpler
[spiritual natures there is a witness of the ever permanent God. In
tman's experience there are moments of illumination that compensate
[for many years of darkness and struggle and pain. There are crises in
jour lives when we suddenly grt)W conscious of the real greatness of our
'^nature through the disclosure within us of capacities tliat nothing but
;^tlie infinite and the eternal can satisfy Then the soul recognizes itself
jf in God, and through communion with Him immortality passes from a
"^ faith into an experience— an actual participation in the eternal love
and thought and being of (iod.

Experience of tiiis sort makes clear the truth that immortality is

not only a dixine gift, but also a moral achieve'nent of man. In other

I worlds, as well as this, the fit sur\ive, and the tit are they who, ])er-

J5 ceiving the prize, press their way into fullness of life by the aveiuies

' and process of the si)irit. On the subject of immortality t!io science

. that deals with the facts and forces of matter has nothing to sa_', either

[for or against. To immortality a life of sensual indulgence is itisensi-

fble or repugnant. To the soul th.it knows God ami strives towaul the

[ideals of culture and character which rise in divine beckonings before

|us, immortality dawns in growing reasonableness and attractiveness,

jrows from a hoi)e into an assurance, and from a serene faith deepens

into a conscious experience which neither time nor death can bring to

Ian end.

till'

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5te day, without
and clear insight

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Tfhe §oul and jts Future \jiQ.

Paper by REV. SAMUEL M. WARREN, of the Swedenborgian Church.

T is a doctrine of the New Church that the soul '
is substantial — though not of earthly substance,
—and is the very man; 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 the soul may be fitted to perform
its functions in the world during the brief but
important time that this is the place of man's
conscious abode.

If, as all Christians believe, man is an im-
mortal being, created to live on through the
endless ages of eternity, then the longest life
in this world is, comparatively, but as a point,
ail iiifinitessimal partof hisexistencc. In this view,
it is not rational to believe that that part of man
iirhich is for his brief use in this world only, and is left behind when
Be passes out of this world, is the most real and substantial part of
" m. That is more substantial which is more enduring, and that is
e more real part of man in which his characteristics and his qualities
ifire. All the facts and phenomena of life confirm the doctrine that
i^be soul is the real man. What makes the cpiality of a man? What

tves him character as good or bad, small or great, lovable or detest-
»le? Uo these qualities pertain to the body? Every one knows
tbat they do not. Hut they arc the qualities of the man. Then the
real man is not the body, but is "the living soul." If there is immor-
tal life he has not vanished, except from mortal and material sight.
^s between the soul and the body, then, there can be no rational
estion as to which is the substantial and which the evanescent
ing.

Again, if the immortal soul is the real man, and is substantial,
at must be its form? It cannot be a formless vaporous thing and
\^ a man. Can it have other than the human form? Reason clearly
Mtes that if formless or in any other form he would not be a man. The
laul of man, or the real man, is a marvelous assemblage of powers and

Form of tlie
Soul.

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faculties of will and understanding, and the human form is such as ii
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 purposes into acts.

J The human form is thus an assemblage of organs that exactly cor-
1 respond to and embody and are the express image of the various fac-
ulties of the soul. And there is no organ of the human form the
.absence of which would not hinder and impede 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 living and intelligent attributes.

But when does the soul itself take on its human form? Is it not
until the death of the body? Manifestly, if it is the very form of the
soul, the soul cannot 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

Iwith their similitudes in dead material forms animated by the soul for
temporary use in the material world. The 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 corresponding organ of the body.

That the immortal soul is the very man involves the eternal pres-
ervation of his identity. For in the soul are the distinguishing qual-
ities that constitute the individuality of a man — all those certain
characteristics affectional and intellectual which make up such or such
a man, and distinguish and differentiate him from all other men. He
remains, therefore, 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 permanency
of established character. The life in this world is the period of char-
acter 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.

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 pra>^tice of them. On the other hand, if from
childhood a man has been inured to virtuous habits, these habits
become fixed and established and of his very soul and life. In either

^m^mT^

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

> such as it

lese various

vfl

', under the

"fl

;quately and

powers, and

exactly cor-
various fac-

in form the

and efficient

the human

orms of the

ilis the man,

tself be in a

nd adequate
The human

ul — which is

msummation

1? Is it not

form of the

and by the

powers. It

gans are the
are clothed

^ the soul for

resent in the

■ '«

m of the soul

le body,
eternal pres-
uishing qual-
hose certain

such or such

.j|

cr men. He

'^1

may become

IS here a man

is always the

permanency
riod of char-

in is a bundle

is manner of

hey are fixed
lan loves and

\ out of them

"''-

hand, if from

these habits

fe. 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 consider-
ation 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, sub-
stantial, and the very man, then it must inhabit a substantial and very
real world. It is a gross fallacy of the senses, but there is no sub-
stance 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 conceivable? But He is not material/
and not visible or cognizable by any mortal sense. Yet we know thatf
He is substantial; for it is manifest in His wondrous and mighty works. j
There is, then, spiritual substance. And of such substance must be
the world wherein the soul is eternally to dwell. 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.

Not only is that world substantial, but it must be a world of sur-
passing loveliness and beauty. It has justly been considered one of
the most beneficent manifestations of the divine love and wisdom
that this beautiful world that we briefly inhabit is so wondrously
adapted to all men'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 exalted 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 aspects 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.

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 even there, in
that world as in this, desires and seeks the companionship of those
that are congenial to him; that is, who are of similar quality to him-
self. 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 arc often as.sociated
together.

Sort of World
'tlie eJoul Will
Inhabit.

THE WORLtyS CONGRESS OP RELIGIONS.

itti

:^iir|

Qood and Evil.

^ I!

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
^Se^tima of good and evil are separated, and they are thus prepared 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 whu
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 complete
there can be no successful dissimulation — the good and the evil are
seen and known as such and the law of spiritual affinity becomes per-
fectly 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 communities 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

{>erfect and unhindered operation of the law of human nature that
eads men to prefer and seek the companionship of those most con-
genial to themselves.

As regards the permanency of the state of those who by estab-
lished evil habit are fixed and determined 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 compassion." 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 ch vnge his skin or
the leopard his spots? Then may they also do good that are accus-
tomed to do evil." Heaven is a heaven of man 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 will-
ing agent of the Lord to bless His kind. His true happiness comes,
not in seeking happiness for himself, but in seeking to promote the
happiness of others. Where all are animated by this desire, all ate
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 tvays in heaven

by which they can contribute to each other's happiness. And of such

Empioymenu kind wiU be the employments of heaven, for there must be useful

" """""" employments. There could be no happiness without to beings who

in UMTan.

THE WORUys CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

re designed and formed for usefulness to others. What the employ-
lents are in that exalted condition we cannot well know, except as
ame of them are revealed to us, and of them we have faint and fee-
ble conception. But, undoubtedly, one of them is attenuance upon
len in this world.

Such, in general, according to the revealed doctrines of the New
phurch, is the future life of the immortal souls of men.

mmm

1 ?l ^

>ii

iliil; !

.'I i

'Pruthfulness of H^^Y Scriptures.

Paper by REV. CHARLES A. BRIGGS, D. D., of New York.

M n B t. Kiire
RriticiHin iiud
Bcience.

VIK time alottcd for a paper like this is so short
that I can only treat the subject very cursorily
and with many gaps, which every one of yon
will probably notice. All the great historic
religions have sacred books which are re-
garded as the inspired word of God. Prom-
inent among those sacred books are the Holv
Scriptures of the Christian church. The hi
tory of the Christian church shows that it is
the intrinsic excellence of these Holy Script-
ures which has given them the control of so
large a portion of our whole race. With a
few exceptions the Christian religion was not
extended by force of arms or by the arts of
statesmanship, but by the holy lives ami
faithful teaching of self-sacrificing men and women, who had firm faith
in the truthfulness of the Holy Scriptures and were able to convince
men in all parts of the world that they are faithful guides to God and
salvation.

Wcmay now say confidently to all mc;^.; "All the sacred books of
the world are now accessible to you; study them; compare them; rec-
ognize all that is good and noble and true in them all and tabulate
results, and you will be convinced that tho Holy Scriptures of the OKI
and New Testaments are true, holy and divine." When we have gone
searchingly through all the books of other religions we will find tliat
they arc as torches of various sizes and brilliance lighting up the dark-
ness of the night, but the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Tes-
taments are like the sun shining in the heavens and lighting up the
whole world.

Wc arc living in a scientific age, which demands that every tradi-
tional statement shall be tested. Science explores the earth in its
height and breadth in search of truth; it explores the heavens in ortler
to solve the mysteries of the universe; it investigates all the monu-
ments of history, whether of stone or of metal, and that man must be
lacking in intelligence, or in observation at least, who imagines that

tures.

New York.

c this is so short
ct very cursorily
ivery one of you
le great historic
s which are ro-
of God. Proni-
)ks are the Holv
iiurch. The hi>
1 shows that it is
icse Holy Script-
the control of so
le race. With a
religion was not
or by the arts of
holy lives and
who had firm faith
able to convince
uides to God and

sacred books of
nipare them ; rec-
all and tabulate
3tures of the Old
icn we have gone
we will find that
iting up the dark-
)ld and New Tcs-
ighting up the

s that every tradi-
the earth in its

c heavens in order
es all the monu-
that man must be
ho imagines that

Rev. Charles A. Briggs, D.D., New York.

R ■

R/Ssnt:^^

!■ I

THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

101

he sacred books of the Christian religion or the institutions of the
Jhristian church shall escape the criticism of this age. It will not do
o oppose science with religion or criticism with faith.

Criticism makes it evident that the faith which shrinks from critiA
ism is a faith so weak and uncertain that it excites suspicion as to its
ife and reality. Science goes on, confident that every form of religion
hich resists this criticism will ere long crumble into dust. All depart-
ents of human investigation sooner or later come in contact with the
.hristian Scriptures; all find somethmg that accords with them or con-
icts with them, and the question forces itself upon us. Can we main- gci,nt|flo
;ain the truthfulness of the Holy Scriptures in the face of modern ErrorB.
cience? We are obliged to admit that there are scientific errors in
e Bible, errors of astronomy, geology, zoology, botany and anth'o-
)logy. In all these respects there is no evidence that the authors of
e Scriptures had any other knowledge than that possessed by their
lontemporaries. Their statements are such as indicate ordinary obser-
ation of the phenomena of life. They had not that insight, that
rasp of conception and power of expression in these matters such as
ey exhibited when writing concerning matters of religion.

If it was not the intent of God to give to the ancient world the
ientific knowledge of our nineteenth century, why should any one
ippose that the Divine Spirit influenced them in relation to any such
atters as science? Why should they be kept from mis-statements,
isconceptions and errors in such respects? The Divine Spirit wished
use them as religious teachers, and so long as they made no mis-
kes in that respect they were trustworthy and reliable, even if they
rred in such matters as come in contact with modern science There
re historical mistakes in the Bible, mistakes of chronology and geog-
aphy, discrepancies and inconsistencies yi^hich cannot be removed
y any proper method of interpretation. There are such errors as we
e apt to find in modern history. There is no evidence that the writ-
ers of the Scriptures received any of their history by revelation from
od. There is no evidence that the Divine Spirit corrected these nar-
tivcs.

The purpose of the sacred writers was to give us the history of

od's redemptive workings. This made it necessary that there should

no essential errors in the redemptive facts and agencies, but did

ot make it necessary that there should be no mistakes in places, dates

nd persons, so long as these did not change the redemptive lesson^

redemptive facts. None of the mistakes which have been discov-i'

d disturb the religious lessons of the Biblical history, and those les4

IS arc the only ones whose truthfulness we are concerned to defend.^

pplause.] Higher criticism recognizes faults of grammar, of rhetoric

d logic in the Hebrew and Greek scriptures, but errors in these

rmal things do not mar the truthfulness of the religious instruction

elf. Higher criticism shows that most of the books were composed

unknown authors; that they passed through the hands of a consid-

rable number gf unknown editors. In this process of editing, arrang-

1 1 i

-1

rlfl

Ini
and.

pintion
Lccaracy.

t 1

^ 1

■

;';
ii

102

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

ing, subtraction and reconstruction, extending through so many cent-
uries, what evidence have we that these unknown editors were kept
from error in all their work?

They were guided by the Divine Spirit in their comprehension and
expression of the divine instruction, 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. 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 maintained 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 Testament through the voices and pens of the human authors
cf the Scriptures. Did the human minds and pens always deliver the
inerrant word?

Even if all writers possessed of the Holy Spirit were merely pass-
ive in the hands of God, the question is. Can the human voice and pen
express truth of the infinite God? How can an imperfect word, an
imperfect sentence express the divine truth? It is evident that tiie
writers of the Bible were not, as a rule, in an ecstatic state. The Holy-
Spirit suggested to them the divine truths they were to teach. They
received them by intuition, and framed them in imagination and fancy.
Then, if the divine truth passed through the conception and imagina-
tion of the human mind, did the human mind receive it fully without
any fault or shadow of error; did the human mind add anything to it
or color it; was it delivered in its entirety exactly as it was received?
How can we be sure of this when we see the same doctrine in such a
variety of forms, all partial and all inadequate?

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 cannot lie; He cannot 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 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 unclouded state, but in

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

103

Le beautiful colors of the spectrum, so it is that the truth of God, its
Evelation and communication to man, met with such obstacles in
aman nature. Men are capable of receiving it only in its diverse
derations and diverse manners as it comes to them through the
fvcrsc temperaments and points of view of the biblical writers. The
(ligion of the Old Testament is a religion which includes .somethings
brd to reconcile in an inerrant revelation. The sacrifice of Jephtha's
lughter, the divine command to Abraham to offer up his son as a
irnt offering and other incidents seem unsuitcd to divme revelation,
le New Testament taught that sacrifices must be of broken, contrite
jarts and humble and cheerful spirits What pleasure could God
ce in smoking altars? How could t)?'' true God prescribe such

jerilities? t i i ■ t

We can only say that God was traming Israel to the mcanmg of

le higher sacrifices- The offering up of children and domestic ani-

lals was part of a preparatory discipline. But it was provisional and

iporal discipline. It was the form necessary then to clothe the

Ivine law of sacrifice in the early stages of revelation. They were

le object lessons by which the children of the ancient world could be

iained to understand the inerrable law of sacrifice for man. St. Paul

them the weak and beggarly rudiments, the shadow of the things

come.

We cannot defend the morals on the Old Testament at all points.

)where in the Old Testament was polygamy or slavery condemned.

ic time had not come in the history of the world when they could

condemned. Is God to be held responsible for these twin relics of

irbarism because He did not condemn, but, on the contrary, recognized

item and restrained them in the early stages of His revelation? The

itriarchs are not truthful. Their age seems to have had little com-

i-ehensir>n of the principles of truth, yet Abraham was faithful to

' )d, and so faithful under temptation and trial that he became the

icr of the faithful, and from that point of view the friend of God.

nA was a sinner, a very wicked sinner, but he was a very penitent

mer, and showed such a devout attachment to the worship of God

his sins, though many, were all forgiven him, and his life, as a

lole, exhibits such generosity, courage, human affection and such

troism and patience under suffering, and such self-restraint under

ignificent prosperity, such nobility and grandeur of character alto-

bther that we must admire him and love him as one of the best of

1, and we are not surprised that the heart of the infinite God went

It to him. Many of the stories of revenge in the Old Testament

md out in glaring contrast to the picture of Jesus Christ praying for

enemies, and it is the story of Christ that lifts us into a different

lical air from any of the Old Testament.

We cannot regard these things in the Old Testament as inerrable,
[the light of the moral character of Christ and the moral character
I God as He reveals it. And yet we may well understand that the Old
fstament times were not ripe for the higher revelation of His will

Morals in the
OldTeetameat.

BCTSr

! i

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

such as would guide His people in the right direction, with as steady
and rapid a pace as they were capable of making. Jesus Christ teacht s
the true principle. You may judge the ethics of the Old Testament
when He repealed the Mosaic laws of divorce. He said: "Moses, f^r
your hardness of heart suffers you to put away your wives, but from
the beginning it hath not been so." In other words. Mosaic law of
divorce was not in accord with the original institution of marriage, nr
with the mind and will of the holy God. [Applause.]

God revealed Himself partially to the people or the Old Testa-
ment '1 a way sufficient for their purposes of preparatory discipline,
which revelation was to disappear forever when it had accomplislin!
its purpose. The laws of the Old Testament have all been cast down
Di'Icfpfine."'^'' by the Christian church, with the single exception of ten laws; and
with reference to the fourth of these Jesus Christ says: "The Sabbaili
was made for man and not man for the .Sabbath." The doctrine of the
creation is set forth in a great variety of beautiful poetical representa-
tions, which give in the aggregate a grand conception of the creation,
a '' iller conception than the ordinary doctrine drawn from an interprc-
tucion of the nrst and second chapter of Genesis. I grant He was con-
ceived as the Father of the nations and of the kings. Hut as our Fatlior
made known to us through Jesus Christ, He was not known to the Old
Testament dispensation. The profound depth of .sympathy of Gud
and of Jesus Christ were not yet manifested.

The doctrine of the Holy Trinity w.is not yet revealed. But there
is a difference in God's revelation in these other successive layers of
the Old Testament writing, which is like the march of an invincil)lc
army. It is true there are times when there are expressions of the
jealousy of God and a cruel disregard of human sufferings, all of which
betrayed the inadequacy of ancient Israel to understand their God.
We all know that the true God, whom we a'l love and worship, docs
not agree with these ancient conceptions. The truthfulness of the
teachings of the doctrine of God is not destroyed by occasional inac-
curacies among the teachings.

The doctrine of man of the Old Testament is a noble doctrine.
Unity of brotherhood of the race in origin and destiny is established
in the Old Testament as nowhere else. The origin and development
of sin finds a response in the experience of mankind. The idea! of
righteousness and the original plan of God for man. His ultimate
destiny for man is held up as a banner over the heads of the peo])le.
Surely these are inspirations; they are faithful, they are divine. Hut
there are doubtless expressions of faulty psychology and occasional
exaggerations of mere external forms in ceremonial worship; but these
do not mar, but rather serve to enhance our estimate of their value for
all of that in the Scriptures which binds our race to all that is gooil in
the history of the past, created and given by holy God for the welfare
of humanity.

The scheme of redemption is so vast, so comprehensive, so far
reaching, that the Christian church has even thus far failed to fully

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

105

; known to the Old
sympathy of GdiI

I comprehend it. All evil is to be banished. There is to come in a
reiRii of universal peace. There is to be a new heaven and a new earth
and a new Jerusalem, from which the wicked will be e.\cluded. Such

[ideals of redemption are divine ideals which the human race has
not yet attained, and which we can only partially and inadequately
comprehend. If, in the course of training for these ideals of redemp-

ttion for God's people, they have made mistakes, it is quite sure that

Iforfjiveness of sins was appropriated without any explanation of its

Igrounds.

The sacrifices of the New were unknown m the Old Testament. It
. the mercy of God which is the forgiveness of sins. There is a lack
jf appreciation in the Old Testament of the richness of faith. It was
Jesus Christ who first gave faith its unique place in the order of salva-
tion— the doctrine of holy lo^' -; the doctrine of the future life and
)f the resurrection from the ilrid. Thus in every department of
ioctrine the Old Testament has only advanced through the centuries.
The several periods of Biblical literature, of unfolding df the doctrines
)repared the way for a full revehition in the New Testament. That
/elation looked only at the end, the highest ideals, that what would
accomplished in the last century of human time; that would be a
jvelation for all men, but it would be of no use to any other century
ktt the last.

But man must be prepared for the present as well as for the future,
[an must have something for every century of human history, a revc-
ition for the barbarian us well as for the Greek, the Gentile as well as
le Jew, the dark-minded African as well as the open-minded Kuro-
)ean, the South Sea Islander as well as the Asiatic, the child as well
the man. It is just in this respect that the Holy Scriptures in the
lew Testament are so permanent and have in them religious instruc-
Itions for the world. They were designs for the training of Israel in
tvcry stage of their development, and so they will train all minds in
fcvery stage of their development.

It does no harm to the advanced .student to look back upon the
meducated years of his youthful days. It does not harm the Christian
3 see the many imperfections, crudities and errors of the more ele-
icntary instructions of the Old Testament. Nor does it destroy his
h of the truthfulness of the Divine Word because it has passed
irough human hands. The infallible will has all the time been at
^'ork using the imperfect medium, training them to their utmost
Opacity, to get man to raise them, to advance them in the true relig-
)n. The great books are always pointing forward and upward. They
always extending in all directions They are now, as they always
lave been, true and faithful guides to God and all the highest. They
e now, as they always have been, trustworthy and reliable in their
ligious instruction. They are now, as they always have been, alto-
gether truthful in their testimony to the heart and experience of
lankind.

Sacrificofi of
the New Testa-
ment.

'Hxs^?:^,

:,flrt«*iM^^

!K i

' ill

Xhe Catholic Qhurch and the H^^y

§criptures. ""'f/^

Paper by RT. REV. MGR. SETON, of Newark, N. J.

Written and
Printed Word.

IBLE is the name now given to the sacred
books of the Jews and Christians. Indepen-
dently of all considerations of its moral and
religious advantages, we believe that no book
has conduced more than the Bible to the
intellectual advancement of the human race;
we believe that no book ha;s been to so many
and so abundantly wealth in poverty, liberty
in bondage, health in sickness, society in sol-
itude; and as a divinely inspired work, such
as the testimony of the Jewish nation for the
greater part of it and the tradition of the
Christian church for the whole of it, declares
it to be, it claims our sincerest homage

The relations of the church to these
Scriptures of the Old and New Testament form an
important part of dogmatic theology and an inter-
esting portion of ecclesiastical history. They have,
also, been the occasion of religious differences in the Christian body;
for as the wise Englishman, John Selden, said in his Table Talk of
two centuries ago, " 'Tis a great question how we know Scripture to
be Scripture, whether by the church or by man's private judgment."
We shall not discuss purely controversial matters, but limit ourselves
to an introductory statement of facts and to a brief consideration of
the Canon, the Inspiration and the Vulgate edition of Scripture.

The church is a living society commissioned by Jesus Christ t
preserve the word of God pure and unchanged, This revealed word
of God is contained partly in the Holy Scripture and partly in tradi-
tion. 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 intelligible and

106

:;«fW|!iff^

he Ho^y

k, N. J.

;en to the sacred
istians. Indepeii-
s of its moral and
lieve that no book
the Bible to the
f the human race;
s been to so many
in poverty, liberty
less, society in sol-
spired work, such
v'ish nation for the
2 tradition of the
loie of it, declares
rest homage

church to these
cstament form an
o{^y and an intcr-
tory. Ihey have,
le Christian body;
lis Table Talk of
know Scripture to
»rivate judgment."
)ut limit ourselves
f consideration of
of Scripture.
)y Jesus Christ t
his revealed word
nd partly in tradi-
}od. Writing, not

on more durable
and cylinders, and
in intelligible and

Rt. Rev. Mgr. Seton, Newark, N. J.

. ■ ll.l,.l ll.lppppl

I , !i:

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

109

la'Stinff shape, so as to hand them down to other generations and thus
perpetuate historical records. There is a special congruity that the
Almighty, from whose instructions not only original spoken, but prob-
ably also written, language was derived, should have put His divine
revelations in writing through th^ instrumentality of chosen men; and
as the human race is originally one, we think that the fact that script-
ures 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 Scriptures are the written Word
'of God and that He is their author, and consequently she receives
Ithem with piety and reverence. This gives a distinct character to the
*! Bible which no other book possesses, for of no nsere human composition,
ihowever excellent, can it ever be said that it comes directly from God.
|The cJiurchalsojTiaintains^ it belongs to her— and tn her .alone— written
Ito dctcrmiiieTlTcTFue sense oF'tTT c Scriptur es, and that they cannot be Word of God.
frightly interpi-eted" contrary toTie? decision; because she claims to be
land is the living, unerring authority to whom— and not to those who
[expound the Scripture by the light of private judgment— infallibility
Iwas |)ioniised and giver.

1 Her teaching is the rule of faith, since she is a visible, perpetual
land universal organization, possessed of legislaiive, executive and
Ijudicial functions. She is historically independent ot the Holy Script-
lures, some parts thereof being anterior and other parts subsequent to
Iher own existence, but receives safeguards and preserves them as her
Imost sacred deposit, somewhat as, to make a comparison taken from
four civil polity, the government of the United States in its three co-
[ordinatc branches venerates, interprets and executes the American
Iconstitutiop. ^

One of the duties incumbent upon the pastors of the church, in i
[the conduct of public worship, has ever been the reading of the Script-j
lures with an explanation of what was read or an exhortation derived'
[from it. During the middle ages, owing to the lack of those aids and/
[appliances, such especially as archaeology and comparative philology ,1
[learned and scientific as contrasted with scholastic and devotional in-j
jterpretation of the Holy Scripture, although never quite neglected, oc-'
Icupied relatively only a small share in the studies of those times.
! The Catholic principles as to the general use of the Bible may be
[deduced from the Tndentine decree, which was particularly directed
[against those irreverent and sometimes blasphemous expounders of
|hol\' writ, whom the council qualifies as " petulant spirits," According)
Ito our view, the Bible docs not contain the whole of revealed truth) Oenor^Use
Inor is it necessary for every Christian to read and understand it. Thq
Ichuich existed as an organized society, having powers from her Diving
[Founder to teach all nations, before the Scriptures as a whole existed]

md before there was question or dispute about any part of the Script-

jres.

of the Bible.

^^SPPIP

aM!„f.,»™.M..tK--

fluwtfttetet

Vernacnlar
VeraionB.

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'111

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Septnagint
Version,

< i

110

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

The redemption by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ being tlic
central idea of all Christian instruction, the Old Testament subjects in
these rare and valuable works were chosen for their typical significance
and relation to it, and thus the people were instructed in a manner not
less calculated to excite their piety than that which is conveyed by
means of speech. During this present century several popes have
warned the faithful against societies which distribute vernacular ver-
sions, often corrupt ones, with the avowed purpose of unsettling the
belief of simple-minded Catholics; but it is unjust to conclude from
this that the church is not solicitous for her children to read the Bible
if this be correctly rendered into their language and they possess the
necessary qualifications and proper disposition.

The Christian church did not receive the canon of Old Testament
Scripture from the Jewish synagogue, because there was not settled
Hebrew canon until long after the promulgation of the Gospel. The
inspired writers of the New Testament did not enumerate the books
received by Christ and His disciples. Nevertheless, we are certain that
the Septuagint version, or translation of the Old Testament Scriptures
into Greek, made some part (the Pentateuch) ; Alexandria about 2.So
years H. C, and the rest, made also in Kgypt ocfon 133 B. C, whicli
contains several books now thrown out by the Jews, was favorably
viewed and almost constantly quoted from by them, so that Saint
Augustine says that it is "of most grave and pre-eminent authority."
It is supposctl to be the oldest of all the versions of the Scriptures and
was commonly used in the church for four centuries, since from it was
made that very early Latin translation which was used in the western
part of the empire before the introduction of Saint Jerome's Vulgate.

It was heici in great repute for a long time by the Jews and read
in their .synagogues, until it became odious to them on account of the
arguments drawn from it by the Christians. From it the great body
of the fathers have quoted, and it is still used in the Greek church.
This celebrated translation contains all the books of the Old Testa-
ment which Catholics acknowledge to be genuine. The Christian
writers of the first three centuries were unanimous in accepting these
books as inspired; and the letter of Pope Saint Clement, written about
A. D. 96, indicates that a scriptural canon must already have been
fixed upon by apostolical tradition in the church at Rome, since tlie
author cites from almost every one of the books of the Old Testament,
including those called dcutero-canonical and rejected by the J s.

At the council of Florence the canon was not discussed. "A
clear proof," says Dixon in his General Introduction to the Sacred
Scr'pture, "that the (ireek and Latin churches were then unanimous
upon this point." At this period, A. D. 1439, the decree of union
drawn up by Pope Eugene IV for the Orientals who came to Rome
to abjure their errors, gives the canon as it had always been held by
his predecessors. In the next century the Bible having become an
occasion of bitter religious controversy, the canonicity of the Script-
ures was thoroughly discussed and forever settled for Catholics by

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Ill

[the council of Trent, which ases these words in the fourth session,
{held on the 8th day of April, A. D. 1546: The synod, "following the
[examples of the orthodox fathers, receives and venerates with an
[equal affection of piety and reverence, all the books, both of the Old
land of the New Testament, seeing that one God is the author of both;
ind it has thought it meet that a list of the sacred books be inserted
n this decree, lest a doubt may arise in any one's mind which are the
jooks that are received by this synod."

Inspiration is a certain influence of the Holy Spirit upon the mind
^of a writer urging him to write, and so acting upon him that his work
is truly the word of God. Father, since Cardinal, Franzelin's second
thesis on the sacred Scriptures, in his course at the Roman college in
1864, states the Catholic idea of inspiration in the following words:

"As books may be called divine in several senses, the Scriptures,
iccording to Catholic doctrine contained both in the apostolic writ-
ings and in unbroken tradition, must be held to be divine in this sense, i,jeao£lnB i'
that they arc the books of God as their efficient cause and that God ration." --—'
is the author of these books by His supernatural action upon their
luman writers, which action is styled inspiration in ecclesiastical
terminology derived from the Scriptures themselves."

The Holy Scriptures have been translated into every language, but
jimong these almost innumerable versions one only, which is called the
wulgate, is authorized and declared to be "authentic" by the church.
^The belief of the faithful being that the doctrinal authority of the
j^church extends to positive truths and "dogmatic facts" which, although
'inot revealed, are necessary for the exposition or defense of revelation.
^^_ The Vulgate has an interesting hi '-ry. It is the common opin-
ion that, from the first age of Christianity, one particular version made
from the Septuagint, was received and sanctioned by the church in
Rome and used throughout the west. Among individual Christians
almost innumerable Latin translations were current, but only one of
these, calleil the Old Latin, bore an official stamp.

These translations, corrections and portions left untouched by
5aint Jerome, being brought together form the Vulgate, which, how-
ever, did not displace the old version for two centuries, although it
spread rapidly and constantly gained strength, until about A. D 600
ft was generally received in the churches of the west and has continued
5ver since in common use. In the collect for the feast of Saint Jerome,
jeptember 30th, he is called, "A doctor mighty in expoundiiig Holy
icripturc."

,l,ggS8gJW

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3
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Character and Degree of the Inspiration
of the Christian §criptures.

Paper by REV. FRANK SEW ALL, of New York.

HERE is a common consent among Christians^
tliat the Scriptures known as the Holy Hiblej
are divinely inspired, that they constitute a/
book unlike all other books in that they con-
tain a direct communication from the Divine
Spirit to the mind and heart of man. The
nature and the degree of the inspiration which
thus cha acterizcs the Bible can only be
learned from the declaration of the Iloly
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 written in two parts, the Old and the New
Testament. In the interval of time that
^transpired between the writing of these two parts, the divine truth and
ssential word which, in the beginning, was with God and was God,
)ecamc incarnate on our earth in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ,
[c, as the word made flesh and dwelling among men, being himself
'the true light that lighteth every man that comcth into the world,"
)laccd the -seal of divine authority upon certain of the then existing
Bacred Scriptures, He thus forever fi.xed the divine canon of that
)ortion of the written word; and from that portion we are enabled to
lerivc a criterion of judgment regarding the degree of divine inspi-
ration and authority to be attributed to those other scriptures which
fere to follow after our Lord's ascension and which constitute the
lew Testament.

The Divine Canon of the Word in the Old Testament Scripture^ ^^'scriptofSr'
declared by our Lord in Luke, twenty-fourth chapter, forty-fourth)
/erse, where he says: "All things must be fulfilled which were writteiv
In the law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the I'salms concerning

113

1 iii

114

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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Mc." And in verses twenty-five to twenty-seven: "O, fools and slow
of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken;" and befjinniiii;
at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all iiw
Scripture thinj^s concerning Himself.

The Scrij^ures of the Old Testament, thus enumerated as testify-
ing of Him and as being fulfilled in Him, embrace two of the three
divisions into which the Jews at that time divided their sacred books.
These two are the Law (Torah),or the Five Hooks of Moses, .so-called,
and the Prophets (Nebiim). Of the books contained in the third
division of the Jewish canon, known as the Ketubim, or "Other Writ-
ings," our Lord recognizes but two; He names by title "The I'salms,"
and in Matthew, twenty-fourth chapter, fifteenth verse, when predict-
ing 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
governed by Jewish tradition in naming these three classes of tlu'
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 estai)-

lished in a twofold manner: First, intrinsically, as including thosr

books which interiorly testify of Him, and were all to be fulfilled in

The Law, the Hipi. Secondly, the canon is fixed specifically by our Lord's namiii;;

tho°&eaim""'* the books which compose it under the three divisions: "The law, the

prophets and the psalms."

The canon in this sense comprises, consequently, the five 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" ami
the twelve "minor" prophets, and finally the book of Psalms.

The other books of the Old Testament are Fzra, Nehemiali,
Job, Proverbs, F'irst and Second Chronicles, Ruth, F^sther, the Soiii;
of Solomon and Kcclesiastes, as well as the so-called "Apocryjilia. "
Of these books, which compose the Divine Canon itself, it may lie
said that they constitute the inexhaustible source of revelation and
inspiration. We may regard, therefore, as established that the source
of the tlivinity of the Hible, of its unity, aiul its authority as divine
revelation lies in having the Christ- as the Paternal Word within 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 spirit-
ual thing.s, to "convert the soul," to "make wise the simple."

We next obsei've regarding these divine books, that, besides beins,'
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 the>e
books claim to be of God's revealing, but that the tnanner 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 enumerated. Here we are met with the constant declaration of

W<ml of the
Luird.

1 i^

.i,i(«ii*wiiiPt."'

roNS.

D, fools and slow
;" and bcfjinniiii;
them in all tin

crated as tcstify-
two of the thrci.-
i;ir sacred books.
Moses, so-called,
lied in the third
, or "Other Writ-
le "The Tsalms, "
se, when pretlict-
:ond coming, our
our Lord was not
•e classes of tin;
,ed as essentially
limself.

the word is estah-
> iiicludinfT thosi'
to be fulfilled in
ur Lord's naniini,'
ns: "The law, the

tly, the five books

shua, the Jud^is,

or the so-calkd

four "great" and

Psalms.

Ivzra, Nchcmiah,

Esther, the Sou;^

ed "Apocrypha."

itself, it maybe

)f revelation ami

xl that the source

uthority as divine

Word within it, at

llment, its power

divine and spirit-

nnple.

hat, besides bein;,'
jc the word of the
Lord and so as
not only do these
c manner of the
f a voice actually
le internal organs
prophetical books
ant declaration of

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

115

the "Word of the Lord coming," as the "voice of the Lord spcaHmg,"
to the writers of these books, showing that the writers wrote not of
Ehcmselves. but from the "voice of the Lord through them "

We now turn to the New Testament, and applying to these books
irhich in the time of Christ were yet unwritten, criteria derived from
,hosc books which had received from him the seal of divine authority,
iamely, that thev are words spoken by the Lord or given by His
(pirit, and that they testify of Him and so have in them eternal life;
ire find in the four Gospels either;

First. The words "spoken unto" us by our Lord Himself when
imong men as the Word, and of which He says:^ "The words which
speak unto you they are spirit and they are life."

Second The acts done by Him or to Him " that the Scriptures
jiight be fulfilled," or finally the words " called to the remembrance "
^f the apostles and the evangelists by the Holy Spirit a'-cording to
MWs promise to them, in John xiv, 26. Besides the four Gospels wc
'^ave the testimony of John the Revelator that the visions recorded in
4the Apocalypse were vouchsafed to him by the Lord Him.self. thus
Imhowing that the book of Revelation is no mere personal communica-
^Pion from the man John, but is the actual revelation of the Divine Spirit
yiof truth itself.

m No such claims of direct divine inspiration or dictation are made
Mn any other part of the New Testament Only to the, four Gospels
md to the book of Revelation could one presume to apply these
I'orils, written at the close of the Apocalypse and applying immedi-
itely to it. " If any man shall take away from the words of the proph-
;cy of this book God shall take away his part out of the book of life
ind out of the Holy City and from the things which are written in this
jook." In t'ii^ jwrtion of the Bible which we may thus distinguish
_)re-eminently as the " Word of the Lord," it is therefore the words
themselves that are inspired, and not the men that transmitted them.
"This is what our Lord declares.

Moreover, the very words which the apostles and the evangelists
themselves heard and the acts which they beheld and recorded had a
leaning and content of which they were partially, and in some cases
totally, ignorant. Thus when our Lord speaks of the "eating of His
lesh" the disciples murmur, "This is an hard saying; who can bear it?"
ind when He speaks of "going away to the Father and coming again,"
^he disciples say among themselves, "What is this that He saith? We
sannot tell what He saith."

If we look at the Apocalypse, with its strange visions, its myste-
rious numbers and signs, if we read the prophets of the Old Testament,
ivith their commingling of times and nations, and lands and seas, and
|hings animate and inanimate, in a manner discordant with any con-
ceivable earthly history or chronology, if we read the details of the
peremonial law dictated to Moses in the Mount by the "voice of Jeho-
rah;" if we toad in Genesis the account of creation and of the origins
If human history, we are compelled to admit that the penmen record-

Tho New Tes-
tament.

116

7 WE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

■ i

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;

1/fl

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iiiiiiiuJi^

ing these things were writing that of which they knew not the meanin.,^;
that what tlicy wrote did not represent their intelligence or counsel, Imt
Divine Rpve- was the faithful record of what was delivered to them by the voice ui
ly'i)«)iftp^/**^ 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 incarnate, in that not only in His acts
did He employ signs and miracles, but in teaching His disciples lie
"spake in parables," and "without a parable spake He not to them,
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, 1
will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have bcni
kept sacred from the foundation of the world." VVe learn, therefore,
that the divine language is that of parable wherein things of the kiiii^'-
dom 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 coin-
cident with that of divine creation. Ik)th 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 rcvelatiun
the veilings of the divine truth of the essential Word follow in accord-
ance with the receding and more and more sensualized states of man-
kind upon earth. Hence, the successive dispensations, or church eias,
which mark off the whole field of human history After the I'.din
days of open vision when "heaven lay about us in our infancy" tnl-
lowed the Noetic era of a sacred language, full of heavenly meaning's,
traces of which occur in the hieroglyphic writings and the great woiiil
— myths of most ancient tradition; then came the visible an'', local i/eii
theocracy of a chosen nation, with laws and ritual and a long histor\
of its war and struggle and victory and decline, and the promise ol a
final renewal and perpetuation; all being at the same time a revelatim!
of God's providence and government over man, and a picture of thi
process of the regeneration of the human soul and its preparation Un
an eternal inheritance in heaven.

Ikit even the law of God thus revealed in the form of a national
constitution, hierarchy and ritual was at length made of none elTctt
through the traditions of men, and men "seeing saw not, and hearing:
heard not, neither did they understand." Then for the redemption ol
man in this extremity "the Word itself was made flesh and dwelt anions;
us," and now, in the veil of a humanity subject to human tcmptatiur.
and suffering, even to the death upon the cross.

Thus the process of the evolution of the .Spirit out of the veil (jI
the letter of the Scripture, begun in our Lord's own interpretation di
the "Law for those of ancient time," is a process to whose further ct)ii-
tinuance the Lord Himself testifies. The letter of Scripture is the
cloud which everywhere proclaims the presence of the Infinite (iod
with His creature man. The cloud of the Lord's presence is the infin-
itely merciful adaptation of divine truth to the spiritual needs nt
humanity. The cloud of the literal gospel and of the apostolic tradi-
tions of our Lord is truly typified by that cloud which received the

CIONS.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

117

\v not the meanin.^;
Mice or counsel, hut
.•m by the voice n|
\vc sec the m;innri
itcly declared aiul
ot only in His acts
; His disciples 1 le
:c He not to them,

prophet, saying, 1
s which have btt. ii
Ve learn, therefore,
thinjjs of the kiii;^-

of earthly speech

:ion must be coin-
: involi;tion of ihc
ols, which becoiiiu
rce. In revelation
■d follow in accord-
izcd states of man-
ons, or church eras,
r After the 1m Un
in our infancy" fol-
heavenly nieanini,'s,
Und the ^reat woiM
isible an'', locali/iii
and a loufj history
id the promise of ;i
le time a revelation
nd a i)icture of tin
its preparation tur

form of a national
lade of none e fleet
iw not, and hearing
r the redemption ot
ill and dwelt anions:
) human temptation

rit out of the veil dl

n interpretation nt

o whose further con-

)i Scripture is the

of the Infinite (1ml

)resence is the infm-

spiritual needs ot

the apostolic tradi-

which received the

scending Christ out of the immediate sight of men. The same letter
the VVord is the cloud in which He makes known His second coming
power and great glory, in revealing to the church the inner and riond of the
jiritual meaning of both the Old and New Testaments of His VVord. Literal OoBpei.
'or ages the Christian church has stood gazing up into heaven in ado-
Ition of Him whom the cloud has hidden from their sight, and with
.le traditions of human dogma and the warring of schools and critics,
iore and more dense has the cloud become. In the thickness of the
Soud it behooves the church to hold the more fast its faith in the
lory within the cloud.

The view of the Bible and its inspiration thus presented is only ,
le compatible with a belief in it as a divine in contradistinction from |"
fhunian production. Were the Bible a work of human art, embody- 1
JIg human genius and human wisdom, then the question of the writers' |
Idividuality and their personal inspiration, and even of the time and i
[rcumstanccs amid which they wrote, would be of the first importance. /
3t so if the divine inspiration and wisdom is treasured up in the very
)rds themselves as divinely chosen symbols and parables of eternal
ith. Far from placing a human limitation upon the divine Spirit,
a verbal inspiration as this opens in the Bible vistas of heavenly
Id divine meanings such as they could never possess were its inspira-
bn confined to the degree of intelligence possessed by the human
titers, even under a special illumination of their minds.

The difference between inspired words of God and inspired mea
riting their own words, is like that between an eternal fact of nature
%A the scientific theories which men have formulated upon or about
The fact remains forever a source of new discovery and a means
ever new revelation of the divine; the scientific theories may come|
laid go with the changing minds of men. '

It is not, then, from man, from the intelligence of any Moses, or
Janiel. or Isaiah, or John, that the VVord of God contains its authority
jl divine. The authority must be in the words themselves. If they
re unlike all other words ever written; if they have a meaning, yea,
Drlds and worlds of meaning, one within or above another, while
inian words have all their meaning on the surface; if they have a
lessage whose truth is dependent upon no single time or circuni-
mce, but speaks to man at all times and under all circumstances; if
ey have a validity and an authority self-dictated to human souls,
lich survives the passing of earthly monuments and powers, which
;aks in all languages, to all minds— wise to the learned, simple to the
iple — if, in a word, these are words that experience shows no man
\\M have written from the intelligence belonging to his time, or from
|e experience of any single human soul, then may we feel sure that
I have in the words of our Bible that which is diviner than any pen-
in that wrote them.
Here is that which " speaks with authority and not as the scribes."
words that God speaks to man are " spirit and are life." The
thorship of the Bible and all that this implies of divine authority to

• ^ I I II 'i jM fi

W '. >

118

It Abide th
ForeTt-r.

7y//i IVOKLIJ-S CONGJiESS OF MEUGIONS.

the conscience of man is contained, like the flame of the Urim and
Thiimmim, on the brcast[)latc of the hij^h priest, in the bosom of its
own lanjjuafjc to reveal itself hy the spirit to ail who will " have an car
to hear." So shall it continue to utter the "dark parables of oM
wiiich we have known and our fathers have told us," and "to show
forth to all generations the praises of the Lord," becoming ever moio
and more translucent with the {^lory that shines within the cloud ot
the letter; and so shall the church rest, amid all the contentions that
cnjja^fc those who study the surface of revelation, whether in natuio
or in Scripture, in the undisturbed assurance that the "Word of tlic
Lord abideth forever."

i I

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«f ".

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the Urim and
J bosom of i\-.
II " have an cat-
arables of oM
and "to show
lin^^ ever more
n the cloud ct
jntentions that
^ther in natiiic
" Word of tlie

v^
4J
Ul

o
a

a
"rt

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Viewed in thf
LiK'it uf Faith.

rharnrtorin-

ticH of iHrat'l'e

Faith.

Influence of the H^t)rew Scriptures.

Paper by DR. ALEXANDER KOHUT, of New York.

O tluMii who, cradled in the infancy of faith,
rocked !)>■ the violent tempests of adversity
and tried by passion waves of lurkintj tenii>ta-
tit)n; who, seekint^f virtue find but vice; who,
striving lor the iileal, j^ain but the bleakest
summit of realism; who, sorely pressed by
\rude time and ruder destiny and whirled l)y
jfjay balloons of chance into rainbow clouilsof
jspacc, redesccnil into the sad arena of mortal
jtraj^eih', only to encounter fresh shipwrecks
!in the turbulent oceans of existence; God is
the anchor of a new-born hope, the electric
(|uickener of life's uneven current, driftinj^
into His harbor of safest refuse from the luir-
, -. ^_. — ricane of outward seas into the j^laclsome,

cheery gu\i shores of welcome ])eace, the placid water's sacreil con-
sciousness, wherein no ship, no craft, no burden and no trust ever
founders, the trancpiil Hible streams.

Faith is a spark of God's own tlame and nowhere did it burn with
more persistence and vehemence than in the ample folds of Israel's
devotion. With faith as the corner-stone of the future, the t^lorious
past of the jew, suffused with the warmest sunshine of divine efful-
gence and human trust, reflects the most perfect imaf^e of individual
and national existence. Faith the Bible creed of Israel- was the
first anil most vital principle of universal ethics, and it was the Jew,
now the Pariah pili^rim of unijrateful humanity, who beciueathed the
precious legacy to .Semitic-Aryan nations; who sowed the healthy
seeds of irradicable belief in often unfertile ground, but with inex-
haustil)le vigor infused that iniierent vitality of propagation and
endurance, which forever marks the progress and triumph of God's
chosen, though unaccepted people.

The sonorous clang of the trite adage. "The Hebrews drank of
the fountain, the Cireeks from the stream, and the Romans from the
pool," applied by an able critic, is more universally acknowledged
with the dawn of unbiased reason, turned upon history with the

I'JO

i I

Or. Alexander^Kohut, New York.

•3^

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

123

Diogenes lantern of searching justice. The religion of Israel is the
grandest romance of idealism, blended with the sedate realism of ter-
restrial perpetuity.

Every unprejudiced mind gladly acknowledges that the Bible, the
divine encyclopedia of unalienable truths and morals, belongs to the
world, like the sun, the air, the ocean, the rivers, the fountains — the
common heirloom ot humanity.

The doctrine of divne unity, by collecting all the scattered race
of beauty and excellence, from every quarter of the universe, and con-
densing them into one overpowering conception — by tracing the innu-
merable rills of thought and feeling to the fountain of an infinite
mind — surpasses the most elegant and ethereal polytheism immeasur-
ably more than the sun does the "cinders of the element." However
beautiful the mythology of Greece, as interpreted by Wordsworth, it
must yield without a struggle to the thought of a great One Spirit.
Compared to those conceptions, how does the fine dream of the pagan
mythus melt away; Olympus, with its multitude of stately, celestial '
natures dwindles before the solitary, immutable throne of Adonay, the
poetry as well as the philosophy of Greece shrink before the single
sentence, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord," or before
any one of these ten majestic commands hurled down amid lurid blaze
above in a halo of divine revelation!

The history of the Jewish nation offers to the consideration of the
philosopher and the chronicler many peculiar circumstances nowhere
else exemplified in any one branch of the great family of mankind,
originating from one common stem. In all the characteristics which
listinguish the Israelites from other nations, the difference is wide.
The most remarkable of the distinctions which divide the Jewish people
from the rest of the world is the immutability of their laws.

Revelation, the primal source of inspiration and prophecy, set the
universe on fire with a torch of blazing grandeur aglow with the com-
bustible sparks of heaven-imparted gifts and illuminated the softly
creeping shadows of fast decaying races with the brightest colors of a
future hope. Revelation, the essence of religious relief, was the guid- Eggence of
ing star in the unstudded labyrinth of national and individual progress ReUgiouB Be-
and inspiration. The code bequeathed to Israel by their great law- "* '
giver contains, as a modern exegctist, Wilkins, aptly remarked, "the
only complete body of law ever vouchsafed to a people at one time."
The Mosaic crdinance, with its unequaled mastery of detail, its com-
prehensiveness of character, its universality of human rights and rigid
suppression of most trivial wrongs, its earnest, nay, enthusiastic avowal
and championship of truth, justice, morality and above all righteous-
ness — yet the firmest seal of His imperishable document — is the most
unique marvel of lofty wisdom and divine forethought ever penned into
the inspired records of ancient history.

Righteousness, from its patriarchal primitivencss to the full-grown
glory of prophetic instinct, is the choicest pearl of biblical ethics, and,
excepting the fervent sentiment of brotherly love, which is so often

■MMMUBrWlxjM.

SHF^Twrw"

1: 1^:!

124

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Abraham an
Evide n c e o f
Scripture Ver-
ity.

«l

commended by the sages of the Talmud, embodying the frequent
teachings of the Nazarene, pleads most eloquently Judea's claim as
the first moral preceptor of antiquity.

Bible ethics, justice, morality, righteousness and all the mighty
elements embodied in virtuous life arc summed up in Judaism's great
truths, faithfully portrayed and preserved to mankind in that ponder-
ous volume of poetic inspirations. Israel's Bible fust re-echoed the
reverberating melody of truth as a musical synonym for omniscience.

No more plausible evitlence of Scripture verity can be cited than
Abraham, that staunch pioneer of monotheism, who, after mocking the
household gods of Terah, emerged from his gross surroundings in Ur
of Chaldean magic, unscathed by the stigma of sinful idolatry and

Crosccuted his noble mission of popularizing the God-idea with una-
ated vigor. The same God, with whom Abraham's chivalric spirit of
brother-redeeming love pleaded, Jacob's dreaming fancy beheld en-
throned on the celestial ladder-top of sterling faith. That very same
invigorating and omnipresent iin])ulse i)reserved Joseph's chastity;
lured Moses from his flocks to guide a nation's destiny; letl Joshua to
victory; smote the encnies of Ciideon anil gave Samson iron strength.
David's lyre pealed forth, Solomon's wisdom lauded, and prophecy
proclaimed the majesty of God the only truth, in poetr\', in rhythmic
prose and in melody of song What, then, is truth but faith ; what, then,
is faith but trust in llis sole unity, and where else so manifest as in
Judea's inscribeil rock of salvation?

Israel's entire history teems with apt illustration to preserve intact
their sublime doctrine of the All I'ather, and jealously guard every
accessory to higher, perfecter conception of the potential Deity —
Jehovah — the Lord of Hosts.

\\c "search the writ" according to its liberal dictates and cannot
but remark a tacit, unflinching and unbending perseverance, continu-
ally on the alert to comprehend anil ajipropriate a deeper, more
enlightening idea of (iod and His wajs. "\Ve have seen," again
remarks IMathew Arnold, "how in its intuition of God — of that net
ourselves, of which all mankind from some conception or other — as
the eternal that makes for righteousness, the Hebrew race found the
revelation needed to breathe the notion into the laws of morality and
to make morality religion. This revelation is the capital fact of the
Old Testament and the source of its grandeur and power. For while
other nations had the misleading idea that this or that other than right-
eousness is saving, and it is not; that this or that, other than conduct,
brings happiness, and it does not, Israel had the true idea — that
righteousness is saving, that to conduct belongs happiness."

We have pointed out the priceless benefits conferred upon man-
kind by Israel's Bible. It only remains to be briefly demonstrated to
what degree humanity is indebted to Hebrew scriptures for gifts equall\-
invaluable, though not so generally accredited to Judaism by the envy
of modern skeptics.

On Judea's soil, that green oasis in the desert of antiquity, there

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS Of RELIGIONS.

125

Wide Diffa.

blossomed the bud of polite arts, of the so much boasted sciences of
later Greece and plagiarizing Rome. Greece and Rome were indebted
to humble Israel for that reputed familiarity with profound philosophy
and cognate learning which ascribed to any source and every origin,
save that here advocated, the wide diffusion of Hebraic wisdom
among the heathen nations of the past.

Can Plato, Demosthenes, Cato, Cicero and other thunderers of ,
eloquence compete with such lightning rods of magnetic power as ,
Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and other past orators of Bible
times? Who wrote nobler history, Moses, Livy or Herodotus? Were
the dramas and tragedies of Sophocles, iCschylus and Euripides Bion'ofHebraio
worthy of classification with the masterpieces of realism and grand ^'"^*"°-
cosmogonic conceptions, furnished us in the soul-vibrating account of
Job's martyrdom? In poetry and hymnology, the harp of David is
tuned to sweeter melody than Virgil's ^Eneid or Horace's odes.
Strabo's accurate geographical and ethnological accounts are not
more thorough in detail than scriptural narratives and the famous
tenth chapter of Genesis. The haughty philosophical maxims of Mar-
cus Aurelius, Epictetus and Seneca fade into insignificance before the
edifying discourse and moral chidings of Koheleth, whose very pessi-
mism, in contradistinction to heathenish levity, failed not to inspire
and instruct. CompdCC the ethics of Aristotle with those pure gems
of monition to truth, righteousness and moral chastity contained in the
Book of Proverbs, as confront even the all-conquering wisdom of .Soc-
rates with Solomonic sagacity. "The Zephyrs of Attica were as bland,
and Helicon and Parnassus were as lofty and verdant before Judea put
forth her displays of learning and the arts as afterward." Yet no
Homer was ever heard reciting the vibrating strains of poetry with
David. Isaiah and other monarchs of genius and soul culture poured
forth their sublime symphonies in the holy land; yet none of all the
nuises breathed their inspiration over Greece till tlie spirit of the Most
High had awakened the soul of letters and of arts in the nation of the
Hebrews. Not to h.gypt, Pluunicia, or Syria, do Greece and her apt
(!iscii)Ie, Rome, owe their eminence in the entertaining and refined
branches of learning. They flourished at a period so remote that fable
replaces fact, and no authentic records — chiefly obtained through a
comparatively new field in modern exploration — are e.xtant which
establish an impartial priority of culture and science before the He-
braic age.

Egypt is accredited with far too much distinction in knowledge
which she never possessed to any eminent degree. Recent excava-
tions and discoveries from ruins of her ancient cities tend to corrobo-
rate our view. A mass of inscribed granite, a papyrus roll, or a sar-
copiiagus, bears the tell-tale message of her standard in taste and her
progress in art. "They prove/* says Hosmer, "that if she was ever en-
titled to be called the Cradle of Science, it must have been when
science, owing to the feebleness of infancy, required the use of a cradle.
But when science had outgrown the appendages of bewildering and

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

M \

Architecture.

I ;

tottering infancy, and had reached matured form and strength, Egypt
was neither her guardian nor her home." Many of Egypt's works of
art, for which an antiquity has been claimed that would place them
anterior to David and Solomon, have been shown to be compara-
tively modern; while those confessedly of an earlier date have marks
of an age which may have excelled in compact solidity, but knew lit-
tle or nothing of finished symmetry or grace. Architecture, the boast
of Greece and the pride of Assyria, whose stately palaces at Nineveh
are to this day the marvel of the world, attained its loftiest summit ol
perfection in the noble structure reared by Israel's mighty hand in
Jerusalem, of which the holy tabernacle mounted by the cherubim oi
peace and sanctity was the magnificent model.

No one acquainted with the history of the Hebrews can question
their pre-eminence in the noble art. The proof of it is found in the
record that endureth forever. Though the temple at Jerusalem was
n destroyed before Greece became fully adorned with her splendid archi-

In the Art of tccture, the plan which had been given by inspiration from heaven,
and according to which the peerless edifice was built, remains written
at full length in Hebrew scriptures. The dimensions, the form and
proportions of all the parts are described with minute exactness.
Everything that could impart grandeur, grace, symmetry to the art
palace of worship, and which made it to be called for ages "the excel-
lency of beauty," was placed in the imperishable volume to be con-
sulted by all nations in all ages.

Wherever we turn, in fact, we are forcibly reminded of Israel's
precious legacies to mankind in almost every department of industry,
VVe must ever return and sit at the feet of the Hebrew bards, who as
teachers, as poets, as truthful and earnest men, stand as yet alone —
uuhurmounted and unapproached — the Himalayan moumains of man-
kind.

The Hebrew scriptures, not mere trickery of fate, is the cause and
effect of the long life and immortality of Judaism, To us "the
dictum of a romantic scribe," unique among all the peoples of the
earth, it has come undoubtedly to the present day from the most dis-
tant antiquity. Forty, perhaps fifty, centuries rest upon this vener-
able contemporary of Egypt, Chaldea and Troy. The Hebrew defied
the i'haraohs; with the sword of Gideon he smote the Midianite; in
Jephthah, the ciiildren of Amnion. The purple chariot bands of
Assyria went back from his gates humbled and diminished. Babylon,
indeed, tore him from his ancient seats and led him captive by strange
waters, but not long. He had fastened his love upon the heights of
Zion, and, like an elastic cord, that love broke not, but only drew with
the more force as the distance became great. He saw the Hellenic
flower bud, bloom and wither upon the soil of Greece. He saw the
wolf of Rome suckled on the banks of the Tiber, then prowl ravenous
for dominion to the ends of the earth, until paralysis and death laid
hold upon its savage sinews.

At last Israel was scattered over the length and breadth of the

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

127

earth. In every kingdom of the modern world there has been a Jew-
ish element. There are Hebrew clans in China, on the steppes of Cen-
tral Asia, in the desert heat of Africa. The most powerful races have
not been able to assimilate them. The bitterest persecution, so far
from exterminating them, has not eradicated a single characteristic.
In mental and moral traits, in form and feature even, the Jew today is
the same as when Jerusalem was the peer of Tyre and Babylon.

And why not strive through the coming ages to live in fraternal
concord and harmonious unison with all the natio's on the globe?
Not theory but practice, deed not creed, should be the watchword of ^^^ ^^^
modern races stamped with the blazing characters of rational equity Creed,
and unselfish brotherhood Why not, then, admit the scions of the
mother religion, the wandering Jew of myth and harsh reality, into
the throbbing affections of faith-permeating, equitable peoples now
inhabiting the mighty hemispheres of culture and civilization?

Three religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, imbibed the
liquid of enlightenment from that virgin spring of truth, and yet they
are distinct, estranged from each other by dogmatic separatism and a
fibrous accumulation of prejudice, v, hich yet awaits the redeeming
champion of old, who with Ilerculean grasp of irrevocable conviction
should hurl fcr away the lead-weight of passion and bigotry, of malice
and egotism from the historical streams of original truth, equity and
righteousness. Three religions and now many more are gathered at
the sparkling fountain of a glorious enterprise in the cause of truth,
congregated beneath the solid splendor of a powerful throne, wherein
reclines the new monarch of disenthralling sentiment, a glorious sov-
ereign of God-anointed grace, to examine and to judge with the
impartial scepter of Israel's holiest emblem — justice — the merits of a
nation, who are as irrepressible as the elements, as unconquerable as
reason and as immortal as the starry firmament of eternal hope.

The scions of many creeds are convened at Chicago's succoring
parliament of religions, aglow with enthusiasm, imbued with the
courage of expiring fear, electrified with the absorbing anticipation of
dawning light. The hour has struck. Will the stone of abuse, a bur-
den brave Israel bore for countless centuries, on the rebellious well of
truth, at last be shattered into merciless fragments by that invention
of every-day philosojihy, the gun-powder of modern war, rational con-
viction; and finally, a blessed destiny, establish peace for all faiths and
unto all mankind? Who knows?

readth of the

,.,ii<iiiitimr^'

fP""

'^■i

li '■

•

Rev. Prof. George P. Fisher, Yale College.

(Christianity a [Religion of pacts.

Paper by PROF G. P. FISHER, D. D., of Yale College.

III till- Ki-ulm
of lin-t.

Tf-^

Tlie (iosticl a
scrit'sof Kui'lH.

I'^Hj

i ' . 1;

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

! • '■ ' '*

1 i!

1 •.

The apostle begins the i)assage with announcing his intention to
describe tlie Gospel which he had preached to the Corinthians, which
they had embraced, in which they stood, indeed, as a vain thing, an
idea that none for a moment would admit. After this preface, he pro-
ceeds to give a formal statement of that which constitutes the Gospel,
and the point which challenges attention is this— that the Gospel, as
I'aul here describes it, is made up of a series of facts.

It is the story of Jesus Christ — of His death and resurrection. And
all the proofs to which he makes allusions are also matters of fact.
These circumstances in the Saviour's life were " according to the Script-
ures;" that is, in agreement with the predictions of the Old Testament.
Tlu-)'are vouciied for by witnesses, and the grounds of their credibilit\-
are stated. Not only James and Peter and tlie other apostles were
still alive, but the greater part of the five hundred disciples who wcrr
in the company of Jesus after His resurrection were also living and
could be appealed to. And, finally, he himself had been suddenly
converted from bitter enmity, by a specific occurrence, by seeing Jesus,
and had set about the work of a teacher, not of his own notion, but
by the .Saviour's express command — a command to which he was nut
disobedient.

Into this part of the passage, however, which touches on the e\ i-
dence that satisfied Paul of the historical reality of the death ami
resurrection of Jesus, we need not here enter. We simi)ly remark that
the nature of these proofs accords with the whole spirit of the passaiM.'.
It is more the contents of the Gospel as here given than the pecul:,ir
character of the evidence for the truth of it that at present calls Inr
consideration.

Christianity is distinctly set forth as a religion of facts. Be it
observed that in asserting that Christianity is composed of facts, uc
tlo not mean to deny it to be a doctrine and a system of doctrine.
These facts have all an import, a significance which can be more or Ks'-
perfectly defined. That Christ was .sent into the world is not a ban
iact, but lie was sent into the world for a purpose, and the end of ili-
mission can be stated.

The death of Jesus has certain relations to the divine administration
and to ourselves. Thus, in the pa.ssagc referred to it is said, " He died
for our sins," or to procure for us forgiveness. And of all the facts ^^{
the Gospel, they have a theological meaning. The benefit which tlitvs
from them corresponds to the character and situation of men, and tiiis
condition in which we are placed is one that can be described in plain
propositions. " Sin " is not some unknown thing, we cannot tell what,
but is " the transgression of the law;" and the meaning of the law and
meaning of transgression can be explained.

Nor is there any valid objection to saying that the Gospel is a sys-
tem of doctrine. These truths, of which we have just given examples,
are not isolated and disconnected from each other, but they arc related
to one another. If we are unable in all cases to combine them and
adjust their relations, if there are gaps in the structure not filled out,

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUCIONS.

181

intention to
chians, whicli
ain thing, an
jface, he pro-
s the Gospel,
he Gospel, as

rection. And
fitters of fact,
r to the Scripl-
^Id Testament,
icii- credibility
■ apostles were
iplos who were
also living aiul
been suddenly
)y seeing Jesvis
,\vn notion, but
lich he was nut

ches on the evi-
the death ami

ply remark tluit

t of the passau^'.

iian the peculiar
)rcsent calls Un

of facts. Be it

,scd of facts, wc

.em of doctnnc

n be more or Us-

)rld is not a bai^

a the end of Ib^

110 administration
is said, " He died
of all the facts (.1

nef^t which fl"v>
, of men, and this
[escribed in plain

cannot tell what
i^r of the law and

ic Gospel is a sy?-
,t given examples,
ut they arc related
;ombine them and
ture not filled out,

parts that even appear to clash, the same is true of almost every branch
of knowledge. The physiologist, the chemist, the astronomer, will
confess just this imperfection in their respective sciences. For who,
tor example, will pretend that he understands the human body so
liioroughly that he has nothing to learn and no difficulties to explain?
If all human knowledge is defective, and if, in every department of
Rsenrch barriers are set at some point to the progress of discovery,
li()\v unreason.ible to cry out against Christian theology because the
\\\h\c (loos not reveal everything.and because everything that the Bible
(io(.s not reveal is not yet ascertained.

Ill aftirming, then, that the Gospel is pre-eminently a religion of
liuts, tliere is nt) design to favor in the slightest degree the sentimental
niitism or the indifference to objective truth, whatever form it may
i.ikr. which would ignore theological doctrine But there is a sort of
( \|)I;ination and a sort of science which men, especially in these days,
Ml- jjroiie to demand, which, from the nature of the case, is impossible; -
;mii the state of mind in which this demand originates is a fatal dis-
(|iialiruati()n for receiving or even comprehending the Gospel.

riierc is a disposition to overlook this grand peculiarity of Chris-

li,uiit\-. that whatever is essential and most precious in it lies in the

>|ilure of spirit, of freedom. We arc taken out of the region of meta-

jiliNsical necessity and placed among personal beings and among

I \i iits which find their solution, and all the solution of which they are

( iipahlc, in the free movement of the will and affections. To seek for

ail ulterior cause can have no other result than to blind us to the real „„T,|[r,!f' "1*"^

iiatmc of the phenomena, which we have to explain. In order to pre- Will.

M lit tlic subject in a clear light, let me ask the reader to reflect for a

iimnunt on the nature of sin. Look at any act, whether committed by

lynmscH or another, which you feel to be iniquitous. This verdict,

[wiili the self-condemnation and shame that attend it, imply that no

|^(H)(1 reason can be given for such an act. Much more do they imply

llliat it forms no part of that natural development and exercise of our

Ifaculties over which we have no control. It is an act -a free act— a

breaking away from reason and law — having no cause behind the

sinner's will, and admitting of no further explication.

Do you ask why one sins? The only answer to be given is, that
U' is loolish and culpable. You strike upon an ultimate fact, and you
.ill stay by that fact, but to endeavor to make it rational or inevitable
l^du iiuist deny morality, deny that sin is sin and guilt is guilt, and
)r(inoim(.e the simple belief in personal responsibility a delusion.
liat we have said of a single act of wrongdoing holds good, of
nir>(.', of iiioially evil habits and principles.

Supiiose, again, an act of love and self-sacrifice. A man resolves
[^ivc ii|) his life for a religious cause, or a woman, like Florence
|ie;htiiiL;alc, to forsake her pleasant home for the discomforts and ex-
-urc of a soldiers' hospital. What shall be said of these actions?
in. plainly you have done with the explanation when you comeback
that principle of free benevolence — to the noble and loving heart —

An InHult t<i
tho Houl.

rf^

I I

! I

i t <

182

77/ii- WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

from which they sprint^. To make them links in some necessary proc-
ess by which they no lonjjer orij^inate in the full sense of the word,
in a free preference lyinjf in a sphere apart from natural development
and inevitable causation, would be an insult to the soul itself.

Or, take a bene\olent act of another kind— the forgiveness of an
injury. A man whom you ha\ e fj'"'^'^""'*'/ injured magnanimously
foregoes his right to exact the penalty, though if he were to exact it
you would have no right to complain. His forgiveness is an act, the
beauty of which is due to its being a prc-rcsolve on his part, a will-
ing gift, a voluntary love. The supposition of an exterior cause which
reduces this act to a mere effect of organization or mental constitution
or anything else destroys the very thing which you take in hand to ex-
plain. And the conseciuence would follow if the injury which calls forth
pardon were resolved into sonu'thing besides an unconstrained, inex-
cusable, unreasonable, and. in this .sense, unaccountab'e act.

.So that in the sphere of spirit we come to facts in '.vhich we ha\c
to rest, there being no further science conceivable. Here the bands
of necessity which we find in the material world, and up to a certain
point '\n the operations of the human mind, have no place. We do n^t
account for events here as in the material world, by going back to
forces which exolved them and the laws which necessitated them.
I'jiough that here has been a choice to sin, there has been a holy will
and a love that flinches from no sacrifice. Our solutions are, to use
technical language, moral, not metaphysical.

We have to clo, not with puppets moving about under the pressure
of a blind compulsion, but with personal beings, endued with a ficc
spiritual nature.

The preceding remarks will suggest our meaning when we affirm
that Christianity is a religion of facts. We may even go back of tliu
method of solution to the first truth of religion — that of God, the Cic
ator.

To give existence to the world was the act of a personal Hoiiii,',
who was not constrained to create but freely put forth His power, Ix-
ing influenced by motives such as His desire to communicate good and
increase tiic sum of blessedness. The existence of the will of God i<
a fact which admits of no further explication, and he who seeks tn tr,,
behind the free will of God in quest of some anterior force, out Hi
which he fancies the world to have been derived, lands in a drcaiiiv
pantheism, satisfying neither his reason nor his heart.

Hut let us come to the Gospel itself. The starting point is in tact
concerning our character and condition — the fact of sin, or alienatim,
from fellowship with God. Refuse to look upon sin in this light, ju>t
asthc,unper\erted conscience looks upon it, and the Gospel has nn
longer any intelligible purpose. Unless sin brings a separation lioiii
God, with whom we ought to be in fellowship and a union with wliuiii
is our true life, there is no significance in the Gospel.

Here, then, we begin not with an abstract theory or first proof ut
philosophy, but with a naked fact, which memory and consciousncs:

f f^ '

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

188

is ;i work

Fii

testify to. Sin is something done. It is a hard fact, to be compared
to the existence of a disease in the human frame, whose pains arc felt
ill every nerve. And sin, be it observed, is no part of the healthy proc-
ess of life, but of the process of death.

To presume to think of it as a necessary, normal transition point
to the true life of the soul, is to annihilate moral distinctions at a sin-
stroke. And what is salvation rcjfarded as the work of God? It
It is not a form of knowledf^c, but is a deed emanating
iioin the love of God. It is an act of His love. Christ is a gift to the
world. He teaches, to be sure, but He also goes about doing good,"
aiul rises from the dead, opening by what He does a way of reconcil-
iation with God. The method of salvation is not a philosophical
tlK'orcni, but a living friend of sinners, suffering in their behalf and
inviting them to a fellowship with Himself. It is the reconciliation of
aiH>rfcnder with the government whose laws he has broken, and with
the I'ather whose house he has deserted.

In like manner, the reception of the Gospel is not by the knowing
farulty, moving through thought. It is rather an act of the will and
hi ut. It is the acceptance of the gift. Repentance toward God and
laitli in our Lord Jesus Christ are each an act, as much so as repcnt-
aiuc for a wrong done an earthly friend und faith in his forgiveness.
\\li;it is repentance? To cease to do evil and begin to do well, to ■«n'i*'i
cease to live to ourselves and to begin to live to Gotl. And what is
faitli? It is an act of confidence by which we commit ourselves to
another to be saved by him. When you witness the rescue of a drown-
\\ys^ man, who is struggling in the waves, by some one who goes to his
assistance, you do not c.'.i this a philosophy. Here is not a scries of
conceptions evolved from one another and resting on some ultimate
al)stiaction, but here is life and action. There was distress and e.\-
tieiiie peril and fear on the one side with no means of self-help; there
was compassion, courage and self-sacrifice on the part of him who did
the i^iKid deed.

.Aiul the metaphysics of the matter ends when you .sec this. So
il is with Christianity, though the knowledge of it is preserved in a
hook. It is not, properly speaking, a philosophy. On the contrary,
it is made up of the actions of personal beings and of the effect of
tlu'se upon their relations to each other. There is ill-desert, there is
love, tlicre is sacrifice, there is trust and sorrow for sin. The story of
tlie alienation of a son from an earthly parent, of his penitence and
return, of his forgiveness and restoration to favor, is a parallel to the
realities which make up Christianity.

Tiio Gospel being thus the very opposite of speculation, being
historical in its very foundations, being simply, as the term imports,
tlic good news of a fact, everything depends upon our regarding it
from the right point of view. For if we expect to find in the Bible
that wliich the Bible does not profess to furnish, and to get from
Christianity that which Christianity does not undertake to jjrovide, we
.shall almost invariably be misled, Let us suppose, for example, that

Rpppntanpo',

'iiitli.

}

-""^'yr--''

■I'l3

,'«

■////■: ilVKLD'S CONGKI16S OF KELJuJONS.

(Kill.

a pcTstMi conirs lo tlir l{il)k', liavinir previously persuaded himself that
(lu- verdirt ol coiiseii-iue and the ^aMieral voice of uiaid<ind respectiiij^
moral e\ il are niislakeii.

Then' has heeri no such jar in the orii^inal creation as the docirini'
of sill inipli<'s. There is no such perversion of the soul from its true
destination aiul true life, no such violation of law as is assunu-d. Hul
there is nolhiiiL; save tlu' rei^ular unfolding of li!.:»'an nature ;-assin^;
Ni..iiiiin 1I11' throui^h various staj^ji-s of progress accord in},' to the primordial design
oriKiuiii I'riii- |j ^^.^,',,,^ stiaiiLje that anyone who has looked into his own heart and
looked out for a moment upon the world can luld such a notion as
this. \'et the di.>l)elief which pri-sents itself in the ^arb of philosophy
at the present da\' plants itselfon this theory, that the s\stem of thing's
or the cause of things, as we experience it and behold it, is the ideal
system. There has bi-eii no transgression in the proper sense, but
oulv an ujjward movement from a half brute existeiue to civilizaticui
ami enlit^htemnent, the last step of advancenii-nt beiui; the discovery
that sin is not i^uilt, but a |)oint t>f development, and that e\il really is
j;ood. And the forms of unbelief which do not brini; toward distiu( I
theories i;enerallv approximate more or less nearly to the \ii-w jusi
mentioned. The eilect u|)ou the mind of denvin^' tlu- simi)le realit\' ol
sin, as it is felt in the conscience, is tiecisive. One who emiiraces sucli
a si)iHulation can make nothing of t'hristianity. but must either reject
it alto.i;ether or lose its real contents in tlu- effort to translate them
intt) metaph\sical notions of his own.

.■\ livini,' (lod, a livini; Christ, with a heart full of compass

H)ll

offerint^ fornix eness, cailiiiLj to repentance ami ilis ri'dem])tioii cm
have no sit^niticance. W hat call for a di\ine interposition in ;i system
alreaily itleally perfect, with all its harmonies undistmbed? Why break
upon a strain of perfect music? \\ h\' ^i\e medicine to them who ai(
not ill? They that are whole need iu)t a physician. I low evident tli.it
the failure to reco^m/e sin as a jierxerse act |)roceetlin^ from the will
of tlu- cre.it urc incajvuitates one from receiving (Christ ianit\!

Now, suppose tie case of a person who abiiles b\- the plain aiul

well-ni.L;h inevitable dec larations of his conscience respectinj.j j^ood and

evil, and tlu> utter hostilitv' of one to the other. He has connuittcd

sin. Ilis uRiuorv recurs in part to the occasions. I'Acry day adds tn

liiwimi ivmc. (In- iminlnf of his transsfressions. Ilis motives h.ive iu)t been what

tlu-v ouijht to be. A sense of unworthiness weiiihs him down and se

arates hini, as he feels, from fellowshii) with every holy beinj

e is

not suffering' so much froni lack t»f knowleilije. lie needs li^dit, it
ujav be, but he has a profounder want, a far deeper source of distie-s
He desires somethinj^ to be dom- for him to restore his spiritual intcL;
rity and take him up another pi. me where he can find inwanl peace.

It is just the case of a child who has fallen under the displeasinc
of a parent aiul under the stains of conscience. The want of
in this situation is life. 'The crv is: "Dh, wretchcil man that I

liu' SiUll

\\m.

who shall deliver me?" We will not stop to incpiire whether this state
of feeling represents the truth or not; but suppose it to exist, how

WIl

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

185

a ir.riii, ilnis feclincj. come to the Hiblc or to the Gospel? He is not
I oiicerned lo explain tlie universe and enlaij^e the hounds of his
kno\vled};e by exjjhu'in^ the mysteries oi beiIl^^ He feels that no
intellectual aecjuisition would }j[ive him much comfort — that none
could be of much value, as lonjf as this caid<er of sin and t^uilt is
within. He craves no illunnnation of the intellect; at least, this desire
is subordinate, liut how shall this burden be taken from the spirit?
How shall he come to i)eace with (knl and himself?

It is the bread of life he lon^s for. Nothing can satisfy him, in
the least, that does not correspond to his necessities as a moral beinfj.
lie needs nt) argument to prove to him that he is not what he was
made to be, and that his misery is his fault. To him Ch istianity,
.iiuiouncin^ redemptit)n throutih jesus Christ, Ciod's love to sinners,
and His methotl of justif_\in,<,f tjie un,q;odly, is adopted, and is, therefore,
likely to be welcome. A sin is a i\i:c(\, so it is natural that redemption
>hoi!ld be.

As sin breaks the ori|j;inal order, so it is natural to expect that the
system will be restored from the top. A penitent sinner is prepared
t.) meet God in Christ, reconcilini,f the world to himself; anil this fact
IS sweeter and tjrander in his view than all philosophies which profess,
V. hetlier truly or falsely, to gratify a speculative curiosity. Were it his
tliief desire to be a knowing man, he would feel differently; but his
intense and absorbing desire is to be a good man.

It is not strange that among Protestants there should impercep-
tibly s|)ring up the false view concerning the Cjospel on which I liavc
idinuKiited. We say truly that the Hibh; is the religion of Protestants.
Our attention is directed to the study o/ a book. A one-sided, intel-
lectual bent leads to the idea that the sole or the principal office of
Christ is that of a teacher. He does not come to live and die and rise
a,;,iiii and unite us to Himself and God, imparting a new principle or
moia' and spiritual life to loving, trusting souls; but He comes to
tiMch and explain. If this be so. the next step is to drop Hini for a
coiisiileration as a person and to fasten the attention on the contents
•jt His iloctrine; and who shall say that this step is not logically taken?
.\< the intellectual element obtains a still stronger sway the interest in
lli.s iloctrine is merely on the speculative side.

Historical Christianity, witli its great and moving events and the
auc;u■^t personage who stands in the center, disappear from view and
iiaiit;ht is left but a resiiluum of abstractions, a perversion aiul carica-
ture of Gospel uleas. This proceeding may be compared to the course
I nnc who should endeavor to resolve the American revolution into
w intellectual process. Retlemption is made up of events as real as
;ho battles by which independence was achieved. We need some e.x-
laiialioii of the purpt)rt of those battles and their bearing on the end
hiclt they secure. And so in the Bible, together with the record of
„hal was done by (lod, tliere is given an inspired interpretation
[rum the Reileemcr Himself, and from those who stand near Him, on
hem the events that secured salvation made a ixc<\> and lively imprcs-

Rcdomption
Mnilc up of
Evontg.

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186

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

sion. The import of these events is sot forth. Aiul the coiulilions of
attaining' cilizeiisliij) in this new state in the kiii[;cloin of God, winch is
provided tliroiij^h C"lirist, are defined.

iMoni the views wiiieh have lu-en presented, periiaps, it is possil^lc
to see tile f«)undatioii on wiiieh Ciiristians iiereafter may unite, and also
how the (Josi)el will (inally i)revail over mankind. If redemption,
looked at as the work of (lod, is thus historical, eonsistinp; in a series
t>f events which culminati" in the Lord's resurrection and the mission
of the Holy tiliost, the tirst thint; is that these events should be be-
lieved.

So that riiristianity, in both fact and doctrine, will become a tliiiii;
perfeetl\- established, as much so in our minils ami feelini^s as are now
the transactions of the American revolution, with the import and
results that beloni; tt) them. It is every d.iy becomiiiLj more evident
that the facts of Christi.uiit\' cannot be dissexereil fri mi the Christian
.system of doctrine, that the one cannot be In K' v.h ' • the t)ther is
renounceil, that if the doctrine is abaiuKmeil the f ; •■ ")c ilenied.

So that the time approaches when the acknt)wkdf;inciii of the evan
^elical histor\', carryinj; with it. as it will, a faith in the .Scriptural
exposition of it. will be a sulVicient bond of union amoni; Christians,
antl the church will return to the apostolic creed of its earh' davs,
which recounts an epitome ol the tacts ot relii^ion.

■I ' -.

'- »

: I

conditions oi
ioil, which is

it is possible
nito.aiul also

icilciuption,
1^ in a scries
I the mission
Uu)uUl be he-
iconic a thini;
ii^s as are now
e import antl
more evident
♦he Christian
• the other is

:': l)c denied.
I oi the evan
the Scriptural
iiij Christians,
its early days,

•*"''"¥^ ''

, -I

: ■'

i' 1;

i '^ ^

(■

■

' 1 '

1
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11^

Joseph Cook, Boston.

\Yhat the ^\b\e Was Xaught.

Address by JOSEPH COOK, of Boston.

•iJ^'

HE trustworthiness of the Scriptures in revealing
the way of peace for the soul has well been
called religious infallibility. The worth of the
Bible results also from the fact that it contains
a revelation of religious truth not elsewhere
communicated to man. The worth of the
Bible results also from the fact that it is the
most powerful agency known to history in
promoting the social, industrial and political
reformation of the world by securing the
religious regeneration of individual lives. It
is certain that men and nations are sick, and
that the Bible, open and obeyed, heals them.
All this is true wholly irrespective of any
question as to the method of inspiration.
Ihc worth of the Bible results, in the next place, from its containing,
;is ,1 wiiolc, the highest religious and ethical ideals known to man.
Tluic is the liible, taken as a whole, and without a forced
iiiti. iprctation, a coherent system of ethics and theology and aw.
implied ])hilosophy dazzling any other system known to any age of! UeliKjousln-
till' world. In asserting the religious infallibility of the Scriptures I j|g|j''^i_H?yu^°J
assume only two things : One. The literal infallibility of the st'-ictly
scll-inidcnt truths of Scripture. Two. The veracity of Christ.

It is a fact, and a verifiable, organizing, redemptive fact, t'lat the
Scriptures teach monotheism, not polytheism, not pantheism, not
atheism, not agnosticism. This pillar was set up early. It has been
inaiiitaiiicd in its commanding position at the cost of innumerable
slnii^t^lcs with false religions and false philosophies. It has resisted
all attack and dominates the enlightened part of the world today.
Man's creation in the image of God is the next columnar truth. This
means (lod's Fatherhood and man's sonship. It means God's
sovereignty and man's debt of loyalty. It means the unity of the race.
IVlen cai\ have communion with each other only through their common
unidii w ith (iod. It means susceptibility to religious inspiration. It
means tree will with its responsibilities.

139

J""'''W '

140

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

I ■'. I

!
i i

i -1 ;

1 i -ii

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Pillars in the
Structure.

The family is the next column which we meet in the majestic nave.
Here is the germ of all human government. The ideal of the family
set up in Scripture is monogamy. This ideal has been subjected for
ages to the severest attack. It is an unshaken columnar truth, ho\y-
ever, and dominates the enlightened portions of humanity to tliis
hour.

The Sabbath is the next pillar, a column set up early and seen far
and wide across the landscapes of time, and dominating their most
fruitful fields. The cuneiform tablets now in the hands of Assyriolo-
gists show that centuries before Abraham left Chaldea, one day in
seven was spoken of as the day of cessation from labor, and the day of
rest for the heart.

A severe view of sin is the next pillar. Ethical monotheism
appears on the first page of the Bible. The free soul of man is there
represented as under probation without grace. Freedom is abused;
disorder springs up among the human faculties; there is a fall from the
divine order. This severe view of sin is found nowhere outside the
Scriptures. This fall from the divine order is a fact of man's experience
to the present hour,

Ho{x,* of redemption through undeserved mercy, or the divine-
grace, is the next pillar. This column is set up early in the Biblical
cathedral and the top of it yet reaches to the heavens themselves
Man is represented in the most ancient page of the Scriptures as at
first under probation without grace. He fell from the divine order
and is then represented as under probation with grace. "The seed ol
the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." These words are the germ
of the Gospel itself.

The Decalogue is the next pillar — a clustered column — whoU)
erect after ages of earthquakes. This marvelous pillar is the cen-
tral portion of the earliest Scriptures. All the laws in the books in
which the Decalogue is found, cluster around it. Even if it were known
where and how and when the Decalogue originated, the prodigious
fact would yet remain that it works well. Who knows where the mul-
tiplication table originated? It works well. Who can tell who in-
vented the system of Arabic notation, giving a different value to .i
figure according to its position? The books do not inform us. This
system is based on a very refined knowledge of numbers, and is prob-
ably a spark from the old Sanscrit anvil; but the Hindu writers ascril)c
it to supernatural revelation. No matter where the scheme originated,
it is certain that it works well.

The Psalms are the next pillar in the divine cathedralof the Script-
ures, or rather a whole transept of pillars. Three thousand years they
have been the highest manual of devotion known among men. Nothinij
like them as a collection can be found in all antiquity. Greece has spok-
en, Rome has had the ear of ages, modern time has uttered all its voices,
but the Psalms remain wholly unsurpassed. They express, as nothint;
outside the Holy .Scriptures does, not only the unity, the righteous-
ness, the power, and the majesty of God, but also His mercy. His con-

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

desccnslon, His pity, His tenderness, His love. They are the blossom-
ing of the religious spirit of the law.

The Great Prophecies are the next pillar, or rather we must call
these, like the Psalms, a whole transept of pillars. A chosen man called
out of Ur of the Chaldees was to become a chosen family, and that family
was to become a chosen nation, and that nation gave birth to a chosen
religious leader, who was to found a chosen church to fill the earth.
This prediction existed ages before Christianity appeared in the world.
Not even the wildest claim made by negative criticism invalidates the
fact that this prophecy spans hundreds of years as an immeasurably
majestic bow of the divine promise. This was to be the course of re-
ligious history, and it has been. The Jews were to be scattered among
;ill nations and yet preserved as a separate people, and they have been.
The Sermon on the Mou.c is the next pillar, and it stands where
nave and transept of the Bi' i^al cathedral open into the choir. " The
Sermon on the Mount," Da' iel Webster wrote on his tombstone, " can-
not be merely human prodi ction. This belief enters into the depth of
my conscience. The whole history of man proves it." There stands
the clustered column, there it has stood forages, and there it will stand
forever.

The Lord's Prayer is the next column. It has its foundation in the
|)iofoundest wants of man; its capital in the boundless canopy of the
i-'atherhood of God. Neither the foundation nor the capital will crum-
li!o, nt)r the column fall while man's nature and God's nature remain
unchanged.

The character of Christ is the Holy of Holies of the cathedral of Holy of Holies.
the Scriptures. The Gospels, and especially the fourth Gospel, are the
inn\ost sanctuary of the whole divine temple. "I know men," said
Napoleon, "and I tell you that Jesus Christ was not a mere man."
Mis. Browning wrote these words on the leaf of her New Testament,
and Robert Browning quoted them from that sacred place to a friend
at the point of death. "The sinlessness of Christ," said Horace Bush-
ncU, "forbids His possible classification with men."

The identification of Christ with the Logos, or the eternal wisdom
and reason, and of Christ's spirit with the Holy Spirit, is the supreme
truth rising from the side of the sanctuary in the Holy of Holies of the
Biblical cathedral.

The verifiable promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit to every soul
self-surrendered to God in conscience is the next pillar.

The founding of the Christian church, which is with us to this day,
is the next. The sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, insti-
tuted by our Lord Himself, are His continuous autograph, written
across the pages of centuries.

The fruits of Christianity are the final cluster of pillars rising to
the eastern window that looks on better ages to come, and is perpetu-
ally flooded with a divine illumination. Goethe represented the Phil-
istine as failing to admire cathedral windows because he sees them
from the outside, while they are all glorious if seen from within the

i .
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Thp (•'ouiida
tion Hiones.

,-*(

r//A" irOKLDS CUAGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

temple. l\\\ tliis is true of the nuijcstic windows in the Hiblicil cathe-
dral, iiicliulintf tlie most sacred spiritual history oi" the church, aj^'c
after a^c.

The foundation sto?ics ])cncath all the i)illars and beneath the altar
in the cathctlral of revelation are the strictly self-evident truths of the
eternal reason or the divine Loj,'os, who is the essential Christ. God
is one, and so the s)'stems of nature and of revelation must be one.
The universe is called such because it is a unit. It reveals God as
Unity, Reason and Love. i\nd all the strength kA the foumlation
stones belon^^s to the pillar and pinnacle of the cathedral of the IIol\-
Word. And the form of the whole cathedral is that of the cross. The
unity of the Scriptural architecture, built a^^e after a<;e, is one of the
supreme miracles of history. It is a self-revelation of the hand that
lifted the liiblical pillars one by one accoriliiiii t(j a plan known unto
God from the bei^inning. Aiul the cathedral itself is full of a clouil of
.souls. There is a goodly company of the martyrs and the apostles
and the prophets. There is the Lord and the Giver of Life. And
with this company we join in the perpetual anthem: "Forever, ( ) Lord,
thy word is settled in heaven." "Oh, how love I Thy law; swt:eleris it
to me than honey and the honeycomb."

It is true there are things in the Old Testament we do not now
imitate, but they were trees that were trimmeti from the start, Hut
take the .Scriptures as a whole and from them jou can gather an inspi-
ration such as comes from no other book. I believe it and you believe
it. I take up the books of Plato, which I think are nearest to those of
the Hible, and press those clusters of grapes, and there is an odiou>
stench of polj'gamy and slavery in the resulting juices. I will sa>'
nothing of the other sacred books. There are atlulterated elements in
all of them, however good some of the elements may be. Now it is
nothing to me if Professor Hriggs can show that some lly has lighted
here or there on one or two of these golden clusters of grapes and
specked it. Now, don't misunderstand me, for I think that parts of
the Hiblc were absolutely dictateil by the Holy Ghost. I beliexe the
Lord's Praj-er is exactly as G(jd gave it. Was Christ inspired? If
anybody e\er was, he was.

f ^ \

c.il c;itlic-
urch, a.m'

1 tluNilliir
ths of Uk
ist. Gt)(l
t be oiic.
s God as
juiulatiou
the Holy
ross. Tile
)iic of the
IkuhI thai
own unto
a ch)ucl ol
,' apostles
ife. And
;r, ( ) Lord,
,vc:eter is it

) not now
;tart. Hut
r an insi)i-
ou believe
:o those of
an odious
I will say
;lementsin
Now it is
las lif^htetl
grapes and
at parts of
believe the

;pired?

South Sea Island Chief; Convert to Christianity.

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J,**

Influence of the Ancient Egyptian
Religion on Qthev Religions.

Paper by J. A. S. GRANT (Bey), of Cairo, Egypt.

ANETHO, an ancient I'^jjyptian priest
and historian, writinj^ in Greek a history
of his country and people at the request
of Ptolemy Philadelphus( 280 B.C.) for
the grand library at Alexandria, tells us
that the history of Egypt, as gathered
from the hierogljphic archives in the
temple libraries, was divided into a myth-
ical period and an historical period.
These periods were also subdivided into
dynasties. The mj'thical period had four
dynasties and the historical period had
thirty, down to Nectanebo II, the last
Pharaoh of Egyptian blood.

As the ancient Egyptian religious
beliefs have their foundation in the mythical ^^®"'"^'
period, I shall confine myself to that particular*
division of the history, leaving out only the
prehistoric dynasty that does not come within
the scope of this paper.

Here, then, is Manetho's way of putting it:

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN HISTORY.

I. THF. MYTHICAL I'KRIOD.

1st Dynasty— A Dynasty of Gods (F'uhim in Hebrew), as rulers,

probably over nature and the lowei creation.
2d Dynasty — A Dynasty of Gods, as rulers over a higher creation,

as Man.
3d Dynasty — A Dynasty of Deini-Gods, as rulers over Man as

a race.
4th Dynasty— A Dynasty of Prehistoric Kings, as rulers over

communities of men.

\Vc sec in this profane history of Manetho transitions that he
himself does not explain, but that now are made clear by the latest

145

Tho Mythical

Kind
of

Evolu-
tion.

^'^Y" '

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l).vn;i)-t.v

IJ'JIli (iollr-

146

T//£: IVOKLDS COyORKSS UF KICIJGJONS.

lijjht lliiuwn on ihc rclipfion of tltc ancient I'-^'yplians. l.ci nu; tlicn
give N'oii a riinnin},' commentary on the aliove.

The lirst <l>-nast>', tiiat lasted a j,neat niaii)- Sothii- cycles, was
taken up with the creation of the woilcl iincler the j^^ikIs ( l-llohiin ).

The second dynast\- probal)ly became so throuf^di some j,Meat
change that took place on the creation of man. I'he ^ods now were
riilinj; over while at the same time they had free intercourse with
man.

I lere Manetlu)'s tlivision of his history mij^ht have stopped, and
if so we should have had at the present day the second dynast\- of the
mythical period still continuing;, /, <•., God ruling' over and iiaviiij^ free
intercourse with uiifallen man; but no, it was destir.ed otherwise.

It apjjcars, from some cause unrecorded by Manetho, tliat the
^ods were obli^a-d to withdraw themselves from man and have no
further intercourse with him. Man. howe\er. beinj,' naturally relij^Mous.
was ill at ease, owin^ to the witiulrawal of his ^nxls. And the ^'ods
had pit)' on him, so. as he could no more raise himself to the level of
the s^'ods, till' L(ods Unvered themseUes b\- p.irtakinff of his nature, and
thus the\' came a^ain to the earth to rule o\er and iiavc friendly inter-
course with man.

This introduces us t(j the third dj-nastv. or djii;' of demi-ffods.
This was tau^dit to the people thus: The sk>- was ■^d and called

Nut. a ^o<lde>s. while the earth was deifird and .^il .Seb, a j^cmI.
.Seb and Nut now appear as husband ami w ife, and have a lar}.je family
of sons and dauijhtirs. who are partl\- terrestrial and parti)- celestial,
shariii^^ the natun-s of father and mother. This is the family (jf demi-
<fods that introduces the third d)nast)' of Manetho's mythical period.
The names of the more prominent amon^ them are Osiris (male), lsi>
(female). .Set (male). Nephthys (female).

This part of the nn-th has been put into verse by a Scottish bard,
thus:

.\ new relationship, yet nl<l,

In ancient stury liatli been tuld;

'Die sky's descent to meet the earth,

And shower its blessings on each hearth.

Its aznie hue beams on its face.

Wliile ii'er the earth in close embr.ice

It bends and hohls witti h)vini,' clas[)

'I'iie rnuiided ^;lobe within its Kf^'sii.

Could we discern these movements ma<le

As zephyrs waft o'er hill ami j.;lii<ie

The loving whis|)ers sent from heaven,

Of peace on earth, i)f sins forjjiven.

We mii,'ht not think the I'.f^yptians wron^;

Who led the sky in nuptial sonj^

'I'he earth to wed; and thus began

A race, at once l)()lh (lod and man

(The offspring of this union fair},

On earth to dwell, for man to rare.

In this family of denii-gods O.siris took the lead and riiletl. He
married his sister Isis. but we do not read of their having an\' children

THE WORLD ii LO.\UKEiiii Ul' KLUG/UNH.

ii:

ct iiu; then

topped, ami

iiast)' of tlu"

liaviii^^ free

icrwisc.

ho, tliat the

and have iit»

Uy religious,

ml the ^ods

the level ot

s nature, and

riendly inter-

Scottish bard,

(hirinp tlu-ir married lite. Osiris was the personification of everything'
j,M»oil. ! Fe and his hrotliers and sisters had their seat of j^'ovii nnient
at Abydos in npper I'l^'ypt ; !)iit Osiris was always },foin{f on journeys
to do ids peoi)le ^ood, and more esi)eeially to teach them a^M'iculture.
They were a happy family and lived in paradise- peace and concord
until undue ambition on tlu' part of Set made him conspire a<;ainst his
brother Osiris and kill him. Set now becomes the personification of
satan, or the evil oiu-, and iisuri)eil the place of Osiris. This is a |)aral-
lil of the apocalyptic rebellion in heaven and tlu- rule of satan on the
earth. Isis was in ^reat distress and wept over the dead body of her'
luisband, and while thus enj^aLjed she becanu- nuraculously prej^niant
aiul in due time ^ave birth to llorus, who was destined to wa^e war
a<,fainst Set and to overcome him. liein<,f demi-j^ods, however, neither
the one nor the otiur could be annihihited; so Set came and arbi-
trated between them, ami ilecidtcl that the\' both should ha\e ])lace
and power. This was by way of explaining the contimiance of ^,^001!
and evil on the earth Althouffh Osiris was killed in as far as his
earthly body was concerned, >et he appears in the nether world as
jiid<,fe of the dead, and llorus, his son, is represented in the world of
spirits introducinjf the justified ones to his father, i fere Osiris takes
the place of t!;'j Christian Messiah, anil is offered up as a sacrifice
for sin.

The Osiriaa m\-tli was als(j allet:^()ricall>- explained b\- a sohir
ni\th. Osiris, after his de.ith, became "the sun of the ni,L,dil," and ap-
peared no more upon the earth in his own i)erson, but in that of his
son llorus, who was "the sun at sunrise," as the dispeller of darkness,
to brin^f •ik^'i'^ '"i*^' '''•■■ ^" the whole world and to destro\- the power of
Set. Osiris, after his death, was Ra, the, sun of the da\-. Isis. the wife
f Osiris, was the moon lioddess, and all the IMuiraoh

s were ilei

fied

ami looki'd ui)on as the personificatioi of Ra upon the earth. ( Here
we ha\e the origin of the divine rij^dit of kini;s. )

The belief in the death of Osiris on account of sin w.is the only
.itoiiing sacrifice in the I']^\ptian relii;ion. All the other sacrifices

re sacrifices of thanks<ji\int,r. in which. the>' offereil to the j^otls il

ers, fruits, meat ami drink; for they thouijht the ^ods had \\^:ci\ of such
thiiis^s, as the l'".t,')-ptians believed s[)iritual beings li\ed on the spiritual
essences of material thiiii4s.

liesides these beliefs, the ancient M<;\i)tians had a moral coile in
which not one of the Christian \irtues is forijotten — pii'ty, charity,
sobriety, i^entleness, self-command in word ;ind action, chastit\-, the
l)n)tecti(in of the weak, benexolence toward the needv, tleference to
periors, respect for propert\- in its minutest details, etc.

Sll

son, were wor-

Sll

()>iris, isis and llorus, ;'. <•., lather, mother ami
ipcd universalis' as a triad; and Isis, so freciueiitt)' represented with
llorus as a suckling' chihl on her knecj^ave oriLjin.to the condjination
ol the Madonna and iid'ant on her knee in tlu- Christi;in relii',ion.

This worship of the Madonna was a cunning device to L;ain over
tiio p;ig,ins to Christianity, who saw in her their Isis or Ashtoreth.as the

Sacrifices,

fliiii 'i

ff'T.lWraW^TflSfti.WPP'^^ffll^Wff*''^

I ;

't ■'■ *i

■■ ) -■

if;'

TVy^' WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

case might be. (The Ptolemies, about four centuries before this,
adopted a similar trick to unite the Egyitians and (irceks in t!:cir
cultus, and when Egypt came under the sway of the Romans they
adopted the tactics of the Greeks.)

, Again, the ancient Egyptians believed that the living human body
consisted of three parts: First, Sahoo, the fleshy, substantial body —
UckIj* """""' the mummified body; second, Ka, the double. It was the exact coun-
terpart of the substantial body, only it was spiritual and could not be
seen. It was an intelligence that permeated all through the body and
guided its different physical functions, such as digestion, etc. It cor-
responded to what wc call "the physical life; third. Ha. The \\,\.
corresponds to our soul, or, rather, spirit; that i)art of our nature which
fits us for union with God.

When the Sahoo died the Ka and the lia continued to live, but
separated from each other. The Ha, after the death of the i)od\-, took
flight from this earth to go to the judgment hall of Osiris i;. Amenta,
there to be judged as to the deeds done in the body, whether they hacl
been good or bad. The justified soul was admitted into the presence
of Osiris, and made daily progress in the celestial life, as represented
by different heavenlj- mansions, which the soul entered by successive
gates, 11 it could pronounce the special prayers necessary for opening
these gates.

Tiiere were still obstacles in the path, but these were easily over-
come by the soul assuming the form of the deity. And, in fact, the
justified soul is always called " the Osiris " or Pa-aa, the great one, /. <•.,
it became assimilateil to the great and good god. The lia was gener-
ally represented as a hawk with a human head (the hawk was the em-
blem of Horus), as if the seat of the soul was in the head, which was
furnisficd with the hawk's body, whereby it was able to fly away from
the earth to be with Horus.

The Ka. which means double, was represented by two human arms
elevated at right angles at the elbows. Tliis was to indicate that tlu'
spiritual body was exact!/ the same in every way as the natural bod\-,
just as one arm is like tlie other, only it could not be seen.

The Ka was not furnished with wings, so that it could not leave
the earth, but continued to live where it used to live before it was dis-
embodied and more particularly in the tomb, where it could rest in the
mumni)- (it was for this very purpose that the l^gyptians preserved
the dead body), or in the portrait statues placed for it in the ante-
chamber of the tomb. The Egyptians believed that the Ka could rest
also in portrait statiies. This must have been a great consolation to
the friends of those whose bodies had been lost at sea or in any otlur
way that prevented their being embalmed and preserved. The Ka
continued to ha^c hunger and thirst, to be subject to fatigue, etc., just
as when in the body, and it had to live on the s[)iritual essence of the
offerings brought to it. It could die of hunger, etc., but this meant
annihilation for the Ka.

There is some indication of the future union of the K.-: ^nul the H;i,

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

149

•I

Ka ^ihI the H.I,

for we occasionally find the Ba visiting the mummy in the tomb where
the Ka dwells, and again we have a divinity called Nehcb-Kaoo, which
simply means the joiner of Kas (probably to Bas). This may come
out more clearly after further research.

There were two grades of punishment for the condemned Ba: The
more guilty Ba was condemned to frightful sufferings a d tortures and
devouring fire till it succumbed and was ultimately annihilated; the
less guilty Ba nas put into some unclean animal and sent back to the
earth for a second probation.

After the dead body was embalmed, it was a common custom with
the Egyptians for the relatives of the deceased to keep the mummy
for even a lengthened period in the house, and the place apportioned Kept in the
tt) it was the dining-hall, where it served as a constant reminder of House,
death. And at their great public feasts a mummified image of Osiris
was handed round among the guests, not only to remind them of death,
but to indicate that the contemplation of the death of Osiris would
benefit them in the midst of their feasting and hilarity.

While Osiris and Horus are represented as father and son, they
.ire yet really one and the same. Osiris was "the sun of the night,"
while Horus was "the sun of the day." This symbolism simply taught
(lifierent phases of the same deity; for the sun remains the same sun
alter sunset as it was before sunset, and all the Egyptians must have
known this. You may get people even novvada)s to believe in the
coat of Treves, the Veronica, the liquifying of .St. Januarius' blood,
;ui(l a thousand other cunningly devised fables that do not lead to
higher beliefs, but rather detract from such beliefs when they exist,
i'lie ancient I'lgyptians, however, although accused of animal worship,
saw in these animals attributes of their one nameless God, and origi-
n;ill\- their apparent adoration of an animal was in reality adoration of
their god for one or other of his beneficent attributes; and the result
was elevating, as the history of the early dynasties proves.

Bunsen says that the animals in the animal worship of l*'gypt were
at first mere symbols, but became by the inherent curse of idolatry
real objects of worship. Maspen; believes that the religion of the
Egyptians, at first pure and spiritual, became grossly material in its
later developments, and that the old faith degenerated.

To clothe or symbolize a spiritual trutli is evidently a very dan-
gerous proceeding, as we learn from past history. The ancient I'-gyp-
tiaiis figured the attributes of their one god, and in due time each of
tluse figures was worshiped s a separate deity. This constituted
idolatry, which led to the d. gradation of the l"',gyptians and disinte-
^natiun of their power. The Elohim of the Hebrews was exactly the
s.uue as the gods of the l*'gyptians. /. <-., a unity in plurality and
vice versa, one god with many attributes.

The one god of the Egyptians was nameless, but the combination
of all the other good divinities made up his attributes, which were
simply powers of nature. Renouf says that in the ICgyptian, as in
almost all known religions, a power behind all the powers of nature

Idolatry.

miMMi i iii.'iii i w miWWB^

■ ! I'm

' M

150

'jy/£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF KELIGIONS.

was recognized and was frequently mentioned in the texts. But to this
power no temple was ever raised, "lie was never graven in stone
His shrine was never found with painted figures. He had neither
ministrants nor offerings."

The Jehovah of tiie i febrews woulil correspond to the Egyptian
Osiris, jeliovaii is more particularly the divine ruler of the Hebrews,
while Osiris was the divine ruler more particularly over Egypt and
the Egyptians, iiaving his seat of government in Egypt. These two
names were licld so sacred that they were never pronounced, and in
the ancient I\g\ptian religion this superstition was carried to such
an extent that sculptor and scribe alwa\'s s[)elled the name Osiris
backward; i. c, instead of "As-ari," made it "Ari-as."

W'c don't know, 1 believe, how Jehovah should be spelled or pro-
nounced, and, therefore, we do not know its etymology; but some
Solar Deity, scholars trace it through the I'lKL-nician to an appellation for the sun.
Now, Osiris was a solar deity, and his name, "As-ari," means "the en-
throned eye," no doubt to indicate that he is the all-seeing one, just
as the sun in the heavens throws light on everything and rules the sea-
sons for the benefit of man.

Jehovah-I'lohim in the Hebrew religion would be Osiris-Ra in the
Egyptian mytholog)'. Elohim created the heavens and the earth, in the
Hebrew religion, while Ra, in Egyptian m>tliology, received mate-
rials from Phthah to create the world w ith. Ra was the creative prin-
ciple of Phthah. Phthah was the originator of ail things, but he
worked visibly through Ra, just as, in the case of the Christian relig-
ion, God created all things through Jesus Christ.

"The search for know ledge is only good when it is the seeking for
truth, and truth vali able only when it leads to duty, right and God.
Sleepless vigilance is the jjrice of liberty. What man knows of God is
from Christ, who was able to re\eal the one to the other, because He
partook of the nature of each. Clirist's doctrine of a Gocl-head is that
of One whose unity is not the unity of a monad but oi an organ-
ism. That God could be God in the attributes which our modern
consciousness ascribes to Him, ?'. ^., that He could be ethical, social
and paternal, involves the necessity of His nature containing subject
and 'object, both i>f knowledge and feeling; in other words, of a sub-
division of His essence into what we may speak of as persons."

.Summary: In the ancient I^gyptian religion, therefore, we have
cleaiiy depicted to us an unnamed almighty deity who is uncreated
and self-e.xistent. He is at first re])resented In* a battle-ax and aft(M-
ward by a dwarfish, embrytjnic-looking human figure, and as such he
supplied materials (protoplasm) to Ra, the sun god, to create the
world with. God dwelt with man till man rebelled against Him. A
god man (Osiris) had to come to the earth to deli\er and do good
toman. He, however, was sacrificed, having been killed by the evil
principle, but only in as far as his human body was concerned, for he
afterward appeared in the next world as the judge of the dead, and
his son, Horus, who came from his father's dead body, manifested

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

151

himself on the earth as the sun at sunrise to ch'spcl darkness and de-
rfiroy the works of llie wicked one.

The ancient Egyptian hope, both for time and for eternity, was
founded on faith in the Osirian myth and conformed to the code of
morals laid down in the religious books After death the condemned
soul, according to the enormity of its guilt, was allowed a second pro-
i),Uion, or had such punishment inflicted as ultimati-ly to end in anni-
hilation; the justified soul was assimilated into Osiris, dwelt in his
presence and obeyed his commands, being helped by angelic servants
( isliabtioo) in carrying on the mystic husbandry. The justified soul
liad to take part in the daily celestial work, and had daily to acquire
nil lie knowledge and wisdom to help it in its progress through the
niaiisions of the blest.

The illustrations for this paper graphically explain the influence
the ancient Egyptian religion e.xerted over the religions that came in
cdiilact with it, more particularly by way of grafting a great deal of its
symbolism on those religions; and many of our Biblical expressions
;in: word for word the same as we find in the Egyptian mythological
Texts.

The evolution of the emblem now used to represent the Christian
cross had its origin in ancient Egyptian symbols. The fore and
iiialdle fingers were used as a talisman by the ancient Egyptians to
a\Lit the evil eye. It was grafted on to the Christian leligion as the
s} iiibol for conferring a divine blessing. The winged disc of the sun
tliat overshadowed the gateways of the Egyptian temples and that
icinosented the overruling Providence was called by the Greeks the
Atjatliodaemon, and the Messiah is uterreil to in the Bible as the sun
ol rii;liteousness, rising with healing in His winL;s.

Besides these similaritic in symbolism between the Egyptian
mythology antl other religii'. mention might also be made of the
sameness in plan of an Egypti.m temple and the tabernai le of the
Israelites and temple of .Solomon. There is also a singulai snnilarity
between the cherubim and the winged Isis and Nephihys prt)tecting
Hoius. The ostrich egg that one meets with so frequently suspended
in oriental places of worship has its origin in the mundane egg that
Ra, the sun-god, created and out of which the world came w iien it was
hatcheil.

The Pharaoh (who was always deified), like th Jewish high priest,
was the only one admitted into the Holy of Holies (Adytum), there
to appear before the symbol of Deity to present the oblations of his
people; for, be it remembered, no one could offer an ol ition to the
l)eity but through the deified king. The temple pr ' -ions and car-
ryiiii; of shrines with symbols of gods in them forniva a conspicuous
part of the ancient Egyptian ritual. Before the Pharaoh entered upon
a warlike campaign the image that symbolized the warlike attribute of
the Deity was carried in a shrine at the head of a grand procession of
priests and adherents of the temple, and the people bowed the head
as it passed and sent up a prayer for a blessing on the campaign. The

Similiirit ip8.
in Symboliiiiu

■^-nrr=:

An K 1 a 8 1 i c
Faith,

352

7//A" il'OKI.nS CONGRKSS OF RELIGIONS.

"immaculate conception" was accepted by the ancient Egyptians with-
out a disscntini; voice; tor Isis was a t^ocldess, and, therefore immacu-
late, and her conception of llorus was miraculous.

Many ol the Mohaininedaii social and religious customs are decid-
edly ancient lC;;\])tian in their oriijin. This can easily be accounted
for from the fact that the prophet Mohammed had a Koi)tic (descended
from the ancient h",g\ptian ) scribe (the prophet himself was illiterate,
for he could neitlu'r read nor write) as well as a Koptic wife, who
must ha\e e.\erte<l some inlluence over him; but apart from this we
must not forget th.it after the Mohammedan conquest of Egypt a
large proportion of the half-Christianized Kgyptians were compelled
(nolens volens) t(j become Moslems, and as there was no change ot
heart, the\- still clung to as many of their religious customs and super-
stitious beliefs as they dared to, and in this respect the Mohammedan

faith is \crv elastic.

Much more might have been written on tiiis subject, and by a
more comjietent hand than mine, but sufficient, I hope, has been
brought to light to show the importance of a careful stuily of the dead
religions that probably had a revelation from God as their basis, for
we belie\e that God never left Himself without a witness.

ians with-
; immacu-

arc dccid-
accountcc!
Jcsccntlcd
illiterate,
wife, who
m this we
f Egypt a
compelled
change ot
and super-
haniniedan

t, and by a
, has been
of the dead
ir basis, foi

1
m

•8
u

i'^ I

mmmmi0lttttlllK^

i ■

Krror the
CauKP of Fac-
liunalisin.

DoKinas
Specified.

Tfheology oLjudaism.

Paper by DR. ISAAC M. WISE, of Cincinnati.

ms^

HE theology of Judaism, in the opinion of
many, is a new academic discipline. They
maintain Judaism is identical with legalism; it
is a religion of deeds without dogmas. The-
ology is a systematic treatise on the dogmas
of any religion. There could be no theology
of Judaism. The modern latitudinarians and
.syncretists on their part maintain we need
more religion and less theology, or no the-
ology at all, deeds and no creeds. For re-
ligion is undefinable and purely subjective;
theology defines and casts free sentiments into
dictatorial words. Religion unites and theol-
ogy divides the human famii}-, not seldom, into
hostile factions.

Research and reflection antagonize these objections. They lead
io conviction, both historically and psychologically. Truth unites and
appeases; error begets antagonism and fanaticism. Error, whether in
the spontaneous belief or in the scientific formulas of theology, is the
cause of the distracting factionalism in the transcendental realm.
Truth well defined is the most successful arbitrator among mental com-
batants. It seems, therefore, that the best method to unite the human
family in harmony, peace and good will is to construct a rational and
humane system of theology as free from error as possible, clearly
defined and appealing directly to the reason and conscience of all
normal men. Research and reflection in the field of Israel's literature
and history produce the conviction that a code of laws is no religion.
Yet legalism and observances arc but one form of Judaism. The
underlying principles and doctrines are essentially Judaism, and these
are material to the theology of Judaism, and these are essentially
dogmatic.

.Scriptures from the first to the last page advance the doctrine of
tlivine inspiration and revelation. Ratiocinate this as you may, it
ahva)s centers in the proposition: There exist an inter-relation and
a faculty of intercommunication in the nature of that universal, prior

Voi

jli

Dr. Isaac M. Wise, Cincinnati.

\rw" '!' '

iffl(wBsifffl,iysiflft^f

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

157

and superior being and the individualized being called man; and this
also is a dogma.

Scriptures teach that the Supreme Being is also Sovereign Provi-
dence. He provides sustenance for all that stand in need of it. He
foresees and foreordains all, shapes the destinies and disposes the
affairs of man and mankind, and takes constant cognizance of their
doings. He is the lawgiver, the judge and the executor of His laws.
Press all this to the ultimate abstraction and formulate it as you may,
it always centers in the proposition of "Die sittlichc Weltordnung,"
the universal, moral, just, benevolent and beneficent theocracy, which
is the cause, source and text-book of all canons of ethics; and this again
is a dogma.

Scriptures teach that virtue and righteousness are rewarded; vice,
misdeeds, crimes, sins are punished, inasmuch as they are free-will
actions of man; and adds thereto that the free and benevolent Deity
under certain conditions pardons sin, iniquity and transgression.
Here is an apparent contradiction between justice and grace in the
Supreme Being. Press this to its ultimate abstraction, formulate it as
you may, and you will always arrive at some proposition concerning
atonement, and this also is a dogma.

As far back into the twilight of myths, the early dawn of human
reason, as the origin of religious knowledge was traced, mankind was
in possession of four dogmas. They were always present in men's
consciousness, although philosophy has not discovered the antece-
dents of the syllogism, of which these are the conclusions. The excep-
tions are only such tribes, clans or individuals that had not yet become
conscious of their own sentiments, not being crystallized into concep-
tions, and in consequence thereof had no words to express them; but
these are very rare exceptions. These four dogmas are:

1. There exists — in one or more forms of being — a superior being
living, mightier and higher than any other being known or imagined.
(Existence of God.)

2. There is in the nature of this superior being, and in the nature
of man, the capacity and desire of mutual sympathy, inter-relation and
inter-communication. (Revelation and worship.)

3. The good and the right, the true and the beautiful, are desir-
able, the opposites thereof are detestable and repugnant to the superior
being and to man. (Conscience, ethics and aesthetics.)

4. There exists for man a state of felicity or torment beyond this
state of mundane life. (Immortality, reward or punishment.)

These four dogmas of the human family are the postulate of all
theology and theologies, and they are axiomatic. They require no
proof, for what all men always knew is self-evident; and no proof can
be adduced to them, for they are transcendent. Philosophy, with its
apparatuses and methods of cogitation, cannot reach them, cannot
expound them, cannot negate them, and none ever did prove such
negation satisfactorily even to the individual reasoner himself.

All systems of theology are built on these four postulates. They

L a w K i V e r,
JadKB and Ex.
ecutur.

Justice and
Grace.

PoHtnlate of
all Tbeulugy.

ir.s

/•/// lli>U//>S < tK\^^;/^/SS or A'/.l./i./OXS.

liHllMIH Sl'tltl-
11 |'lll^.

NR'iirrd and

«lil"l\M onl\' in tl\i tli liniliitns ol llic »|iiitl(lilv. the rsMt'iisitui ami cxpaii-
MOM ol tlu'M' t'i,<!;m,i'' 111 ,11 ( unl.iiu i" willi tin- |)H>j;i«"ssiuii oi irtro(;ics
siiii) ol ilirinciit .iLM's ,111(1 I oiiiilrii's. I'Ikv tlitit'i in llicir tU-riva(ioii ol

(lot liii)(> Ol (lo!>,Mi,i liotn tlu' tu,iiii |)ostiil.it«-s; their icdiu lion lo |>rii<'
lift- ill (lliK^ .iMil \voi-^lii|), loinis .111(1 loriiiul.i'<; tlicir int'tlxHJs ol
applii .itioii to luiiiMii .itl.iiis, ,111(1 tluii notions ol ol>li(>,,ilioii, act'oinit

al)ilit\', liopr Ol l«Mi.

riu-sr ,u ( imuil.iti'd (Iiri'«'H"ii(«-s in llic v,irioiis systems of tlicolo(.;y,
in,ismm li .is tlu'\ .uc not lin;i( .ill\' lont. lined in tlu-se postulates, are
siihieet to ( lilit'iMii, .in .ippcil lo le.isoii is alw.ns le^;itini.ite, a rational
iiistilicition is ii'(|iiisite. Ilie .iri;iiiiieiits .idv.itu ed in all these eases
are not .il\\.i\ s .ippcils to the st.ind.nd «d re.isoii tlierel(ni' tiie dis-

aereeiiieiits

u\ .lie inos(l\ liisloru .li

•Wh.it

ever we h.ive not Iroiii

the know leili;e ol .ill m.iiilviiid we li.i\v' iKmi the knowledj^e ol a very
lespeel.iiiie poition ol it in our iioly hooks and s.icicd ti.idit i<»ns" is
tiie ni.iin .niMimeiit. So e.u h s\stiin ol theoioijv, in as lar as it «liliers
lioni ollieis, n'lies lor prool Ol its p.ii lii iil.ir e(Hieeptions and knowl-
edi;i-s oil its tr.iditions, written or unwritten, as the knowled^;c> ol a
portion ol in.inkind; so e.nli p,irtieiil.ii theoioi;y depends on its

SiMII ii'''

.^o .ilsodoes Ind.usni. It is h.ised upon the lour postulates of all
thi'oI(>i;\-,.ui(i in justitie.ition ol its extensions and expansions, its deri-
v.ition ol diutnne .iiid dot;ni.» from the ni.iiii postul,ites, its entire dc-
\(l(ipment, it points to its soiin cs .iiid tr.iditions .ind at various times
,iUo to tlie st.uid.ird ol riMsoii, not, liowexei, till tlu" philosophers
pn'ssi'd It to le.ison in si-ll defense, 1

nHMiise it ei.nnu't
.lutlioiitx for its souiees, his/her th.iii which llicre is nunc,
li.i\ e .III i\ ed .it our siil>jeet.

|)|lllOSO|

1 the i\

Ami

ivine
so we

.now w

ii.it theolo''\- is. s(» we must define here onlv what

.'^.

liHi.iisin IS.

luti.iisni IS

e eomplex o

.f h

sr.iel's religious sentiments

i.itioein.Ued to iiMuept ion,> in h.union\- with its Jchi)vistic (ioil-co^;iii-

lUMl.

riiese eoneeptii>ns in.ide permanent in the eonseioiisness of this
people .uethe relii;ious kiiowledi;es whiih form the siihstratum to the
theoloj;)- of liid.iism. The I'hor.di m.iintains th.it its "teaehiii}; and
e,»iu>n" .ire divine. M.m's knowledge of the true ami the i^ootl comes
directU" to hum. in re.ison and conscience ( which is unconscious reason )
tiom the supreme .iiul universal reason, the al)soluti'l\' tiueaml j^ood;
or it comes to Iiim indirectly from the same source by the manifesta-
tions of ii.Uure. the t.icts of history and man's power of imiuction. This
principle is in conformitv w ith the si>coiul postulate of thcolo^jy, and
its extension in luunioin- with the st.uulard of reason.

All knowledge of tiod and His attrihutes, the true and the {^[ood,
came to ni.m li\- successive revel.itions, of the indirect kiiul first, which
uc mav call natural revelation, anil the iliiect kiiul afterward which wo
may c.ill tr.insccndenta! revelation; both these revelations concerning

Tr:tiis.vii.i,'iii- tiod aiul His substaiiti.d attributes, toi;cthor with their historical
genesis, are recorded in the Thorah in the seven holy names oi God, to

III Kovol.stion.

rill: lldUliy.S (<)A'l,AI:.SS III' A'i:l.l(,li).\'S,

I.V.)

wliit h ni'illuT |tin|»li(l i\(»r |»liil<)s(»i>lifr in Israel adilcd ( mm <iiif, aiul
all (il wliit ii ( Diist.inlly km iir iiiiill IIcImcvv lilcialiiK'

VVIial we tall llir (i<»(l nl icv<lali<»ii is a( liiall) inttii(l<fl to <i(sij;-
natc! (iuil as iiiatU; kiiuuii in tlir liaMsrcndcntai nvclalions iiK iiidin^
tilt- siit'ccssivc ( iod idi MS ol natural rtvilatioii. I lis atlrihntcs ot rtla-
liiin art' niatic knitwn imls' in sm li |)assa};('s ol tin

I'll

Utah, III Willi II

lie liiiiisiir is rt-|)ortt'd to liavi' spoken to man id liinisell, liis name and
Ins allriliiiles, anil not !>>' any indnelion or iniereiii e horn any law,
story or doiiif; asrrilted to ( ioil anywhere I lie propliels only expand
«ir deHne those eoiueptioiis o| Deity wliii li t hese passajMs ol diii i t
traiisi:endenlal revelation in the Thorali i Diitain Thiie exists no t)||ier
soiiri'i- Iroiii wliii h to derive the eo|^;nitioii ol the (iod id revelation.

'vV hat I'M I thiol >• or piaitit f is eon t lary or i oiil radii lory

toh

lae

(iixl (-o^'.iiilioii tan have no |)lai:e in the tlu-olo}',y ol Judaism. It i oni-
pioniises neeessaiily ;

The doctrine eoiiecrniiifj Providence, its rel.itioiis to the individual,
the nations and iiiankind. This iin hides the doi trine ol < oveiiaiit
hetweeii (iod anil man, ( iod anti the lathers o! the nation, dod and
the people ol Israil or the election ol Israel.

The doctrine concerning; atonement. Are sins expiated, lor^nven
or pardoned, ami whicli are the conditions or incaiis lor sinh expiation
III sinsi*

This leads iis to the iloctriiu- of divine worshi]) ('enerally, its oMif^j-
iilory nature, ils proper means and lorms, its snhjei live oi ol)jii live
import, which includes also the precepts concerniiii^ holy seasons

'I 111' SlVCrlll

liol\' places, hoi)' convtii ations .(iid consecrated or speciidly a|)pointid
persons to conduct such divine worship, and the standard to distin-
jMiish conscientiously in the 'I'liorah, the laws, statutes and ordinaiic(;s
whit h wi-re originally intendeil to he alwavs obligator)-, Ironi those
which were ()ri^;inally intended for a certain time and place and under
special circumstances.

The doctrine toiicernin}; the human wili; is it free, (onditiom.d or
controlled by reason, faith or any other aj^feiicy.'' This includes the
postulate of ethics.

The duty and accouiiti'ihility of man in all his relations to (iod,
man and himself, to his nation and to his government and to the whole
nf the human famil\'. This includes the duty we owe to the |)ast, to
that which the |)rocess of history developed and established.

This leads to the doctrine concerning; the future of mankind, the
ultimate of the historical |)rocess, to culminate in a higher or lower
st.itus of humanit\-. This inelude.s the i|ue.stioii of perfectibility of
human nature and the possibilities it euntuins, which establishes a
standard of dut)' we owe to the future.

The doctrine concerning; personal immortality, future reward and
punishment, the means by which such immortality is attained, the con-
dition on which it deiieiids, what insures reward or punishment.

The theology of Judaism as a sytematic structure must .solve these
problems, on the basis of Israel's God co{;nition. This bein^ the hi^diest

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THE WORLiys COXGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

in man's cognition, the solution ot all problems upon this basis, eccle-
siastical, ethical, or in cschatology, must be final in theology, provided
the judgment which leads to this solution is not erroneous. An erro-
neous judgment from true antecedents is possible. In such cases the
first safeguard is an appeal to reason, and the second, though not sec-
ondary, is an appeal to holy writ and its best commentaries. Wher-
ever these two authorities agree, reason and holy writ, that the solu-
i^ttson and tion of any problem from the basis of Israel's God-cognition is cor-
**'' ' ■ rect, certitude is established, the ultimate solution is found.

This is the structure of a systematic theology, Isr^iel's God-cog-
nition is the substratum, the substance; holy writ and the standard of
reason are the desiderata, and the faculty of reason is the apparatus to
solve the problems which in their unity arc the theology or Judaism,
higher than which none can be.

T .1

I ' 'i

91 !'

^ Pr-

: ■■: ■;

1,-1

■' I*

Ideals Im-
larteil to

IIOSMI,

S ]

Yhe Relation of Historic Judaism to
the Past, and jts puture.

Paper by REV. H, PEREIRA M-ENDES.of New York.

UR history may be divided into three eras
• — the biblical, the era from the close of
the Bible record to the present day, the
future. The firsi is the era of the an-
nouncement of those ideals vvhidi are
essential for mankind's happiness and
progress. The Bible contains for us and
for humanity all ideals worthy of human
effort to attain. I make no exception.
The attitude of historical Judaism is to
hold up these ideals for mankind's inspi-
ration and for all men to pattern life accord-
ingly.
The first divine message to Abraham con-
tains the ideal of righteous Altruism— "lie a
source of blessing" And in the message an-
nouncing the Covenant is the Ideal of righteous egotism. "Walk be-
fore RIc and be perfect." "Recognize me, God, be a blessing to thy
fellow man, be perfect thyself." Could religion ever be more strik-
ingly summed up?

The life of Abraham, as \\ ". have it recorded, is a Kigical resj)onse,
despite any human feeling. Thus he i^efused booty he had captured.
It was an ideal of warfare not yet realized — tnat to the victor the
spoils did not necessarily belong. Childless and old, he believed God's
promise that his descendants should be numerous as the stars. It was
an ideal faith; that also, and more, was his readiness to sacrifice Isaac
- a sacrifice ordered, to make more public his God's condemnation of
Canaanite child-sacrifice. It revealed an ideal God, who would not
allow religion to cloak outrage upon holy sentiments of humanity.

To Moses next were high ideals impanod for mankind to aim at.
On the very threshold of his mission the ideal of "the Fatherhood of
God" was aiuiounced — "Israel is my son, v.yy first born," implying that

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other nations are also his children Then at Sinai were ffiven him
those ten ideals of human conduct, which, called the "ten command-
ments," receive the allegiance of the great nations of today. Magnifi-
cent ideals! Yes, but not as magnificent as the three ideals of God
revealed to him — God is mercy, God is love, God is holiness.

"The Lord thy God loveth thee." The echoes of this are the
commands to the Hebrews and to the world. "Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy
might." "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." "Thou shalt not
hate thy brother in thy heart; ye shall love the stranger." God is
holiness! "Be holy! for I am holy;" "it is God calling to man to par-
ticipate in his divine nature."

To the essayist on Moses belongs the setting forth of other ideals
associated with him. The historian may dwell upon his "proclaim
freedom throughout the land to its inhabitants." It is written on
Boston's Liberty Bell, which announced "Free America." The politi-
cian may ponder upon h,'s land tenure system; his declaration that
tl'.c poor have rights; his limitation of priestly wealth; his separation
of church and state. The |)reacher may dilate upon that Mosaic ideal
so bright with hope and faith— wings of the human soul as it flies forth
to find (iod — that God is the God of the spirits of all flesh; it is a
flashlight of immortality upon the storm-tossed waters of human life
The physician n)ay elaborate his dietary and health laws, designed to
prolong life and render man more able to do his duty to society.

The moralist may point to the iiieal of personal responsibility,
not even a Moses can offer himself to die to save sinners. The ex-
ponent of natural law in the spiritual world is anticipated by his "Not
by bread alone does man live, but by obedience to divine law." The
lecturer on ethics may enlarge upon moral impulses, their co-relation,
free will and such like ideas; it is Moses who teaches the quickening of m"I»."h!
cause of all is God's revelation, "Our wisdom and our understanding,"
and who sets before us "Life and death, blessing and blighting," to
choose either, though he advises "choose the life " Tenderness to
brute creation, equality of aliens, kindness to servants, justice to the
emjiloyed; what code of ethics has brighter gems of ideal than those
which make glorious the law of Moses!

As for our other prophets, we can only glance at their ideals of
purity in social life, in business life, in personal life, in political life,
and in religious life. We need no Bryce to tell us how much or how
little they obtain in our commonwealth today. So, also, if we only
mention the ideal relation which they hold up for ruler and the people,
and the former "should be servants to the latter," it is only in view of
the tremendous results in history.

For these very words license the English revolution. From that
\ cry chapter of the liible the cry, "To your tents, O Israel," was taken
by the Puritans, who fought with the Bible in one hand. Child of that
Ivnglish revolt, which soon consummated luiglish liberty, America was
born- herself the parent of the French revolution, which has made so

^^>,..

(HoriouBLnw

{

i Nil

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

IiIhiUh of the
Prophets.

!i i

■ 1

■ i

Voice of IUh-
torical
ism.

many kings the servants of their peoples. English liberty, America's
birth, French revolution! Three tremendous results truly! Let us,
however, set these aside, great as they arc, and mark those grand ideals
which our prophets were the first to preach.

1. Universal peace, or settlement of national disputes by arbitra-
tion. When Micah and Isaiah announced this ideal of universal peace
it was the age of war, of despotism. They may have been regarded as
lunatics. Now all true men desire it, all good men pray for it, and
bright among the jewels of Chicago's coronet this year is her universal
peace convention.

2. Universal brotherhood. If Israel is God's first born and other
nations are therefore His children, Malachi's " Have we not all one
Father?" does not surprise us. The ideal is recognized today. It is
prayed for by the Catholics, by the Protestants, by I lebrews, by all men.

3. The universal happiness. This is the greatest. For the ideal
of universal happiness includes both universal peace and universal
brotherhood. It adds being at peace with God, for without that hap-
piness is impossible Hence the prophet's bright ideal that one day
"All shall know the Lord, from the greatest to the least," " Fuxrth shall
be lull of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea," and
"All nations shallcome and bow down before God and honor His
name."

Add to those prophet ideals those of our Ketubim. The "seek
wisdom" of Solomon, of which the " Know thyself " of Socrates is but
a partial echo; Job's "Let not the finite creature attempt to fathom
the infinite Creator;" David's reachings after God! And then let it be
clearly understood that these and all ideals of the Bible era are but a
prelude and overture. How grand, then, must be the music of the next
era which now claims our attention.

The era from Bible days to these is the era of the formation of
religious and philosophic .systems throughout the Orient and the classic
world. What grand harmonies, but what crashing discords sound
through these ages! Melting and swelling in mighty diapason they
come to us today as the music which once swayed men's souls, now
lifting them with holy emotion, now mocking, now soothing, now
iiuiiii- exciting. For those religions, those philosophies were mighty plectra
in their day to wake the human heartstrings. Above them all rang the
\-oice of historical Judaism, clear and lasting, while other sounds blended
or were lost. Sometimes the voice was in harmony; most often it was
discordant as it clashed with the dominant note of the day. For it
sometimes met sweet and elevating strains of morality, of beauty, but
more often it met the debasing sounds of immorality and error.

Thus Kuenen speaks of "the afifinity of Judaism and Zoroastrian-
ism in Persia to the afifinity of a common atmosphere of lofty truth, of
a simultaneous sympathy in their view of earthly and heavenly things."
If Max MuUcr declares Zoroastrianism originally was monotheistic, so
far historic Judaism could harmonize. But it would raise a voice of
protest when Zoroastrianism became a dualism of Ormuzd, light or

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

165

good, and Ahriman, darkness or evil Hence the anticipatory protest
proclaimed by Isaiah in God's very message to Cyrus, king of Persia,
"I am the Lord, and there is none else." "I formed the light and
create darkness." " I make peace and create evil." " I am the Lord,
and there is none else; that is, I do these things, not Ormuzd or
Ahriman."

Interesting as would be a consideration of the mutual debt be-
tween Judaism and Zoroastrianism, with the borrowed angclology and
demonology of the former compared with the "ahniiyat ahmi Mazdan
amma" of the latter manifestly borrowed from the "I am that I am"
uf the former, we cannot pause here for it.

Similarly, historical Judaism would harmonize with Confucius's
instance of belief in a Supreme Being, filial duty, his famous "What
you do not like when done to you, do not unto others," and of in Hjirmony
the Buddhistic teachings of universal peace. But against what is con- ligions."'" *^'''
trary to Bible ideal it would protest, and from it it would hold
separate.

In 521 B. C, Zoroastrianism was revived. Confucius was then
actually living. Gautama Buddha died in 543. Is the closeness of the
dates mere chance? The Jews had long been in Babylon. As Gesenius
and Movers observe, there was traffic of merchants between China and
India via Babylonia with Pluenicia, and not unworthy of mark is
lunest Renan's observation that Bab\lon had long been a focus of
Buddhism and that Boudasy was a Chaldean sage. If future research
should ever reveal an influence of Jewish thought on these three great
oriental faiths, all originally holding beautiful thoughts, however
later ages might have obscured them, would it not be partial fulfillment
of the prophecy, so far as concerns the orient, "that Israel shall
blossom into bud and fill the face of the earth with fruit?"

In the west as in the east, historical Judaism was in harmony with
any ideals of classic philosophy which echoed those of the Bible. It
protested where they failed to do so, and because it tailed most often
liistorical Judaism remained separate.

Thus, as Dr. Drummond remarks, Socrates was "in a certain sense
monotheistic, and in distinction from the other gods mentions llim
wiu) orders anil holds together the entire Kosmos," "in whom are all
things beautiful and good," "who from the beginning makes men" —
historical Judaism commends.

Again, Plato, his disciple, taught that God was good or that the
planets rose from the reason and understanding of God. Historical
ludaism is in accord with its ideal "God is good," so oft repeated and
its t! o'.'ght hymned in the almost identical words, "Good are the lumi-
n;'."'.os which our God created; He formed them with knowledge,
understanding and skill." But when Plato condemns stutlies except
as mental training and desires no practical results; when he even
rebukes Arytas for inventing machines on mathematical principles,
declaring it was worthy only of carpenters and wheelwrights, and when
his master, Socrates, says to (^laucon, "It amuses me to sec how afraid

4 M

■m

If:

i I

l:ji

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS

Be Pprferf.

.'^

llpbrpw Pro-
U.'bt.

you are lest the common herd accuse you of recommending useless
studies" — the useless study in question being astronomy — historical
Judaism is opposed and protests. For it holds that even Bezalcal and
Aholiab is filled with the spirit of God. It bids us study astronomy to
learn of God thereby. "Lift up your eyes on high and see who hath
created these things, who bringeth out their host by number. Hecall-
eth them all by name, by the greatness of His might, for He is strong
in power; not one faileth." l^ven as later sages practically teach the
dignity of labor by themselves engaging in it. And when Macaulay
remarks "from the testimony of friends as well as of foes, from the
confessions of Kpictetus and Seneca, as well as from the sneers of
Lucian and the invectives of Juvenal, it is plain that these teachers of
virtue had all the vices of their neighbors with the additional one of
hypocris)-," it is easy to understand the relation of historical Judaism
to these with its ideal, "He perfect."

Similarly the sophist school declared "there is no truth, no virtue,
no justice, no blasphemy, for there are no gods; right and wrong are
conventional terms." The skeptic school proclaimed "we have no cri-
terion of action or judgment; we cannot know the truth of anything; we
assert nothing; not even the Kj)icurean school taught pleasure's pursuit.
But historical Judaism solemnly protested. What are those teachings
of our Pirkc Avoth but protests formerly formulated by our religious
heads? Said tiiey: "The Torah is the criterion of conduct. Worship
instead of doubting. Do philanthropic acts instead of seeking only
|)!easure. .Society's safeguards are law, worship and philanthropy."
So preached Simon Hatzadik. "Love labor," preached Shemangia to
the votary of epicurean ease. "Procure thyself an instructor," was
Gamaliel's advice to anyone in doubt. "The practical application, not
the theory, is the essential," was the cry of Simon to Platonist or
Pyrrhic. "Deed first, then creed." "Yes," added Abtalion, "Deed
first, then creed, never greed." "He not like servants who serve their
master for price; be like servants who serve without thought of price
— and let the fear of God be upon you." "Separation and protest"
was thus the cry against these thought-vagaries.

Brilliant instance of the policy of separation and protest was the
glorious Maccabean effort to combat Hellenist philosophy.

If but for Charles Martel and Poictiers, Europe would long have
been Mohammedan, then for but Judas Maccabeus and Hethoron or Em-
maus, Judaism would have been strangled. But no Judaism, no Chris-
tianity. Take either faith out of the world and what would our civili-
zation be? Christianity was born, originally and as designed and
declared by its founder, not to change or alter one tittle of the law of
Moses.

If the Nazarene teacher claimed tacitly or not the title of "Son of
God" in any sense save that which Moses meant when he said, "Ye
are children of your God," can we wonder that there was a Hebrew
protest?

Historical Judaism soon found cause to be separate and to pro-

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

167

leless
jrical
1 and
ny to
hath
call-

test. For sect upon sect arose — Ebionites, Gentile Christians, Jewish
Christians, Nazarenes, Gnostic Christians, Masbotcans, l^asilidians,
Valentinians, Carpocratians, Marcionites, Balaamites, Nicolaitcs, Em-
kratitcs, Cainites, Ophites or Nahasites; evangels of these and of others
were multiplied, new prophets were named, such as I'achor, Barker,
Barkoph, Armagil, Abraxos, etc. At last the Christianity of Paul rose
supreme, but doctrines were found to be engrafted which not only
caused the famous Christian heresies of Pelagius, Nestorius, luityches,
etc., but obliged historical Judaism to maintain its attitude of se[)ara-
tion and protest. For its Bible ideals were invaded. It could not join
all the sects and all the heresies. So it joined none.

Presently the Cresent of Islam rose. From Bagdad to Granada
Hebrews prepared protests which the Christians carried to ferment in
their distant homes. For through the Arabs and the Jews the old
classics were revived and experimental science was fostered. The
misuse of the former made the methods of the academicians the
methods of the scholastic fathers. But it made Aristotleian philoso-
phy dominant. Experiment widened men's views. The sentiment of
protest was imbibed — sentiment against scholastic argument, against
bidding research for practical ends, against the supposition "that
syllogistic reasoning could ever conduct men to the discovery of any
new principle," or that such discoveries could be made except by
induction, as Aristotle held, against the ofificial denial of ascertained
truth, as, for example, earth's rotundity. This protest sentiment in
time produced the reformation. Later it gave wonderful imi)ul.sc to
thought and effort, which has substituted modern civilization, with its
glorious conquests, for medieval .semi-darkness.

Here the era of the past is becoming the era of the present. Still
historical Judaism maintained its attitude.

As the new philosophies were born, it is said, with Bacon, "Let us
liave fruits, ])ractical results, not foliage or mere words." Hut it
opposed a Voltaire and a Paine when they made their ribald attacks.
It could but praise the success of a Newton as he "crowned the long
labors of the astronomers and physicists by co-ordinating the phenom-
ena of solar motion throughout the visible universe into one vast
system." So it could only cry "Amen" to a Kepler and a Cialileo.
For did they not all prove the long unsuspected magiiificeiice of the
1 lebrew's God, who made and who ruled the heavens and heaven of
heavens, and who presides over the circuit of the earth, as Isaiah tells
us? So it cried "Amen" to a Dalton, to a Linneus; for the "atomic
notation of the former was as serviceable to chemistry as the binom-
inal nomenclature and the classificatory schematism of the latter were
to zoology and botany." What else could historic Judaism cry when
the first message to man was to subdue earth, capture its powers, har-
ness them, work? True historical Judaism means progress.

A word more as to the attitude of historic Judaism to modern
thought. If Hegel's last work was a coinse of lectures on the proofs
of the existence of God; if in his lectures on religion he turned his

Ribln Ideas
Invaded.

PrfMluced the
Uefurmation.

Maintt.inslts
Attitudo.

\ .

i
< j

' '

[;il:

IGS

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

'W o (I « r n

TlioiUjI'.t.

: 1

weapon against the rationalistic schools which reduced religion to the
modicum compatible with an ordinary, worldly mind and criticise the
school of Schleirmacher, who elevated feeling to a jjlace in religion
above systematic thi-ologj', we agree with him. But when he gives
successive phases of religion and concludes with Christianity, the
highest, because reconciliation is there in open doctrine, we cry, do
justice also to the Hebrew, Is not the Hebrew's ideal God a God of
mercy, a God of reconciliation? It is said, "Not forever will lie con-
tend, neither doth He retain His anger forever." That is, He will be
reconciled.

We agree with much of Comptc, and with him elevate womanhood,
but we do not, cannot exclude woman, as he does, from public action;
for besides the teachings of reverence and honor for motherhood; be-
sides the Bible tribute to wifehood "that a good wife is a gift of
God;" besides the grand tribute to womanhood offered in the last
chapter of Proverbs, we produce a Deborah or a woman-president, a
Huldah as worthy to give a divine message.

If Uarwin and the disciples of evolution proclaim their theorj',
the Hebrew points to (icnesis ii, 3, where it speaks of what God has
createtl "tt) make," iiitiniti\e mood; "not made," as erroneously trans-
lated. But historic Judaism i)rotests when any source of life is indi-
cated, save in the breath of God alone.

We march in the van of progress, but our hand is always raised,
pointing to God. This is the attitude of historical Judaism. And now
to sum up. For the future ojjens before us.

First. The "separatist" thought, (ienesis tells us how ^Xbraham
obeyed it. Ivxodus illustrates it: We are "separated from all the
people upon the face of the earth." Leviticus proclaims it: "I ha\e
separated \ou from the peoples." "I have severed you from the peo-
ples." Numbers illustrates it: "Behold, the people shall dwell alone."
And Deuteronomy declares it: "He hath avouched thee to be His
special people."

The thought began as our nation; it grew as it grew. To test its
wisdom, let us ask who have survived? The 7,000 separatists who tlid
not bend to Baal or those who did? Those who thronged Babylo-
nian schools at Pumbeditha or Nahardea, or those who succumbed to
Magian influence? The Maccabees, who fought to separate, or the
Hellenists, who aped Greek or the .Sectarians of their day? The Bnai
Yisrael remnant, recently discovered in India, under the auspices of
the Anglo-Jewish association, the discovery of Theaou-Kin-Keaou, or
" people who cut out the sinew," in China, point in this direction of
separation as a necessity for existence.

And who are the Hebrews of today here and in Europe, the
descendants of those who preferred to keep separate, and therefore
chose exile or death, or those who yielded and were baptized? The
course of historic Judaism is clear. It is to keep separate.

.Second. The i)rotest thought. We must continue to protest against
social, religious or political error with the eloquence of reason. Never

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

ion

by the force of violence. No error is too insignificant; none can be
too stupendous for us to notice. The cruelty which shoots the inno-
cent doves for sport; the crime of duelists who risk life which is not xhe iVoiest
theirs to risk, for it belongs to country, wife or mother, to child or to Thougiit.
society; the militarianism of modern nations, the transformation of
patriotism, politics or service of one's country into a business for per-
sonal profit, until these and all wrongs be rectified, we Hebrews must
keep separate, and we must protest.

And keep separate and protest we will, until all error shall be
cast to the moles and bats. We are told that Europe's armies amount
to 22,0CXD,C)00 of men. Imagine it! Arc we not right to protest that
arbitration and not the rule of might should decide? Yet, let me not
cite instances which render protest necessary. " Time would fail, and
the tale would not be told," to quote a rabbi.

How far separation and protest constitute our historical Jewish
policy is evident from what I have said. Apart from this, socially, we
unite whole-heartedly and without reservation with our non-Jewish
fellow citizens; we recognize no difference between Hebrew and non-
Hebrew.

We declare that the attitude of historical Judaism, and, for that
matter, of the reform school also, is to serve our country as good citi-
zens, to be on the side of law and order and fight anarchy. We are
hound to forward every humanitarian movement; where want or pain
calls there must be answer; and condemned by all true men be the Jew March in^-
who refuses aid because he who needs it is not a Jew. In the intrica- f>"int1ni y'l,.
cies of science, in the pursuit of all that widens human knowledge, in ward,
the path of all that benefits humanity, the Jew must walk abreast with
non-Jew, except he pass him in generous rivalry. With the non-Jew
we must press onward, but for all men and for ourselves we must ever
point upward to the Common Father of all. Marching forward, as I
liave said, but pointing upward, this is tlie attitude of historical
Judaism.

Religiously, the attitude of historical Judaism is expressed in the
creeds formulated 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 title of
tlie law should be changed. Hence we do not accept a First Day
Sabbath, etc.

We unite in believing that (iod is omniscient and just, good, lov-
ing and merciful.

We unite in the belief of a coming Messiah.

We unite in our belief in immortality. In these Judaism and
Christianity agree.

As for the development of Judaism, we believe in change in relig-
ious custom or idea only when effected in accordance with the spirit
of God's law and the highest authority attainable. Hut no change
12

1 \A

! t

Pffvi'IopiTieul
ut Judaism.

\ Lt'Kend.

III

>•»{«'♦ I V- 1|

170

7///. U'ORJjys CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

V I

I :: AH

F II 1 f\ 1 1 i II K
Destiny.

without. Hence we cannot, and may not, recognize the authority of
any conference of Jewish rabbi.s or niini.stcra, unless those attending
are formal l\- empowered by their communities or congregations to
represent them Needless to atld, they must be sufificiently versed in
Jlebrew law and lore; they must live lives consistent with Bible teach-
ings and they must be sufificiently advanced in age so as not to be im-
mature in thought.

And we believe, heart, soul and might, in the restoration to Pales-
tine, a Hebrew state, from the Nile to the Euphrates — even though as
Isaiah intimates in his very song of restoration, some Hebrews remain
among the Gentiles.

We believe in the future establishment of a court of arbitration,
above suspicion, for a settlement of nations' disputes, such as could
well be in the shadow of that temple which we believe shall one day
arise to be a "house of prayer for all peoples," united at last in the
service of one Father. How far the restoration will solve present pressing
Jewish problems, how far such spiritual organization will guarantee
man against falling into error, we cannot here discuss. What if doc-
trines, eustoms ancl aims separate us now?

There is a legend that when Adam and Eve were turned out of
I'.dcn or earthly paradise, an angel smashed the gates and the frag-
ments n>ing all over the earth are the precious stones. We can carry
the legend further.

The i)recious stones were picked up by the various religions and
philosophers of the world. Each claimed and claims that its own
fragment alone reflects the light of heaven, forgetting the settings
and incrustations which time has added. Patience, my brothers. In
Gotl's own time, we shall, all of us, fit our fragments together and
reconstruct the gates of paradise. There will be an era of reconcilia-
tion of all living faiths and systems, the era of all being in at-one-
ment, or atonement, with God. Through the gates shall all people
pass to the foot of God's throne. The throne is called by us the
mercy-seat. Name of happy augury, for God's mercy shall wipe out
the record of mankind's errors and strayings, the sad story of our
unbrotherl}' actions. Then shall we better know God's ways and
behold His glory more clearly, as it is written, "They shall all know
Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord,
for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no
more." ( Jer. x.\xi, 34.)

What if the deathless Jew be present then among the earth's
peoples? Would ye begrudge his presence? His work in the world,
the J5ible he gave it, shall plead for him. And Israel, God's first born,
who, as his prophets foretold, was for centuries despised and rejected
of men, knowing sorrows, acquainted with grief and esteemed stricken
by God for his own backslidings, wounded besides through others'
transgressions, bruised through others' injuries, shall be but fulfilling
liis destiny to lead back his brothers to the Father. For that we were
chosen; for that we are God's servants or ministers. Yes, the attitude

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

171

rity of
ending
ons to
rsed in
; teach-
be im-

of historical Judaism to the world will be in the future, as in the past,
helping mankind with His Bible, until the gates of earthly paradise
shall be reconstructed by mankind's joint efforts, and all nations whom
Thou, God, hast made, shall go through and worship before Thee, O
Lord, and shall glorify Thy namel

) Pales-

)Ugh as

remain

itration,
s could
jne day
; in the
pressing
larantcc
if doc-

I :

I out of
he frag-
an carry

ions and
t its own
settings
hers. In
ther and
;concilia-

II at-one-
11 people
ay us the
wipe out
ry of our
,vays and

all know
the Lord,
ir sins no

he earth's
the world,
first born,
d rejected
;d stricken
igh others'
,t fulfilling
at we were
he attitude

! 1

i^r

..I ! I

III I !

Trnth Bronghl

toLiglit.

Tfhe O^t^ook for Judaism.

Paper by MISS JOSEPHINE LAZARUS.

HE nineteenth century has had its surprises;
the position of the Jew s today is one of these,
both for the Jew himself and for most enlight-
ened Christians. There were certain facts we
thought forever laid at rest, certain condi-
tions and contingencies that C(juld never con-
front us ai' lin, certain war cries that could not
be raised In this last decade of our civiliza-
tion, howe\ er, we have been rudely awakened
from our false dream of security — it may be
to a higher calling and destiny than we had
yet foreseen. I do not wish to emphasize the
painful facts by dwelling on them, or even
pointing them out. We are all aware of them,
and whenever Jews and Christians come to-
gether on equal terms, ignoring difference and
opposition and injury, it is well that they should do so. At the same
time, we must not shut our eyes, nor, like the ostrich, bury our head
in the sand. The situation, which is so grave, must be bravely and
honestly faced, the crisis met, the problem frankly stated in all its
bearings so that the whole truth may be brought to light if possible.
VVc are a little apt to look on one side only of the shield, especially
when our sense of justice and humanity is stung, and the cry of the
oppressed and persecuted — our brothers — rings in our ears.

As we all know, the effect of persecution is to strengthen solidity.
The Jew who never was a Jew before becomes one when the vital spot
is touched. When we are attacked as Jews we do not strike back
angrily, but we coil up in our shell of Judaism and intrench ourselves
more strongly than before. The Jews themselves, both from natural
habit and force of circumstances, have been accustomed to dwell
along their own lines of thought and life, absorbed in their own point
of view, almost to the exclusion of outside opinion. Indeed, it is this
power of concentration in their own pursuits that insures their success
in most things they set out to do. They have been content for the
most part to guard the truth they hold rather than spread it. Amid

172

<in

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

178

favorable surroundings and easy circumstances many of us liad ceased
to take it very deeply or seriously that we were Jews, We had j^rown
to look upon it merely as an accident of birth for which we were not
called upon to make any sacrifice, but rather to make ourselves as
much as possible like our neif^^hbors, neither better nor worse than the
people around us. But with a painful shock we are suddenly made aware
of it as a detriment, and we shrink at once back into ourselves hurt in
our most sensitive point, our prid • wounded to the quick, our most
sacred feelings, as we belie\c, outrajred and trampled upon.

But our very attitude pro\ cs that somethinjf is wronp; with us.
Persecution does not touch us; we do not feel it when wc have an ideal
larf^e cnouj^h and close enoujjh to our hearts to sustain and console us.
The martyrs of okl did not feel the fires of the stake, the arrows that
pierced their flesh. The Jews of the olden time danced to their death with
praise and son^ and joyful shouts of Hallelujah. They were willinfj
to die for that which was their life, and more than life, to them. But
the martyrdom of the present day is a strange and novel one, that
has no grace or glory about it, and of which we are not proud. We
have not chosen, and perhaps would not choose it. Many of us
scarcely know the cause for which we suffer, and therefore we feel
every pang, every cut of the lash. Vox our sake, then, and still more
perhaps for those who come after us, and to whom we bequeath our
Judaism, it behooves us to find out just what it means to us, and what
it holds for us to live by. In f)ther words, what is the content and
significance of modern Judaism in tli<' world today, not for us person-
ally as Jews, but for the world at l.uge? What power has it as a
spiritual influence? And as such, what is its share or part in the large
life of humanity, in the broad current and movement of the times?
What actuality has it, what possible unfoldmc'it in the future?

As the present can best be read 1)\' the light of the past, I should
, like briefly to re\ iew the ideas on which our e.xistence is based and our
identity sustained. Upon the background of myth, and yet in a sense
how bold, how clear, stanils I\Ioses,the man of God, who saw the world
aflame with Deity— the burning bush, the flaming mountain, top, the
fiery cloud, leading his people from captivity, and who heard pro-
nounced the divine and everlasting name, the un[)ronounceable, the
ineffable I Am. In Moses, above all, whether we look upon him as
semi-historic or a purely symbolic figure, the genius of tlie Hebrew
race is typified, the fundamental note of Judaism is struck, the Word
that rings forever after through the agos, which is the law spoken by
God Himself, with trumpet sound, midst Jiunderingsand lightning from
heaven. Whatever of true or false, of fact or legend hangs about it,
we have in the Mosaic conception, the moral ideal of the Hebrews, a
code, divinely sanctioned and ordained, the absolute imperative of
duty, a transcendent law laid upon man which he must perforce obey,
in order that he may live. "Thou shalt, thou shalt not," hedges him
around on every side, now as moral obligation and again as ceremonial
or legal ordinance, and becomes the bulwark of the faith through cent-
uries of greatness, centuries of darkness and humiliaticn.

Not Tonnifil
byPurst'cuUoii.

HiisiH of l"x-

intt'IU'C II II ll

identity.

iii

■MteHHMrfMMii

174

Tin-: WORLD'S CONURESS OF RELIC lOSS.

ill

III the llfltifw uritin^^s \vt> tr.H'o not sn iinicli llu* (k-vrltipiiuiil of
I |iro|iIi' l)iit of an idea that I'oiistantl)' ^rows in stnii^;th anil purity.

u- |i('tt\' tiioal L^od, ( riH'l and partisan hkt- tlu- \\\.n\^ around iiini

(diiu s the nnivcrs.d .ind t-tiinal (iod, uho I'llls all tinu* and spaii', all

l\ia\i n and larth, and lii-suU- whom no otiur powi-r ixists.

,'i,

roiij^h-

oiit nature his will is lau , his t'lat ^ocs lorlh and the stars ohey him in
then eoiiise, the winds and w.iMs, tiie and h.iil, snow and va|iois
stoini\- w iiid tuililliu!.^ his word. Tlu- lii^htnin^.s do his biddiiij^ and say

leii' we are

w lien lie eoniinaiHls tlieni

Itiit not alone in the phssual realm, still more is he the moral

riilei ot thi- iiiii\irsi', and lieie we eomc upon the lore «)f the llehri'
I inu eptioii, its tiue <;iaudeur .ind (n'it;inalit\', upon wliiih the whole
stress was laid, naniels, that it is mil)' in the moral splu're, tnily
'•"i'ii""i. .IS a iiioi.d beiiii; that man ean enter into rehilimi with his Maker,

.mil llu' MaU«r id the univir-'e, and eonii" to an\' imderst.iiulinif
id I lim. 'l a list thou l)\' si-. in hint; liiid out (Iod i* Cmst thou t'liid out

I'liri' of llit>
lli'liii'w e II a

the .\liui;;lit\' unto |ieilei tion ?

IS as lii^h as luM\eii; what eaiist

llion do .J deipir than hell; what I'.inst tlum know ?" Not tlirou|;h the
liiiite limited iiitilieet, iior aii\' outward sense perception, hut only
tluouidi the moral si'iise do tliesi" earnest te.ielurs hit! us seek (loti,
who re\eals lluiiselt in the law whieh is at oiiee liimian and divine, the
\oieeol dut\' and of eoiisi ienee animating the soul of man. It is this
lne.ith of the ili\ iiie that \ it.ili/es the pai;es of the llehrew prophets
M\A then moral preei'pts.

It is the Meiidinir of the t

wo Ideals,

the

evunplete and ahsolnte identilieation of tlu- moral and religious life, so
that i\u h ean he interpreted in terms of the other the moral life s.itii-
tated ,iiul fed, siist. lined ami saiietilied h\- the divine; the reli>'ious life

mereU .1 ili\ iiieU' ordained mor.ilil\- that it is

isseiue of their

teael

uiil;s, the iinit\' and L;raiul siniplieit\- ot their

tli.it
I

eonstitutes the

ide.il. The link was ne\er hrokeii hetweeii the human ami divine,
hetween eoiuhut and its niotises, reli<;ion .mil moralit)-, nor ohsenred,
h\' any eloiul)' .ihsti.ietions of theory or met.iph)sies. I heir (iod w.is
a tioil whom the people eouKI understand; no mystic liijure relei;ati'd
ti) the skies, hut a \er\' present power, workiii<^ upon earth, a i)erson-
.ility \er\' elear .iiid distinet, \er\- hum.m, one miL;ht .ilnnot s.i\-, who
minified in human atf.iiis, whose word w.is swift and sure, .mil whose
path M) pl.iin to follow "th.it w.iyf.iriiii; men, though fools, should not
eirlherein." W'h.it I le reipiired w.is no impossihle ideal, l)nt simply
to ^V^ justiee, to lo\e mere\- ami w.ilk liumh'y hefore I lim. What lie

ow ean one

fail ti

promised w.is: ".svt.-k ye Me .md \e sli.ill li\(

he impresseil hy the heroie mold ol these austere impassioned souls,
and h\'the riehness ot the soil that j^.ive them hirth at .i time when
spiritual thoui;ht h.ul scareel\' dawned upon tlu' world? The prophets
were "hiijh lights" of Jud.iisni, hut the li;4ht faileil. the voices ceased
and prophetism died out.

In oriler that Israel should survive. shouUI continue ti> exist at all
in the midst ot the ruins that were all around it. and the darkness
upon which it was enterin;^, it was necessary that this close, eternal

THE WORLD'S ( OA'oKESS Of K/.IJU/UNS.

I')

orj^'ani/iititm, this mcsli and iittwurk ol law and practici: of ri'^ulatcd
iisam; c:(»\rriii}4 tlir most iiisij^nilicanl acts ol' lilc, kniltiii^,^ thciii to-
^itluT as with iiiTvc and sinew, and inviiln* raMi- to ;iiiy i .itastiopho
Iroiii without, should lake- tlic |)lacc ol all ixtciiial prop and loiin ol
unit)'. I lu; whole outiT lianicwoik ol lilc lill aua)-. The l<ini;doni
pilislu'd, the linipic li.ll, the piople sc.itleied. They ct asid lo lie a ../'"'^'ivrilirur

I...

n.ition, tlu-y eeased to he a eluneh, and yit, indissoiiihl)' hound liy '"'"i
tlu'se ine\it.d)le chains, as (mh: as silk, as strong; as iron, the)' prescniid
an inipeiietiaMe iiont to the outside world; they hetanic more in-
tensely national, more exelusivt! and sectarian, more com enlr.itrd in

their mdi\ idualit\' than they

ha<l

I'Ver been helore

'Ihelal

mud t ame

to reinlone the I'eiitateuch, and Uahhinism inleiisiried Jud.iism, \\hi< h
tlu-rehy lost its power U) expand its claim to hecome a uiii\irsal
religion, and n-inaiiu'd the prerogative of a peculiar people.

Willi lire- and suord the Christian era dawned foi- l'^lal•l. Jerusa-
lem was l)esieL;i'd, the temple lin-d, llie holy mount in ll.iiius and a
million i)eoplo lu-rished, a lillin.L,f prelude to the lonj^ tram'dy that has
not ended )et, llu- martyrdom ol ei^htien ceiiturits. hi-.ith in cxery

lorm, I)

vlli

l)\' fire and with I'verv torture that could \ir coiu'ei\i't

leaxiiii; a Irac k of blood through history the crui it'ied of the nations.
Strangers and w.inderers in every a^e and e\ery l.iiid, lalliii^f no man
friend and no spot home. With all the i^iiominv of the (ilutto, a li\ iiiif
death. Dark, piti.d)le, ignoble destin\'! MaLjniluiiit, heioic, uik ou-
tpierable destinv, luminous with self-sacrifice, unwriltin heroism, de-
votion to an ideal, a cause believed in and a name hild sai red! liul

ilestmy still unsoUed; m.i

rt)rdt

in not )'et swallowed up in \ ulories.

In t»ur niotlern rushinj^ tiays life changes with sui h swiftness that
it is difllcult e\en t*) follow its rapid niovenunt. I)uriiii; the last hun-
dred )'ears Judaism h.is underi,rone more moditication than duriiiL,' the
previous thousand >ears. i'he l''rench revolution soumled a note of
freedom so loud, so clamorous, that it pierced the (ihelto ua

aiK

f()uml its way to the imprisoned souls. The ^ates were thiown open,
the liijht streanu'd in from outside, and the Jew entered the modern
worlil. As if b\' ench.intment, the spell which had bound him, hand
and loot, boil)' and soul, was broken, and his mind and si)irit, released
from thrall, spranj^ into rebirth and viLjor. I{

Mdilificiilion

liiii'liJi

t h

ra«i Crnliiry,

a_L;er lor lite m e\i'ry
form aiul in every ilirection, w ilh unused pent-up vitality he pressed to .
the front and crowded the avenue where life was most crowdeif,
thoui:[ht and action most stimulated. Ami in order to this movement,
naturally ami of necessity, he be,i;an to diseni;aL;e himself from the
toils in which he was involveil; to unwind himself, so to speak, from
fold to fold, of outworn and outlaiulish custom. Casting off the outer
shell or skeleton, which, like the bony covering;; of the tortoise, serves
as armor at the same time that it impedes all movement and progress,
as well as inner growth, Judaism thought to re\ ert to its original type,
the pure and simple monotheism of the early days, the simple creed
that right is might, the simple law of justice among men. Divested
of its spiritual mechanism, absolutely without myth or tlogma of any

i; !

ill

17(5

THE WORLD'S COXGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

I I

III

K M n r k (>
Uiino Alwa.\ k,

;,,.f-

kind, save the all-cmbracintr Unity of God, taxing so little the credu-
lity of men, wo reiijj^ion scciiicti so fitted to withstand the .•'torni and
stress of modern thoui^ht, the doubt and skepticism of a critical and
scientific at^e that has jjlayed such havoc with time honored creeds.

And having- rid himself, as he proudly believed, of his own super
stitions, naturally the Jew had no inclination to adept what he looked
upon as the superstitions of others. lie was still as much as ever the
Jew, as far as ever removed from the Christian stanilpoint and outlook,
the Christian philosophy and solution of life. Broad and tolerant as
cither side niii^ht consider itself, there was a fundamental disaLjree-
nient and opposition, almost a different makeup, a dii'ferent caliber and
attitude of soul, fostered In' centuries of mutual alienation anil distrust.
To be a Jew was still sometiiinij special, something;' inherent, that did
not depend upon any external conformity or non-conformit>', any pecul-
iar mode of life. The tremendous background of the pa;'t, of tra-
ditions and associations so entirely apart from those of the people
amon_i,r whom they dwelt, threw them into strong' belief. They were a
marked race alwiiys, upon whom an indelible stamp was set, a nation
that cohereil not as a political unit, l)ut as a single famil)', throuijh ties
il the most sacred, the most vital and intimate, of i)arent to child, of
brother and sister, bound still more closely together throuifh a com-
mon fate of sufferint^. And yet they were e\erywhere living among
Christians, making part of Christian communities and mi.xing freely
among them ior all the business of life, all material and temporal ends.

Thus the spiritual and secular life which luul been absolutely one
with the Jew giew apart in his own sphere as well as in his intercour.se
with Christians; the divorce was complete between religiv)n and the
daih" life. In his inmost consciousness, deep ilowii below the surface,
he was still a Jew. The outer world alhn-ed him, and the false gods
whom the nations around him worshijied: Success, Tower, the I'ride
of Life and of the Intellectual, lie threw himself full tilt into the
arena where the clash was loudest and the press thickest, the struggle
keenest to eomi)ete anil (Mitslrij) one another, which we moderns call
life. And his faculties were sharpened to it, and in his eagerness lie
forgot his ])roper birthright. lie, the man of the ])ast, became essen-
tially the man of today, with interest centered on the present, the act-
ual; with intellect set tree to grapple with the problems of the hour
and solve them by its own unaidi-d light. Liberal, progressive, human-
itarian he might become, but alv\a\'s along human lines; 'in

linl

< was

itisfv

gone witli any larger, more satistymg anil comprehensive lile

Relit

ion had detached itself from life, not only in its trivial everyday con-
cerns, but in its highesi aims and as])irations.

And here was just the handle, just the grievance for their encmie.s
to seize upon, livery charge would fit. Behold the Jew ! livery cry
could shape itself against them, every class could take alarm and every
prejudice go loose. y\iul hence the I'roteus form of anti-Semitism.
VVhere\er the social conditions are most unstable, the equilibrium most
threatened and easilv disturbed, in barbarous Russia, liberal France

' IV

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

177

and philosophic Germany, the problem is most acute; but there is no
country now, civilized or uncivilized, where some echo of it has not
reached; even in our own free-breathing America some wave has come
to di J upon our shores.

What answer have we for ourselves and for the world in this, the
trial liour of our faith, the crucial test of Judaism? We, each of us,
riust look into our own hearts and see what Judaism stands for in that
inner shrine, what it holds t'.iat satisfie.- our deepest need, consoles and
fortifies us, compensates for every sacrifice, every humiliation we may
i)e called upon to endure, so that we count it a glory, not a shame, to
suffer. Will national or personal loyalty sufifice for this, when our per-
sonality is not touched, our nationality is merged? Will pride of
family or race take awa} ^Ih! sting, the stigma? I-oI We have turned
the shield and persccutinii becomes our opportunity. "Those that
were in darkness upon them tne light hath shined." What is the
meaning of this exodus from Russia, from Poland, these long black
lines crossing the frontiers or crushed within the pale, the "despised
and rejected of men," emerging from their Ghettos, scarcely able to
bear the light of day? Many of them will never see the promised
lanil, and for those who do, cruel will be the suffering before they
enter, long and difficult will be the task and process of assimilation
and regeneration.

Hut for us, who stand upon the shore in the full blessed light of
freedom and watch at last the ending of that weary pilgrimage
through the centuries, how great the responsibility, how great the
occasion, if only we can rise to it. Let us not think our duty ended
when we have taken i'l the wanderers, given them food and shelter
and initiated them into the sharp daily struggle to exist, upon which
we are all embarked; nor yet guarding their exclusiveness, when we
leave tliein to their narrow rites and limiting observance, until, break-
ing free from these, they find themselves, like tlieir emancipated
brethren elsewhere, adrift on a blank sea of indifference and mate-
rialism.

If Judaism would be anything in the world today it mu.st be a
spiritual force. Only then can it'be true to its special mission, the
spirit not the letter of its truth. Away, then, with all the Ghettos
and with spiritual isolation in every form, and let the "spirit blow
where it listeth." The Jew must change his attitude before the world
and come into spiritual fellowship with those around him. John, Paul,
Jesus Himself, we can claim them all for our own. We do not want
" missions" to convert us. We cannot become Presbyterians, Episco-
palians, members of any dividing sect, " teaching for doctrines the
opinions of men." Christians, as well as Jews, need the larger unity
that shall embrace them all — the unity of the spirit, not of doctrine.

Mankind at large may not be ready for a universal religion, but
let the Jews with their prophetic instinct, their deep, spiritual insight,
set the example and give the ideal. The world has not yet fathomed
the r-ccrct of its redemption, and " salvation may yet again be of the

Crucinl Ti>sl
of .)ll(lai^<^ll.

\ fli

1 i

]

t» ■

\ \ 1

I I

178

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

cws.

The times arc full of

sitrns.

n cvcrv sale

ere IS a cal

challenge and auakenin^j. \\ hat the world needs today, not alone the
Jews, who have borne the >oke, but the Christians w ho bear Christ's
name and perseeute and who have built up a civilization so entirely at
variance with the princi])les 1 fe taui^ht — w hat we all need. Gentiles and
Jews alike, is not so much " a new body of iloetrine," as Claude Mon-
tefiore su.q^ijests, but a ik\v spirit put into liic which shall refashion it
AUOncFiitlipr. upon a nobler plan and ciHisecrate it anew to hii;her purpose and ideals.
Science lias done its work, clearing- awa)- the deaduo(jil of ignorance
and superstition, eiilartj[in<^ the vision and opening out the path. (Jiiri.-

I'' . i

turns am
created us;

1 lew;

have we not all one Ivither? Ilalh not one Ciod

Remend)er to what you are called, jou w

lu) cL

urn beliel

in a li\ iiig Ciod who is a spirit, and who, therefore, must be worshiped
"in spirit and in truth," not with \ain forms and with meaningless
ser\ice, nor \et in the world's glittering shapes, the work of men's
hands or brains, but in the e\er-grow ing, ever-deepening love and

knowledge of His truth and its showing forth to mei

nee more

let

the IIol\- Spirit descend and dwell among you, in your life today, as it
ilid upon )\)ur holy men, \'our prophets of the olden times, lighting
the world as it did for them with that radiance of the skies; ami so

make known
kninv them."

the faith that is in \-ou, " l'"or b\- their fruits \e shall

wi^'^'^mvm

B
a

(/>

(It

Ul
(4

nl
Q

Xhe Voice of the JV^other of f^eligions on
the Social Question.

Paper by RABBI H. BERKOWITZ, D. D., of Philadelphia.

N this assembly of so many of her spiritual chil-
dren, in the midst of the religions which have
received from her nurture and loving care, Ju-
daism, the fond mother may well lift up her
voice and be heard with reverent and affec-
tionate attention. It has been asked: "What
has Judaism to say on the social question?"

From earliest days she has set the seal of
sanctity on all that question involves. From
the very first she proclaimed the dignity, nay,
the duty of labor by postulating God, the Cre-
ator, at work and setting forth the divine exam-
ple unto all men for imitation, in the command:
"Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy
work." Industry is thus hallowed by religion, and
religion in turn is made to receive the homage of
industry in the fulfillment of the ordinance of Sab-
bath rest. Judaism thus came into the world to live in the world, to
make the world more heavenly. Though aspiring unto the heavens
she has always trod firmly upon the earth, abiding with men in their
habitations, ennobling their toils, dignifying their pleasures. Through
all the centuries of her sorrowful life she has steadfastly striven with
her every cnerj^y to solve, according to the eternal law of the eternally
righteous, every new phase of the ever recurring problems in the
social relationships of men.

When the son of Adam, hiding in the ilismal covert of some pri-
meval forest, heard the accusing voice of conscience in bitter tones up-
braiding him he defiantly made reply: "Am I my brother's keeper?"
then the social conflict began. To the question then askcii Judaism
made stern reply in branding with the guilt mark of Cain evv'r\- trans-
gression of human right. From then until now unceasingly through
all the long and trying centuries she has never wearied in lifting up

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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her voice to denounce wrong and plead for right, to bmnd the op-
pressor and uplift the oppressed. Pages upon pages of her Scriptures,
folio upon folio of her massive literature, are devoted to the social
question in its whole broad range and full of maxims, precepts, injunc-
tions, ordinances and laws aiming to secure the right adjustment of
the affairs of men in the practical concerns of every day.

In the family, in the community, in the state, in all the forms of
social organization, iiicciualities between man and man have arisen
which have evoked the contentions of the strong and the weak, the
rich and the poor, the high and the low. Against the iniquity of self-
seeking Judaism has ever protested most loudly and none the less so
against the errors and evils of an unjust self-sacrifice. " Love thy-
self," she says, "this is natural, this is a.xiomatic, but remember it is
never of itself a moral injunction. Egoism as an exclusive motive is
entirely false, but altruism is not therefore exclusively and always
right. It likewise may defeat itself, may work injury and lead to
crime. The worthy should never be sacrificed for the unworthy. It
is a sin for you to give your hard earned money to a vagabond and
thus propagate vice, as much as it is sinful to withhold your aid from
the struggling genius whose opportunity may yield to the world un-
dreamed-of benefit.s."

In this reciprocal relation between the responsibility of the indi-
vidual for society, and of society for the individual, lies one of Juda-
ism's prime characteristics. .She has pointed tlie ideal in the conflict
of social principles by her golden precept, "Thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself — I am God." (Leviticus xix, i8.) According to
this precept she has so arranged the inner affairs of the family that
the purity, the sweetness and tenderness of the homes of her children
have become proverbial.

"Honor thy father and thy mother" ( I'.x. xx, 12).

"The widow and the orphan thou shalt not oi)i)rcss" (Ex. xxii, 22).

"Before the hoary head shall thou rise and shalt revere the Lord
thy God" ( Lev. xix, 32).

".\nd thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children" (Deut.

vi, :\.

These, and hundreds of like injunctions, have created the institu-
tions of loving and tender care which secure the training and nurture,
the education and rearing of the child, which sustain the man and
the woman in rectitude in the path of life, and with the staff of
a devout faith guide their downward steps in old age to the resting
place "over which the star ol immortality sheds its radiant light."

Judaism sets ctlucation before all things else and knows but one
worcl for charity — Zedakah,/. c, Justice. .She has made the home the
basis of the social structure, and has sought to supply the want of a
home as a just tlue to e\'er\ < reature, guarding each with this motive,
from the cradle to the grave. With her sublime maxim, " Love thy
neighbor as thyself— I am (iod," Judaism set u[) the highest ideal of
society as a human brt>therhood under the care of a divine I"'atlicrhood.

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

183

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According to this ideal Judaism has sought, passing beyond the envi-
ronments of the family.to regulate the affairs of human society at large.
"This is the book of the generations of men " — was the caption of Gen-
esis, indicating as the Rabbins taught, that all men, without distinction
of race, caste or other social difference, are entitled to equal rights as
being equally the children of one Creator. The social ideal was accord-
ingly the sanctification of men unto the noblest in the injunction to the
" priest-people:" " Holy shall ye be, for I, the Lord your God, am
holy." (Ex. xix, 22.)

The freedom of the individual was the prime necessary conse-
quence of this precept. Grandly and majestically the Mosaic legisla-
tion swept aside all the fallacies .vhich had given the basis to the heart-
less degradation of man by his fellow man. Slavery stood forever con-
demned when Israel went forth from the bondage of Egypt. Labor
then for the first time asserted its freedom, and assumed the dignity
v.hich at last the present era is vindicating with such fervor and power,
Judaism established the freedom to select one's own calling in life
irrespective of birth or other conditions. For each one a task according
to his capacities was the rule of life. The laborer was never so hon-
ored as in the Hebrew commonwealth. The wage system was inaug-
urated to secure to each one the fruits of his toil. It was over the work
of the laboring man that the master had control, not over the man.
Indeed the evils of the wage system were scrupulously guarded against
in that the employer was charged by the law as by conscience to have
regard for the physical, moral and spiritual well being of his employes
and their families.

To the solution of all the problems, which under the varying condi-
tions of the different lands and different ages, always have arisen and
always will arise the Jewish legislation in its inception and develop-
ment affords an extraordinary contribution. It has studiously avoided
the fallacies of the extremists of both the communistic and individual-
istic economic doctrines. Thus it was taught: He that saith, "What is
mine is thine and what is thine is mine" (communism), he is void of a
moral concept. He that saith, "What is mine is mine and what is
thine is thine," he has the wisdom of prudence. But some of the sages
declare that this teaching too rigidly held oft leads to barbarous cruel-
ties. He that saith, "What is mine is thine and what is thine shall re-
main thine," he has the wisdom of the righteous. He that says that,
"What is mine is mine and what is thine is also mine," he is utterly
Godless. (Pirque Aboth. v, 13.)

Judaism has calmly met the wild outbursts of extremists of thd
anti-poverty nihilistic tyi)es with the simple confession of the fact
which is a resultant of the imperfections of human nature: "The needy
will not be wanting in the land." (Deut. xv, n.) The brotherly care
of the needy is the common solicitude of the Jewish legislatures and\
people in every age. Their neglect or abuse evokes the wrath of
prophet, sage and councillor with such a fury that even today none
but the morally dead can withstand their eloquence. The effort of

Freedom o f
the Individaal.

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184

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

The Common
Welfare.

all legislation and instruction was directed to a harmonization of these
two extremes.

The freedom of the individual was recognized as involving the de-
velopment of unlike capacities. From this freedom all progress
springs. But all progress must be made, not for the selfish advantage
of the individual alone, but for the common welfare, "That thy brother
with thee may live." (Lev. xxv, 36.) Therefore, private property in
land or other possessions was regarded as only a trust, because every-
thing is God's, the Father's, to be acquired by industry and persever-
ance by the individual, but to be held by him only to the advantage
of all.

To this end were established all the laws and institutions of trade,
of industry, and of the system of inheritance, the code of rentals, the
jubilee year that every fiftieth year brought back the land which had
been sold into the original patrimony, the seventh or .Sabbatical year,
in which the lands were tallow, all produce free to the consumer, the
tithings of field and flock, the loans to the brother in need without
usury, and the magnificent system of obligatory charities, which still
hold the'germ of the wisdom of all modern scientific charity. "Let
the poor glean in the fields" (Lev. xix, 10), and gather through his
own efforts what he needs, /. e., give to each one not support, but the
opportunity to secure his own support.

A careful study of these Mosaic-Talmudic institutions and laws is
bound more and more to be recognized as of untold worth to the
present in the solution of the social question. True, these codes
were adapted to the needs of a peculiar people, homogeneous in char-
acter, living under certain conditions and environments which i)roba-
bly do not now exist in exactly the same order anywhere. We cannot
use the statutes, but their aim and spirit, their motive and method we
must adopt in the solution of the social problem even today. Con-
sider that the cry of woe which is ringing in our ears now was never
heard in Judea. Note that in all the annals of Jewish history there
are no records of the revolts of slaves such as those which afflicted the
world's greatest empire, and under Spartacus threatened the national
safety, nor any uprisings like those of the Plebeians of Rome, the
Demoi of Athens, or the Helots of Sparta; no wild scenes like those
of the Paris Commune; no procession of hungry men, women and
children crying for bread, like those of London, Chicago and Denver.
Pauperism, that specter of our country, never haunted the ancient
land of Judea. Tramps were not known there.

Because the worst evils which afflict the social body today were
unknown under the Jewish legislation, we may claim that we have
here the pattern of what was the most successful social system that
the world has ever known. Therefore does Judaism lift up her voice
and call back her spiritual children, that in her bosom they may find
comfort and rest. "Come back to the cradle of the world, where wis-
dom first spake," she cries, "and learn again the message of truth that
for all times and unto all generations was proclaimed through Israel's

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS

185

precept, 'Love thy neighbor as thyself, for I am God.'" (Lev. xix,

l8.)

The hotly contested social questions of our civilization are to be
settled neither according to the ideas of the capitalist nor those of the
laborer; neither according to those of the socialist, the communist, the
anarchist or the nihilist; but simply and only according to the eternal
laws of morality of which Sinai is the loftiest symbol. The guiding
l)rinciplesof all true social economy are embodied in the simple lessons
t)f Judaism. As the world has been redeemed from idolatry and its
moral corruption by the vital force of Jewish ideas so can it likewise
be redeemed from social debasement and chaos.

Character is the basic precept of Judaism. It claims as the mod-
ern philosopher declares (Herbert Spencer) that there is no political
alchemy by which you can get golden conduct out of leaden instincts.
Whatever the social system it will fail unless the conscience of men
and women are quick to heed the imperative orders of duty and to the
obligations and responsibilities of power and ownership. The old
trutli of righteousness so emphatically and rigorously insisted on from
the first by Judaism must be the new truth in every changing phase of
economic and industrial life. Only thus can the social questions be
solved. In her insistence on this doctrine Judaism retains her place
in the van of the religions of humanity.

Let the voice of the mother of religions be heard in the parliament
of all religions. May the voice of the mother not plead in vain. May
the hearts of the nations be touched and all the unjust and cruel re-
strictions of ages be removed from Israel in all lands, so that the eman-
cipated may go in increasing colonies back to the native pursuits of
agriculture and the industries so long denied them. May the colonies
of the United .States of America, Argentine and Palestine be an earnest
to the world of the purity of Israel's motives; may the agricultural and
industrial schools maintained by the Alliance Israelite Universelle,the
Haron dc Hirsch Trust and the various Jewish organizations of the civ-
ilized world from Palestine to California, prove Israel's ardor for the
honors of industrj'; may the wisdom of her schools, the counsel of her
sages, the inspiration of her lawgivers, the eloquence of her prophets,
the rai)ture of her psalmists, the earnestness of all her advocates, in-
creasingly win the reverent attention of humanity to, and fix them
unswervingly upon the everlasting laws of righteousness which she has
set ;t« the only basis for the social structure.

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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the basis of what has been said about him in history (so called), in
fiction, or other forms of literature, both prose and poetry, he would
find himself confused and baffled, and would be compelled to give up
his task in despair. The greatest paradoxes have been expressed
about the Jew. The vilest of vices and crimes, as well as the greatest
of virtues have been attributed to him. Pictures of him have been
painted as dark as Barabbas and as light as Mordecai, while between
the two may be found every shade of wickedness and goodness.

There can be no doubt but that many errors and misconceptions
about the Jew can be traced to this source. The opinions of the
world are to a great extent formed by what men read in history or
fiction, in any form of prose or poetry. In this way so great an injus-
tice has been done to the Jew that it will be impossible for mankind
ever to rectify it or atone therefor. To cite but one example out ot an
infinite number, I refer to Shakespeare's portrayal of the Jew in his
character of Shylock, This picture is untrue in every heinous detail.
The Jew is not revengeful as Shylock. Our very religion is opposed
to the practice of revenge, the "le.x talionis" having never been taken
literally, but interpreted to mean full compensation for injuries. The
Jew, in all history, is never known to have exacted a pound of human
flesh cut from the living body as forfeit for a bond. Such was an
ancient Roman practice. Shylock can be nothing more than a carica-
ture of the Jew, and yet the world has applauded this abortion of lit-
erature, this contortion of the truth more than the ideal portrait which
Lcssing drew of Israel in his "Nathan, the Wise."

If any one coming from another world were to inquire of the
inhabita:'ts of this world regarding the character of the Jew, their
beliefs and practices, he would obtain the most incongruous mixture
of opinions. A dense ignorance exists about the Jews regarding their
social and domestic life, their history and literature, their achieve-
ments and disappointments, their religion, ideals and hopes. And
this ignorance is not confined merely to ordinary men but prevails also
among scholars. Ovid, Tacitus, Shakespeare, Voltaire and Renan,
most heathen and Christian writers, have been guilty of entertaining,
and, what is more culpable, of disseminating erroneous ideas about the
descendants of ancient Israel.

" In regard to the Jews," says George Elliot, " it would be difficult
to find a form of bad reasoning about them which had not been heard
in conversation or been admitted to the dignity of print, but the neg-
lect of resemblances is a common property of dullness which invites
all the various points of view, the prejudiced, the puerile, the spiteful
and the abysmally ignorant. Our critics have always overlooked our
resemblances to thera (the Jews) in virtue; have, in fact, denounced in
Jews the same practices which they admired in themselves."

There is no doubt but that prejudice against the Jews is as much
a cause of ignorance and false reasoning as a result therefrom.

When I sometimes hear or read a certain class of opinions con-
cerning the Jews, I am reminded of an anecdote about Bishop Brooks,

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

189

He attended a meeting in England, at which an Englishman declared,
"All Americans are narrow minded and illiberal. They are in spirit,
just as in body, small, dwarfed and pigmy." The late Bishop Brooks
then arose in all the majesty of hii colossal stature, and called out in
his stentorian voice, "And here is one ot those American dwarfs."

For the sake of completeness I will speak of the error ordinarily
CO nmitted of referring to the Jew as a particular race. Hebrew is the
name of an ancient race from which the Jew is descended, but there
have been so many admixtures to the original race that scarcely a
trace of it exists in the modern Jews. Intermarriage with Egyptians,
the various Canaanitish nations, the Midianites, Syrians, etc., are fre-
(juently mentioned in the Bible. There have also been additions to the
Jews by voluntary conversions such as that in the eighth century, of
Bulan, prince of the Chasars and his entire people. We can, therefore,
not be said to be a distinct race today.

We form no separate nation and no faction of any nation. Nor is
there any general desire to return to Palestine and resurrect the
ancient nationality. We can only look with misgiving, rather with in-
difference, upon any organized effort undertaken by fanatic believers
who arc deeply concerned in the fulfillment of certain Biblical prophe-
cies. They overlook the fact that those prophecies have either already
been, or need never be, fulfilled.

We form merely an independent religious community and feel
keenly the injustice that is done us when the religion of the Jew is
singled out for aspersion, whenever such a citizen is guilty of a misde-
meanor. Jew is not to be used parallel with German, Englishman,
American, but with Christian, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Moham-
medan or Atheist.

Over fifty years ago the late Isaac DTsraeli wrote that "the*
Jewish people are not a nation, for they consist of many nations; they
are Russian, English, French, or Italian, and, like the chameleon;
reflect the color of the spot they rest on. They are like the waters
running through the countries tinged in their course with all the varie-
ties of the soil where they deposit themselves."

An eminent Jewish divine, in a spirit of indignation at some harsh «
criticism cast upon the Hebrew nation, so called, asked: "If we are aj
separate nation, where is our country; where, our laws; where, our 1
armies; where, our courts of justice; where, our flag?" To this ques- \
tion the critic made no reply. But we, here in congress assembled,
can unitedly answer: "The land of our nativity, or of our adoption, is
our country. Its laws we obey; in its armies we find our comrades; by
the decision of its courts we abide; under its flag we seek protection,
and for it we are ready to sacrifice our substance and our lives and to
pledge our sacred honor."

We are, furthermore, often charged with exclusiveness and clan-
nishness, with having only narrow, tribal aspirations, and with being
averse to breakmg down social barriers. Few outside of that inner
close circle that is to be met in the Jewish home, or .social group, know

Mode*n JewH
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T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

aught of the Jew's domestic happiness and social virtues. If there is
any clannishncss in the Jew, it is due not to any contempt for the out-
•.ide world, but to an utter abandon to the charm of home and the fas-
cination of confreres in thouijht and sentiment.

However, if there is a remnant of exclusiveness in the Jews of
today, is he to blan.c for it? Did he create the social barrier? We
must a.i^ree with j\Ir. Zan^jwil when he says: "People who have been
living m a Ghetto for a coujjle of centuries are not able to step outside
merely because the gates are thrown down, or to efface the brandi on
their souls by put*, ng off the yellow badges. The isolation from with-
out will have come to seem the law of their being." (Children of the
Ghetto, i,0.)

None is more desirous of fraternity than the Jew, but he will not
gain it at the loss of his manhood, lie will not accept fraternity as a
patronage, but would rather claim it as a simple matter of equality.
That is a i)oint which our critics and detractors do not understand.
Again, if the Jew is exclusive, it is due to the fact that while he is
willing to come to any truce for brotherhood, he declines to do so and
be regarded as legitimate prey for religious concpiest. And that is a
point which tlie missionaries cannot understand.

The fact that Jews are, as a rule, averse to intermarriage with non-
Jews has been cpujled in evidence of Jewish exclusiveness. Two
errors seem to underlie this false reasoning. The one that Judaism
dn-ectly interdicts intermarriage with Christians, and the other that
the Jewish church disciplines those who are guilty of such an act. The
Mosaic law, at best only forbade intermarriage with the seven Canaanit-
ish nations and, though the only justifiable inference would be that this
intc'-diction applies also to heathens, still by rabbinical forms of inter-
pretation it has been made to applj- also to Christians. The historical
fact is that the Roman Catholic council held at Orleans, in 533 A. C.
K., first prohibited Christians to intermarry w ith Jews. This decree
was later enforced by meting out the penalty of death to both parties
to such a union. Jewish rabliis, then, as a matter of self-protection,
interdicted the practice of intermarriage. And though today, men
are free to act according to their tastes, there exists on the part of the
Jew as much repugnance to intermarriage as on the part of the Chris-
tian. Such ties are, as a rule, not encouraged by the families of either
side, and for very good cause. And even if there exists on the part of
the Jew a greater aversion to intermarriage, this cannot and should
not be charged to a desire for elannishness or exclusiveness, but rather
to those natural barriers that separate Jewish from Christian society.

It is not my purpose, at present, to lay the blame for the creation
or continuance of such barriers, but only to submit that social ostracism,
as that term is understood today, has never in any form been under-
taken by Jews. A sense of just pride even constrains me from strongly
protesting against the social ostracism that, at times, manifests itself
against the Jew. I desire here to merely point out the error that
seems to inspire it, namely, the grievous error that ostracism is sup-

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

191

posed to purify the one side of all objectionable characters, and to
stamp all ostracised as the outcast of the earth. We are familiar with
that false logic that infers a broad generality from a few isolated par-
ticulars, which imputes the sins of an individual to the class of which
he may be a member, which charges the misdemeanor of one upon a
whole people, which condemns a religion because of the wickedness
of a few hypocrites, which punishes the guilty with the innocent. And
it is such faPacious reasoning thatjs time and again applied to Jews,
with this exception that the virtues of a Montefiore or a Baron de
Hirsch arc not generalized in the same manner. We are convinced
that Jews who have outlived the terrors of the Inquisition will be able
to live down all abuse, all false reasoning, and maintain the majesty of
their manhood even outside the charmed circle of self-appointed
censors of social life. But we must protest against the error which
mistakes ostracism for exclusiveness. In this case the latter is a
virtue, the former a vice, a crime. Let the verdict of history say who
is guilty?

We have even been charged with exclusiveness in our religion, so lit-
tle is our practice known. I have myself been lately asked by a lady who
makes some pretense to education, whether she could not go to the
synagogue in order to see the offering of animal sacrifices and the
burning of incense. She had supposed that the Jewish religion was a
secret, mysterious rite, to witness which was only the privilege of the
initiated. Frequently we are asked whether non-Jews are permitted
to enter a Jewish house of worship. Error and misrepresentation
about Judaism are common. A Christian divine once remarked that
the offering of the Paschal lamb in the synagogue, at this very day,
contains a sublime picture of the transfiguration of Christ. And re-
cently in New York (anil perhaps in other cities also), a missionary
was giving iierformanccs in Christian churches, showing how the Jews
still offer the Paschal lamb. If such gross errors and misrepresenta-
tions are current and are taught in this country with the connivance of
men in authority who know better, it is not difficult to understand how
benighted peasants in Europe can be made to believe that Jews use
the blood of Christian children at the Passover services, and how such
monstrous calumnies could rouse the prejudice and vengeance of the
ignorant masses.

So little is Judaism understood by even educated men outside of
our ranks, that it is commonly believed that all Jews hold the same
form of faith and practice. Here the same error of reasoning is used
to which reference has already been made, in speaking of the char-
acter of the Jew as an individual and as a class. Because some Jews still
believe inthe coming of a personal Messiah, or in bodily resurrection, or
in the establishment of the Palestinian kingdom, the inference is at
once drawn by many that all Jews hold the same belief. Very little
is known by the populace of the several schisms in modern Judaism
ilenominated as Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Radical. It is
not my province to speak exhaustively of these sects, and it must suf-

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fice to merely remark here that Orthodox Judaism believes in carry-
ing out the letter of the ancient Mosaic code as expounded by the
Talmudic rabbis; that Reform Judaism seeks to retain the spirit only
of the ancient law, discarding the absolute authority of both Bible and
Talmud, making reason and modern demands paramount; that Con-
servatism is merely a moderate Reform, while Radicalism declares
itself independent of established forms, clinging mainly to the ethical
basis of Judaism.

Reform Judaism has been the specially favored subject of mis-
understanding and of ignorance. Recently an eminent Christian divine
of St. Louis objected to extending an invitation to a Reform rabbi to
lecture before the Ministers' Association, on the plea that "y\ll Reform
Jews are infidels." A still grosser piece of ignorance is the identifica-
tion of Reform Judaism with Unitarianism. As scholarly and finished
a writer as Frances Power Cobbe, in a recent article on "Progressive
Judaism," made bold to show her extreme interest in this Reform
movement, believing it to evidence a breaking up oi; Judaism alto-
gether and a turning toward Christianity. Far from breaking up
Judaism, Reform has strengthened it in many ways and retained in the
fold those who would have gone over, not to Christianity, but to
Atheism. Judaism can never tend toward Christianity, in any sense,
notably to Unitarianism; the latter rather is gradually breaking away
from Christianity and tending toward Jewish belief. For the present,
however. Reform Judaism still stands opposed to even the most liberal
Unitarians and protests against hero worship, against a second revela-
tion and the necessity of a better code of ethics than the one pro-
nounced by Moses and the prophets.

To prevent the inference that Judaism is no positive quantity and
that there are irreconcilable differences dividing the various sects, I
will say that all Jews agree on essentials and declare their belief in the
Unity and Spirituality of God, in the eflficacy of religion for spiritual
regeneration and for ethiral improvement, in the universal law of com-
pensation according to which there are reward and punishment, eith?r
here or hereafter, in the final triumph of truth and fraternity of all
men. It may be briefly stated that the decalogue forms the constitu-
tion of Judaism. According to Moses, the prophets and the historical
interpretation of Judaism, whoever believes and practices the "ten
commandments" is a Jew.

P>rors about the Jew pertain not only to questions of race and
nationality, not only to his individual, domestic and social character,
not only to his religion, but also to his inherent power to resist the
condemnation and opposition of an evil enemy and his persistent ex-
istence in spite of the destructive forces of a hostile world. The very
fact that after so many fruitless efforts to destroy the Jew by persecu-
tion and inquisition, similar efforts are still put forth, only proves that
the itivincibility of Israel has ever been, and is still underestimated. It
is a fact that the cause of the Jew is strengthened in times of persecu-
tion. When the hand of the oppressor is felt, the oppressed band

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

193

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together encourage one another, become more faithful to their God,
firmer in their conviction and more zealous in behalf of their religion.
It has been said that martyrdom is the seed of the church. This is no
less true of Judaism. The very means adopted to destroy it have only
plowed up the fallow land and planted a stronger faith. Persecution
against any religion is a wanton error, a monstrous blasphemy.

The very traducers and persecutors of the Jews arc the real ene-
mies of Christianity. Russia has set Christianity one or two centuries
backward. Anti-Semitic agitation in Germany will have a similar re-
sult. The church is committing a monumental blunder in conniving
at this nineteenth century outrage and must sooner or later be over-
taken by her Nemesis. The church should in her own interest, in the
name of her own principles and teachings, rise up in arms against
unholy Russia and unrighteous Germany.

When persecution had done its work to no avail, when inquisition
failed to make any impression on the Jew in order to induce him to
leave his brethren, detraction and ostracism were resorted to in order
to weaken the hold of the Jew upon his co-religionists. We have
already referred to some forms of this persecution and wish to add that
Jews were falsely charged with having poisonous wells, with having spread
contagi us diseases and been the cause of the black death and every
public c lamity. Strenuous efforts have also been made to impair
their com nercial relations with the world. Jews have been condemned
as a people of usurers, of avaricious money-lenders, as consumers in
contradiction to producers. "In the Middle Ages," says Lady Mag-
nus (Outlines of Jewish History), "'.7t:i'' meant to the popular mind
nothing more than money-lender. Men spoke of having their 'Jews,'
as we speak of having our grocers and druggists. Kach served a par-
ticular pumcse and was primarily regarded in connection with that
service. The real reason was never recognized by popular judgment,
and the rude peasant of medieval Europe firmly believed that the Jew
amassed more money than those about him, not because he was more
industrious or more frugal, but because he was meaner, trickier, more
deceitful, and, if necessary, positively dishonest." Whatever may be
the reprehensible practice of individuals, such an aspersion docs not
apj)ly to the Jewish character, Jewish teachings, both in Scripture and
Talmud, being ojjposed to usury and overreaching of whatever kind.

It is malicious slander to class the Jews as consumers, as distin-
guished from producers. The Jew is by birthright a tiller of the soil. Of
this birthright he has been robbed by rapacious governments. Through
centuries of jjersecution, when he was but a wandering sojourner on
the earth, with no country he could call his own, no government to
love, no flag to revere, he was like a tortoise that carries his house
with him. The Jew was compelled to traffic in moneys and gems which
he could take with him from place to place as necessity demanded.
Today, however, he is found in all trades and professions; today he is
agriculturist, mechanic and artist, partakes of all the bounties of free
citizenship and must be counted among the producers of the world.

Roal K n e
mipH of ("hrir'
tianity.

i-ii ,

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THE WORLD'S CONGkESS OF RELIGIONS.

V-

And what shtll \vc say of the Bible, the Talmufi, music and poetry, art
and science, which tlie Jews have contributed to the intellectual and
material wealth of mankind! To st'U repeat the old threadbare
charge is worse tlwin malicious slander, it is criminal detraction, a sub-
version of all fact, a travesty upon truth.

There is sufficient reason to believe that all persecution and
detraction of Jews rest on the further fundamental erroneous supposi-
tion that Jews can, in some way or other, be converted to Christianity.
When men think they can destroy the Jew and his religion, they forget
his indomitable patience, his untiring perseverance, his almost stolid
obstinacy. When they endeavor to crush him, they overlook his
hardened nature, steeled by trials and misfortune. When they expect
to lure him from his associates, and wean him from his religion, they
lose sight of his keen wit, his sense of the humorous and ridiculous.
When they endeavor to punish him with ostracism, they fail to note
his cheerful disposition, his happy home, and charming .social in-
stincts. When they endeavor to injure his influence by slander and
detraction, they are blind to his utter disregard for public fa\ors, and
to his ability to rise to any emergency. When they look forward to
converting him by force of persuasion, by threat or bribe, they disclose
their ignorance of his deepseated conviction of the truth of his own
religion.

The meager results achieved by missionaries and tracts have
proved how futile are all efforts to convert the Jews. And even those
few who have changed their faith have done so, there is amjile reason
Futile Efforts to bclievc, ouly through mercenary motives, only because abject pov-
j^wb""^""^' "'" crty forced them to accept the bribe that was temptingly held out
toward them. I believe there arc many sincere missionaries, and t!iat,
perhaps, among savages they accomplish some good as a civilizing
leaven, but among the Jews their labors are uncalled for ami
misdirected.

This whole modern system of anti-Semitic agitation, and of
.ittenipts to convert the Jews by any means, reveals to us the errone-
ous impression entertained by many, it seems, that Jews have entered
into a kind of secret rivalry with the rest of the world for the suprem-
acy of Judaism and its followers. Nothing could be further removed
from the truth. Jews do not aspire to supremacy (perhaps unfortun-
ately ) religiously, .socially, or politically. They desire no distinction
as a ])articular sect, apart from the re.st of the world, in dress, habits,
maniicis, social features or politics. Jews have renounced the title of
" Peculiar People," and regard such a sobriquet rather as a reproach
than a compliment. They claim the name of Jew merely as a term
denoting their particular faith and practice. In religion only are Jews
different from others, aid they claim the right as free men to worship
their God in peace, according to the dictates of their own and not
another's conscience.

The Jew is tolerant by nature, tolerant by virtue of his religious
teaching. He believes in allowing every man, what he claims for him-

ry, art

il and

adbarc

a sub-

TlIE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUUIONS.

103

self, the right to work out his own salvation and make liis own peace
with God. Me has only one important request to make of Christian
teachers and preachers, namely, that they desist from teaching their
school children and congregations the prevailing error that the Jews
have crucified Jesus of Nazareth. Because of this great error the
believing world looks upon the Jew through an imperfect medium,
one that enlarges faults and minimizes virtues. It is this error which
has caused so much prejudice, bitter hatred and unjust persecution.
If it were once corrected the way would be opened for the correction
of many other errors. Now is the great opportunity of the age for
rectifying it. Let the truth to told to the world by the assembled
parliament of religions, that not the Jews but the " Romans have cru-
cified the great Nazarean teacher."

An Krri>r tlin
CaiiH)- i>r .Muvli
I'rt'jndicc.

fil

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-Rev. John J. Keane, D. D. (Rector Catholic University,) Washingtou, D. C

yhe Incarnation Idea in p-Iistory and in

Jesus (Christ.

Paper by RT. REV. JOHN J. KEANE, D. D., of Washington, D. C.

HE subject assifjiied to nic is so vast that an
hour would not suffice to do it justice. I leiice,
in the space of thirtj- minutes I can only point
out certain lines of thouj^ht, trusting, houextr,
that their truth will be so manifest and thvir
sif^nificancc so evident that the conclusion to
which they lead may be clearl\- reco^ni/ed as
a demonstrated fact.

Cicero has truly said that there nc\erwas\
a race of atheists. Cesare Balbo has noted
with equal truth that there ne\er has been ^
race of deists. Individual atheists and indi-l
vidual deists there have always been, but the\i
have always been recognized as abnormal
beings. Humanity listens to them. wei<;hs
their utterances in the scales of reason, smiles sadly at their xa^arics,
and holds fast the two-fold conviction that there is a Supreme lieinfj,
the Author of all else th^vt is; and that man is not left to the mercy of
ignorance or of guess work in regard to the purpose of his being, but
has knowledge of it from the great Father.

This sublime conception of the existence of (iod and of the exist-
ence of revelation is not a spontaneous generation from the brain of
man. Tyndal and Pasteur have demonstrateil that there is no spon-
taneous generation from the inorganic to the organic. Just as little is Existonce of
there, or could there be, a spontaneous generation of the idea of the Revelation.
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 of the Divine by the Divine, that in that
knowledge he might know why he himself existed, and how his life
was to be shaped.

Curiosly, strangely, sadly as that primitive teaching of man by
his Creator has been transformed in the lapse of ages, in the vicissi-

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108

T//JS WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

tudcs of ilistaiit waiulcriiu^s, of varying fortunes and of changinff cul-
ture, still the comparative study of ancient religions shows that in
them all there has existed one central, i)ivotal concept, dressed, indeed,
in various garbs of myth and legend and philosophy, yet ever recog-
nizably the same — the concept of the fallen race of man and of a future
restorer, deliverer, reileemer, who, being human, should yet be different
from and above the merely human.

Again we ask, whence this concept? And again the sifting of

Aufieiit Mem- scrious aud honest criticism demonstrates that it is not a spontaneous

orjof till. Jiu- frcneratron of the huiuan brain, that it is not the outgrjwtli of man's

contemplatu)n or nature around Imui and of the sun and stars above

. him, although, once having the concept, ho could easily find in all

nature symbols and analogies of it. It is part, and the central part, of

the ancient menu)ry of the human race, telling man what he is and

why he is such, and how he is to attain to something better as his

heart \eanis to do.

(ilancing now, in the light of the history of religions, at that
stream of tradition as it comes down the ages, we sec it divide into two
clearly distinct branches — o- shaping thought, or shaped by thought,
in the eastern h.df of Asia; the other in the western half. And these
two separate streams receive their distinctive character from the idea
prevalent in the east and west of Asia concerning the nature of man,
and, consecpiently, concerning his relation to God.

In the west of Asia, the Semitic branch of the human family, to
gether with its Aryan neighbors of Persia, considered man as a sub-
stantial individuality, produced by the Infinite Heing, and produced
as a distinct entity, distinct from his Infinite Author in his own finite
personality, and through the immortality of the soul.

I'2astern Asia, on the contrary, held that man had not a substan-
tial individualit}', but only a phenomenal individuality. There is, they
said, only one substance — the Infinite; all things arc but phenomena,
emanations of the Infinite. "Behold," say the Laws of Manou, "how
the sparks leap from the flame and fall back into it; so all things ema-
nate from Hrahma and again lose themselves in him." "Behold," says
Buddhism, "how the dewdrop lies on the lotus leaf, a tiny particle of
the stream, lifted from it by evaporation and slipping off the lotus
leaf to lose itself in the stream again." Thus they distinguished
between being and existence, between persisting substance, the Infinite
and the evanescent jjhenomena emanating from it for a while.

From these opposite conct,)ts of man sprang opposite concepts
of the nature of good and evil. In western Asia, good was the con-
formity of the finite will with the will of the Infinite, which is wisdom
and love; evil was the deviation of the finite will from the eternal
norma of wisdom and love. Hence individual accountability and
guilt, as long as the deviation lasted; hence the cure of evil when the
finite will is brought back into conformity with the Infinite; hence the
happiness 'of virtue and the bliss of immortality and the value of
existence. Eastern Asia, per contra, considered existence as simply and

THE WORLD'S CUNUKEHS OF RELIGIONS.

100

cul-
it in
Iced,

11 1 lire
crcnt

ami

solely ail evil; in tact, the sole and all-pervadinjj evil, and the unly
^'uod was deliverance from existence, the extinction of all individuality
in the oblivion of the Infinite, Although existence was conceived as
the work of the Infinite — nay, as an emanation coming forth from the
Infinite — yet it was considered simply a curse, and all human duty had
this for its meaning and its purpose, to break loose from the fetters of
existence ami to help others with ourselves to reach non-existence.

Hence a}j;ain, in western Asia, the future redeemer was conceived
as one masterful individuality, human, indeed, txpe and head of the
race, but also pervaded by the divinity in ways and ile^rees more or
less obscurely conceived and used by the divinity to break the chains
of moral evil and f^uilt— nay, often, they supposed, of phjsical and
national evils as well — and to brinj^ man back to happiness, to holi-
ness, to God. Thus, vaguely or more clearly, they helcl the idea of an
incarnation of the Deity for man's {^ood; and IIis incarnation was nat-
urally looked forward to as the crowninjf blessing and ^lory of
humanity,

In eastern Asia, on the contrary, as man and a'' tliinj^fs were re-
f^arded as phenomenal emanations of the Infiniti-, it followed that
every man >ias an incarnation. And hence this ,/heiU)menal existence
was considered a curse, which metempsychosis dnij;;;ed out pitifully.
.And if th'MC was room for the notion of a redeemer, he was to be one
recoffui/iufj more clearly than others what a curse existence is, stru^-
<jliiig more resolutely than others to ^^et out of it, and exhortiiifr and
guidinfT others to escape from it with him.

W'e pause to estimate these two .systems. We easilj- reco^inize
that their fundamental difference is a difference of philosophy. The
touchstone of philosophy is human reason, and we have a lisjjht to
apply it to all forms of philosoph)'. With no irreverence, therefore,
but in all reverence and tenderness (jf religious s\'mpath\-, we apply
to the j)hilosophies underlying those two systems, the touchstone of
reason.

We ask eastern .Asia, How can the phenomena of the lnfinite\
Being be finite? Vox phenomena are not entities in themselves, but)
phases of being. We have only to look cahnly in order to sec here a»
contradiction in terms, an incompatibility in ideas, an impossibility.

We ask again. How can the emanations of the Infinite Being be
evil? For the Infinite Being must be essentially good. Zoroaster
declared that Ahriman, the evil one, had had a beginning and would
have an c\\i\, and was, therefore, not eternal nor infinite. And if there
is but one substance, then the emanations, the phenomena of the Infi-
nite Being are Himself; how can they be evil? How can His incarna-
tion be the one great curse to get free from?

Again we ask, How can this human individuality of ours, so strong,!
so persistent in itsclf-consciousncss and self-assertion, be a phenome-i
non without a substance? Or, if it has as its substance the Infinite
Being Himself, then how can it be, as it too often is, so ignorant and
erring, so weak and changeful, so lying, so dishonest, so mean, so vile?

Differpneo
I'hiloHopliy.

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200

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

ifi

No AnHwor
that lieiiNou
Can Acci'Dt.

For, let us remember, that acts arc predicated not of phenomena, but
of substance, of beinj^.

J Once more we ask, If human existence is but a curse, and if tlie
jOnly blessing is to restrain, to resist, to thwart and get rid of all that
'constitutes it, then what a mockery and a lie is that aspiration after
liuman proj^ress, which ij^urs noble men to their noblest achievements!
To these questions pantheism, emanationism, has no answer that
reason can accept. It can never constitute a philosophy, because its
bases are contradictions. Shall we say that a thing may be false in
philosophy and yet true in religion? That was said once by an
inventor of paradoxes; but reason repudiates it as absurd, and the
apostle of the Gentiles has well said that religion must be "our reason-
able service." Human life, incarnation, redemption, must mean some-
^ thing different from this. For the spirit that breathes through the
(tradition of the east, the spirit of profound self-annihilation in the
I presence of the Infinite and of ascetic self-immolation as to the things
j of sense, we not only may but ought to entertain the tenderest sym-
pathy, nay, the sincerest reverence. Who that has looked into it but
has felt the fascination of its mystic gloom? Hut religion means more
than this; it is meant not for man's heart alone, but for his intellect
also. It must have for its foundation a bed rock of solid philosophy.
Turn we then and apjily the touchstone to the tradition of the west.

Here it needs no lengthy philosophic reflection to recogni/e how
true it is that what is not self-existent, what has a beginning must be
finite, and that the finite must be substantially distinct from the Infi-
nite. W'e recognize that no multiplication of finite individualties can
detract from the Infinite, nor could their adtlition add to the Infinite;
for infinitude resides not in multiplication of things, but in the bound-
less essence of Being, in whose simple and all-pervading immensity
the multitude of finite things have their existence gladly and grate-
fully. "What have you that you have not received? y\nd if you have
received it, why should you glory as if you had not receivetl it?" This
is the keynote not only of their humble dependence, but also of their
gladsome thank fulnes.s.

We recognize that man's substantial individuality, his spiritual
immortality, his indiviilual power of will and consequent moral respon-
sibility, are great truths linked together in manifest logic, great facts
standing together inimovablw

We see that natural ills are the logical result of the limitations of
the finite, and that moral evil is the result of the deviation of humanity
from the norma of the Infinite, in which truth and rectitude essentially
reside.

Wc see that the end and purpose and destiny, as well as the ori-
gin, of the finite must be in the Infinite; not in the extinction of the
finite individuality— else why should it receive existence at all- but in
its perfection and beatitude. y\nd therefore we see that man's upward
aspiration for the better and the best is no illusion, but a reasonable
instinct for the right guidance of his life.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUGIGNS.

201

All thi.s we fiiul explicitly stated or plainly implied in the tradi-
tion of the west. Hi. re we have a philosophy concerninjf God and
concerning man, which may well serve as the rational basis ot religion.
What, then, has this tradition to tell us concerning the incarnation and
the redemption?

From the beginning we see every finger pointing toward "the
expected of the nations, the desired of the everlasting hills." One after
another the patriarchs, the pioneer fathers of the race, remind their
descendants of the promise given in the beginning. Revered as they
were, c%ch of them says: "I am not the expected one; look forward
and strive to be worthy to receive Him."

yvmong all those great leaders Moses stands forth in special grand-
eur and majesty. But in his sublime humility and truthfulness Closes
also exclaims: "I am not the Messiah; I am only His type and figure
and precursor. The Lord hatli used me to deliver His people from the
land of bondage, but hath not permitted me to enter the promised
land because 1 trespassed against Him in the midst of the children of
Israel at the waters of contradiction; I am but a figure of the sinless
One who is to deliver mankind from the bondage of evil and lead
them into the promised land of their eternal inheritance. Look for-
ward and pre])are for Him."

One after another the prophets, the glorious sages of Israel, arise,
and each, like Moses, points forward to Him that is to come. And
each brings out in clearer light who and what He is to be, the nature
of the incarnation. "Heboid, a virgin shall conceive and shall bring
forth a son and He shall be called iMiimanuel." That is God with us. "A
little chiltl is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the principality
is on His shoulder, and He shall be called the Wonderful, the Coun-
selor, the Mightv God, the l\'ither of the world to come, the Prince of
I'eacc."

Outside of the land of Israel the nations of the Gentiles were stirred
with similar declarations and expectancies. .Soon after the time of
Moses Zoroaster gives to Persia the pretliction of a future Saviour and
jud<;e of the world.

Greece hear.« the olden promise that Prometheus shall yet be de-\
livcred from his chains re-echoed in the prayer of dear old Socrates
that one would come from heaven to teach His people the truth and'
save them from the sensualism to which tliey clung so obstinately.,
And pagan Rome, the inherit. jr of all that '-hI preceded her, hears thd
sibyls chanting of the Divine One that wa^ to be given to the world hy
the wonderful virgin mother, and feels the thrill of that universal ex-
pecta'Ty concerning which Tacitus testifies that all were then looking
for a great leader who was to arise in Judea and to rule the world.

And the expectation of the world was not to be frustrated. At
the very time foretold by Daniel long ages before, of the tribe of
luda'i, of the family of David, in the little town of Bethlehem, with
fulfill. ncnt of all the predictions of the prophets, the Messiah appears.
•'Behold," says the messenger of the Most High to the Virgin of Na/.-

Tlio MeHMiaha

Not Only a
Kt*liKi(>ii )>iit it
i'liiliiKophy.

{ i 1

V '■ .'i'.i'

'>(i')

tiO'.

77/i? JVOi-iLD'^ COS*GRESS CF RELIGICNS.

arcth, "thou shall conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his n.unc Jesus, lie shall be great and shall be
calicil the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God shall give unto
Ilim the throne of David, His father, and He shall reign in the house
of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end." "How
shall this be done, l)ecause I know not man?" "The Holy Ghost shall
come upon thee, anil the power of the Most High shall overshadow
tliee; and, therefore, also the Holy One that shall be born of thee shall
lie called the Soi' of (Jod." "Jiehold the handmaid of the Lord: be it
(lone tf) ine according to thy word. *

And what then? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with Cjod. an*l the Word was God. i\nd the Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth, and tjf His fullness we a!l
have received." And concerning Him all subsequent tiges were to
chant the canticle of faith: "I believe in one God, the Father Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only
begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages; God of God,
Light of 1 jght, true God of true God, begotten, not made.consubstan-
tial with the Father, through whom all things were made, who, for us
men and l<>r our sahation, came down from heaven and was incarnated
l)\- the H()l\' (ihost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man."

Hut, again, to this tremendouL' dechiration, w hich involves not only
;i n ligion but a j)hilosophy also, we ma\-, and wo should, apply the
touchstone of reason and ask, "Is this possible or is it impossible
things that are here told us? For we never can be expected to believe
tiie impossible. Let us analyze the ideas comprised in it. Can God
and man thus become one?"

Now, first, reason testifies as to man that in him two distinct and,
as it would seem, opposite substances arc brought into unity, namely,
spirit and matter, the one not confounded with the otiicr yet both
linked in one, thus completing the unity and harmony of created things.
Next reason asks. Can the creature and the Creator, man and God, be
thus united in order that the unity and the harmony may embrace all?

Reason sees that the finite could not thus movmt 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 Hisbo.som and unite it with
Himself, with 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
reason can discern no contradiction of ideas, nothing beyond the
power of the Infinite. But could the Infinite stoop to this? Reason
sees tliat to do so would cost the Infinite nothing, since He is ever His
unchanging Self; it sees, moreover, that since creation 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 uj)
the creature and bring all things into unity and harmony. Then must
reason declare it is not only possible, but it is most fitting, that it
should be so.

Moreover, we sec that it is this very thing that all humanity has

'i:n: world's congress of religions.

^!(>:5

This very tliiiii;' ;ill rc-
jpiiiLj for in the

The Kxpeot<Kl
of the Nutiontt.

been craving" lor, whctlicr intclH^onlly or not.
lij^ions have been luokinfj^ forward to, or have been ^rijj
dark. Turn we then to Hini.self and ask: "Art Thou lie who is to
come, or look we for another?" To that juestion Me nuust answer,
for the world needs and must have the truth. Meek and humble of
heart though He be, the world has a rii^ht to know whether He be in-
deed "the ]\xpected of the Nations, the In.nianucl, Lord with us."
Tlicrcfore does He answer clearly and unmistakably:

"Abraham rejoiced that he should see My da\-. He saw it and
was ^lad."

"Art Thou, then, older than yXbraham?"

" Before Abraham was I am."

"Who art Thou, then?"

" 1 am the beginning, who also speak to you."

"Whosoever seeth .Sic seeth the Father; I and tiie (•atlur arc
one."

" No one cometh to the Father but by Me."

" 1 am the way and the truth and the life."

" I am the light of the W(Mld; he that foliowcth Me walketh not
in darkness, but shall have the light of life."

" I am the vine; you are the branches. Abide in Me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of i:self unless it abide in the vine, so
neither can j'ou unless \ou abide in Me, ft)r without .Me you can do
nothing."

He asks His disciples to declare who He is. .Simon u-plies:
"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."

He answers: "Blessed art thou, .Simon, son of Jona, because llcsh
and blood have not revealed this to thee, but My I'athcr who is in
heaven."

Thomas falls on his knees before Him, exclaiming, "My Lonl and
my God!" He answers, "Becau.sc thou hast seen Me, Thomas, thou
hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen anil ha\e \et
believed."

His enemies threaten to stone Him, "because," the}- said, "being
man. He maketh Himself God." They demand that for this reason
He shall be put to death. The high priest exclaims, "1 adjure Thee
by the living (iod, that Thou tell us if Thou be the Christ, tlie Son of
the living (iod." He answers, "Thou hast said it, 1 am; and one day
you shall see Me sitting on the right hand of the power of God and
coming in the clouds of heaven."

In fulfillment of the prophecies He is condemned to death. He
declares that it is for the world's redemption: "1 lay down My lite for
My sheep. No one takcth My life from Me, but I hxy down My life,
and 1 have powjr to lay down My life, and I have power tt) take it up
again."

As proof of all He said. He foretold His resurrection from death
on the third day, and in the glorious evidence of the fulfillment of the ..^[T".'*',"'' '^"
pledge His church has ever since been chanting the Faster anthem
throughout the world.

•;- iJ

I (

III

'jtil yy//; iiVA'/./ys coxc/A'/sss (>/■• /:al/c/oxs.

To thai clnircli I K- i^ivcs a ronimissioii ol" r.piritual ar.tliorily ex-
tending to all aues, io all nations, to evcr\- creature; a commission

that

1 ' H 1 1 in ( 1 n y

llim-rlf

would he madness

in aiu' mouth save that of God Incarnate.

This is the testimony concernintr 1 1 imsell" t^iven to an inquiring

riiin'i; and needy world In' Ilim whom no one will clare accuse of lyint^ or

nposture, and tin.' lo\ iuL; adoration of the aj^^i's proclaims that Ilis

le^ tnnon\' is true,

In ilim are fult'ilU'd all the t"i!:,nn'es and predictioiis of Moses and

tlie pr()pliet>

tile expectation and yearninj

of Israel. In 1 lim is

the fullness of L^race and of truth toward which the sashes of the Cien-
tdes, with sad or with eat^cr loni^inn-. stretched forth their hands. In
each of theni there was much that was true and ^ood; in Ilim was all
they had, and .ill the rest that the\' loni;ed for; in Him alone is the
fullness, and to all of them and all of their disciples wi- say: "Come
to the fullness."

I'Mwin .Arnold, who in his "Li^hl of Asia" has pictured in all the
colors of poes\- the saj^e of the far east, has in his later "Li^ht of the
World" brought that wisdom of the east in adoration to the feet of
lesus Christ. .Ma\- his words be a prophecy.

( ), I'.itlur, ^rant that the words of Thj- Son may hi! \erit"ied, that

all. liirou'.'li

im, m

m- at last be made one in Thee.

i;i:)

• )

i'"»*^irtltWlfl8^S'?*!

I'rcscnrri )f
0(Hliii Huiniiu
ity.

i ^

"yhe Incarnation of G^d in Christ.

Paper by REV. JULIAN K. SMYTH, of Boston.

Htnc

20(5

1 1

Rev. Julian K. Smyth (Church of the New Jerusalem), Bostot?, Mass.

'»illi

.■ ) . ■■

1 ■,'

f ■ •

■ >M ■

THE WORLD'S CONGKE^S OF KELICIOMS

tion

form and with various deforces of certainty, looked for. This is what
sang itself into the songs and prophesies of Israel.

"And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed; 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 expectatic^ns and fulfills
these promises, and that in the Word made flesh the glory of Jehovah
has been revealed and all flesh may see it together, luen in child-
hot)d He bears the name iMnmanuel, wiiicli, being interpreted, is "God
with us." He explains His work ami His presence by declaring that
it is tile coming of the kingdom— not of law, nor of earthly govern-
ment, nor of ecclesiasticism — but of (jod.

His purj)ose, to manifest and bring forth tlie l(»ve and the wisdom
of God; His miracles, simply the allestations of the divine imma-
nence; His supreme end, the culmination of all His labors; His suffer-
ings, His victories, to become the open and glorified medium of
divine life to the world. It is not another Moses, nor another IClias,
but God in the world--Gotl with us — this, the su])reme announcement
of Christianity, asserting his inuuanence, revealing God and man as
intended for each other and rousing in man slumbering wants and
capacities to realize the new \ision of manhood that dawns upon him
from this luminous figure.

Christianity aflirnis as a finulamental fact of the ' iod it worships
that He is a (iod who docs not hide or withhold Himself, but who is
ever going forth to man inthe effort to reveal Himself, and to be known
and felt according to the degree of man's capacity and need. This
self-manifcstation 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 (iod, not withdrawn in dreary
solitude, but coming into intelligible and personal manifestation. From
the beginnings — for so we may now read the "Golden Proem" of .St.
John's Gospel, with its wonderful spiritual history of the I-ogos— from
the beginning God has this desire to go forth to something outside of
Himself ami be known by it. "In the f)eginning was the Word."
Hence the creation. "All things were made by Him." Hence, too,
out of this divine desire to reveal and accommodate Himself to man,
His presence in various forms of religion. "He was in the world."
I'lven 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 sinfulness, his spiritual perceptions become dim
aiul lie 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

(il«iry
hovali.

.f Jo

Ifi

u .

110

THE WORLD'S CONJRESS OF RELIGIONS,

1 m\

Story
MuDger.

i.f tliu

the world and the world knew Him not." What more can be done?
Type, syini)ol, reli^Mous ceremonials, scriptures — all have been em-
ployed. Has not man slipped beyond the reach of the divine endeav-
ors? ]iut the Christian history of the Logos moves on to its supreme
announcement: "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us
and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth." Not some angel come from heaven
to deliver some further message; nt)t another prophet sprung from our
bewililcrcd race to chide, to warn or to extort, but the I^ogos, which
in the beginning was with God and which was God; the Jehovah of the
olil propliecii's. whose glory, it had been promised, would be revealed
that all llesli might see it together.

And so in the Christian view of it the story of the Logos com-
pletes 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
coMiiiig to man in a form accommodated to his need, keeping step
with Ills stijjs until, in the com])leteiU'ss of this desire to bring Him-
self to man where he is. I le appears to the natural senses and in a form
suitabK' III our natural life.

Ill tin- Christian conception of God, as one who seeks to reveal
iiiniscH to man, it simp!\' is inevitable that tiie Word sIkjuUI manifest
Him>cll en the \er\' lowest plane of man's life, if at any time it would
be true to s.iy of his spiritual ccjudition: "This |>eople's heart is waxed
gross, anil their ears are dull of hearing and theii e\es they have
closet!." It is not extraordinar\- in the sense of its being a hard or an
unnatural tliii.g for (iodto do. He has always been approaching man,
alwa\s adapting His re\elations to human conditions and needs. It
is this constant aeconimodation and manifestation that has kept man's
jjouer of s|)iritual thought alive. The history of religions, together
with their remains, is a proof of it. Tiie testimony of the historic
faiths jjresented in this parliament has confirmed it as the most self-
evident thing of the divine nature in His dealings with the children of
men, and the iiuarnation of its natural and completest outcome.

And when we begin to. follow the life of Him whose footprints, in
the light of Christian history and experience, are still looked upon as
the \ery footprints of the liuarnate Word, the (iospel story is a story
of toil, of suffering, of storm and ten)|Hst: a story of sacrifice, of love
so pure and hol\t!iat e\en now it has the power to touch, to thrill, to
re-create man's selfish nature. There is an undoubted actuality in the
human side of this life, but just as sureh- there is a certain divine
somethijig fore\er speakin;"^ through those human tones and reaching
t)ut through those kindly haiuls. The character of the Logos is never
lost, sacrificed or lowered. It is always this^divine something trying
to manifest itsc;lf, trying to make itself understood, trying to redeem
man fnjin his slaver)- to evil and draw to itself his spiritual attach-
ment.

Here, plain to human sight, is part of that age-long effort of the

! i.'i 1

THE WURLirS CONURKSS OF RELiaiOXS,

!ll

Word to reveal itself to man only now tliroiij^h a nature fornieil and
huin for the purpose. We are reminded of it when we hear llim say

'Before Abraham was, 1 am." We are assiiretl of it when He declares
that lie came forth from the Father. And we know that lie has tri-
umphed when, at the last, we hear His promise, "Lo, I am with you
always." It is the Lo^os speakint(. The divine purpose has been ful-
filled. Tlie Word has come forth on this ])lane of human life, mani-
ksted Iliniself and established a relationship with man nearer anil
<learer than ever before. He has made Himself available and indis-
pensable to every need or effort. "Without Me, )e can do nothin}^."
In His divine humanity 1 le has established a ])erfect medium whereby
wi; may have free and immediate acci'ss to (iod's J'atherly help. "I
,im the Door of the sluip." "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life."

In this thouL,dit of the divine character of the .Son of Man, the
early Christians found strcn.Ljtli and comfort. For a time they did iU)t
attempt to define this faith, theoloi^ncall)'. It was a simple, direct,
earnest faith in the j^^oodness and redeemini^ power of tlie (iod-Man, <
whose ])erfect nature had inspired them to believe in the realitx' of llis
lie 'Venly rei^n. They filt that the risen Lord \\;is near them; that
He was the Saviour so Ioiil;- pruinisi'd; the world's hope, "in whom
(iwelleth all the fullness of tiie (iodhead bodilw" Hut to la)' man
claims his rii^liL to enti-r unilerstaii(lii)t;i\' into the mysteries of faith,
and reason asks. How could (iod or the (li\iiie Loljos be made Drsh ?

Yet, in seekin.Lj for an answer to such an in(|uiry, we are at tl.c
same time seeking;" to know of the oriL;in of human life. The concep-
tion and liirth of Jesus Christ, as reiati'd in the (iospels, is, declares the
reason, a strange fact. .So, too, is the conception anil birth of every
human bein^'. Neither can be explained by any principle of natural-
ism, which rcLjarils the external as tust and the internal as second
and of comparative unimportance. Neither can be inulerstood unless
it be recotjnized that spiritual forces and substances are related to nat-
ural forces and substances as cause ami effect; anil that the>', the for-
mer, arc prior anil the active foriiiati\e aij^eiits, pla>'in<r upon and
received by the latter.

We do not articulate woril>. ami then try to pack them with ideas
and intentions. The process is the rexerse. I*'irst, the intention, then
that intention comini;" forth as a thouf^ht. aiul then the thouijht incar-
natinff itself by means of articulated sounds or written characters.

Hy this same law man is primarily, essential l\-. a spiritual beiiifr.
In the very form of his creation that wliich essentiall\' is the man, and
which in time lo\es, thinks, makes plans and eiforts for useful life, is
spiritual. In his conception, then, the human seed must not oid}- be
actcil upon but be deriveil from invisible, spiritual substances, which
are clothed with natural substances for the sake of conveyance. That
wh'ch is slowly developed into a human bein^' or soul must be a living
organism composed of spiritual substances, (jraduall)' that jjrimitive
form becomes eiueloped and protc'cted within successive clothings,
while the mother, from the substances of the natural worlil, silently

Sironitili and
omfort .

.Man Esiten-
tially ft Spirit-
ual HeinK.

TUE U'OKf.irs CONGKESS OF A'EL/(J/(WS.

weaves tlic swatliin^s ami coxcrin^'s whicli arc to serve as a iialuial or
)liysical bud)- ami make possible its entrance into tliis outer court (»l

ife.

W'e do not concede, then, that there is anything,' impossible or con-
trary to order ill the declaration of the (iospel, but "that which is
conceived in her i.i of the Holy S])irit." It is still in line with the }.;en-
eral lawof the conception and birth of all human beiuf^'s. The primitive
form or nature, as in the case of man, is spiritual. Hut in this instance
it is not derixed fiom a human father, but is esjjecially formed or
molded by the di\ ine creati\e spirit, formed as with us of spiritual
substances; fornu-d with a perfection ami with infinite |)ossibilities of
development unknown to us; formeil, too, for the special purpose of
bein,L,f the perfect instrunuiU or medium upon and throuy;h which the
di\ine miifht act as its \erv soul.

because that prinn'tive form is (li\inel>- molded or be<4otten, in-
stead of beinj,^ iKriwd from a linite paternity, it is uniciue. It is divine
in first principles. In the outer clothintis of the natural mind and in
the successive wrappings furnished by tlie woman nature, it shares our
weakness. Hut primarih-, essentiall\-, it is born with the capacity of
becominij tli\ine throu^di the remoxal of whatever is imperfect or
limiting, and tlirou;j[h complete union with the Ui\ine which formed it
for 1 limsi'lf.

N'ery like our liumanilies in all th.at pertains to the ^^rowth of the
natural bod\- and natural iniiul would l)e this luimanit\' of the Son of
Man. The same teiulerness and helplessness of its infantile bod)'; the
LikeOnrllu- possibilit\' of Weariness, luuiijer, tluist, iniiii ; the same exposure, too,

itinitmw •11* 1 ri ^'1 I I r 'I I*

in the lower i)lanes of tile miiul, to the assaults ot e\ il resultinij in
eternal strui^^le, temptation and anj^uish of spirit. ;\iid yet there is
always an unlikeness, a difference, in that the ver\- i)riiiiiti\e, deter-
mining forms anil ])ossil)ilities of that humanity are tli\inely begotten.
And so we think of this liumaiiit\' of Jesus Christ as so formed and
born as to be able to ser\e as a perfect instrument whereby the eternal
Lo<^os mii^ht come and dwell anionic us; nii^ht so express and pour
forth His love; miijlit so accommodate and re\eal Ilis truth; mi^ht,
in a word, so set Himself on all the i)lanesof anjj^elic and human exist-
ence as to be forever after immediatel)' present in them, ;ind so

tnunitio'

)eC()ille

literall\', actuallv (iod-with-

us.

(iraduall)' this was done, (irailuall)' the l)i\iiie Life of love and
wisdom came into the scxeral ])laiies which, 1)\- incarnation, existed in
this humanit)-, reinoviii;4 from them whatever was limitiii,L( or imper-
fect, substituting what was divine, l"illkn}f them, ^d )rifyinj; them, and
in the end makin.Lj them a \ery part of Himself.

This brinjjjs into harmony the two elements w liich we are apt tc
look upon and keep distinct, the human and the divine. For He
Himself tells us of a process, a distinct chan^jje which His humanit)'
underwent, and w liicli is the ke)- to His real nature. "The Holj' .Spirit,"
sajs the record, "was not yet },nveii, because that jesus was not yet
glorified." .Some divine operation was going on within that humanity

THE WORLD'S COXCRFSS OF J^FI.fClOXS.

213

wliic'i was not fully .'uioinplislud. lint on tlu' t'\L of His crucifixion
he cxrlaiiiicd; "Now is the Son of Man ]L;lorili(.(! and (iod is glorified Humon
ill Ilini." It is this process of piiltin^f off what was fuiitcand infirm in mentg.""
the human and the substitution «>f the di\ine from within, resulting in
the formation of a di\ine humanitw So lon^ 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 nere another person. liut
when the glorification is accomplished, when the divine has entirely
filled the human and they act "reciprocally aiul unanimouslj' as soul
and l)od\-," then the declaration is: "I and the Father are one." Di-
vine in origin, human in birth, divinely human through glorification.
As to His soul, or immortal being, the I'ather; as to His human, the
Son; as to the life and saving power that go forth from His glorified
nature, the Hol\' Spirit.

This story of the divine life in its descent to man, this coming or
incarnation of the Logos througl' ihe humanit\'of jesus Christ, is the
sweet and serious jjrivilege of Christianil)' to carr\- into the world. I
try to state it; I try from a new theological standpoint to show reason.s
for its rational acceptance.

Hut I know that however true ami necessary explanations may be,
the fact itself transcends them all. No one in this free assembly is
reipiired or expected to hide his denominationalisni. And yet 1 love
to stand with my fellow Christians and unite with them in that simplest,
most comprehensive creed that was ever uttered, Credo Uomino.
l^enominationalism, dogmatism, aside! Aside, too, all prejudices and
practices. What is tlu> simplest, the fundamental idea of the being of
jesus Christ? lirother men, are we not read\- to unite in saying it is,
and saving it to the whole round world? The Lord Jesus Christ is
the life or the love of (Joil, manifesting itself to man, going out into
the world, awakening the capacity which is in everv' man for spiritual,
yes, for divine life. Is not that the very heart of the (iospel, or rather,
is not that the (iospel? Ami is it not ecpiallv true that u|) to this hour
there is no fact so real, lU) fact so powerful, no fact that is working
such spiritual wonders as the fact, the inlluence, the being of Jesus
Christ?

We are sitting here as the first great jiarliamcnt of the religions of
the world. We rightly believe, we boldl)- sa\', that from this time on
the F'atherhood of (iod and the brotherhood of man must mean more
to us than ever before, and noiu) 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 tolerance
which has been shown here and which has secured for the representa-
tives of every faith such a hospitable reception is the evolution of mere
good nature. It is the Spirit of Him whose utterance of tho.se sim])le
words, which have been inscribetl as the text of the Columbian Liberty
Hell, arc already ringing in "The Christ that is to be." "A new com-
mandment I give unto you. That ye love one another."

And the same lips also said: "Other sheep I have which arc not of

nnd
Ele-

Lota One An>
othpr.

.iHwMiUHS***'--

'> i '

1 4 1

t-U

;.'U

yy/A' iroA'jjrs coavaass of religions.

CliriHt ttm

this folil; llicin ;ils(t I iiiiisl hiiiit;, uiul tiny shiill Iu;ir My voice; .'iiui
there .shall be one lohl and one sheplierd." 15 'caiist; ol such words we
listen with a new eai^eriiess to all that men ha\e to tell ot their taitiis;
and there is no declaration of Irulh, howe\er old, from whatever source,
by whomsoever spoken, i)ut iuis calK-d out; the heartiest tokens of
approval, if only it strikes (U>wn to what we feel to be the eternal
verities underl\in^ our existence. To the surprise of many, these
declarations often bear a strikiuLj similarity to some t)f the teachings
of Christianitv, when, in realit)-, the marvel is, that the reli^non of Jesus
Christ should be so all-embracini; ami univers.il.

Nor is it to be forgotten that the Christ not simply taught the truth.
Me so eml)odied it, so lived it, that He is the truth. And Chris-
tianity is not afraid to say that the relij^ion which bears His name is
grouiuled not upon truth- the abstract — iK)ra ])hilosophy, noran eccle-
siasticism, nor a ritual, but upon a person; a person so true, so perfect
in holiness, that we believe, nay, we feel, that lie emboilies the vcr)-

Truth. life and spirit of (lod. And with this manifestation has come a ne\
conception of (iod as one who is willing- to ljo any len<;th in order to
seek and to save that which is lost. And it is this truth, God seekint,^
man, man servin<j God; God enterinq; into our experiences of joy or of
pain, God fairly urLjinsr upon us His lulp and fort^iveness. This is the
Christian's niessatje to all the children of men. It is not simply what
Christianity has done, it is not siniplx' uhat Christianity has taught;
it is what Christ is, that is enduring and vital. Often it has been said
that the wise men from the east came to I lis cradle. May there be even
greater cause fen* thankfulness in remembering that wise men from the
west started from His cross

cc; iiiid

OIhIs W I'

r faitlis;
• source,
ikcns of
eternal
y, these
nicliin^s
of Jesus

lie truth,
il Cliris-

uamc is
an eccle-
) i)er{ect
the very
le a. new
order to

seekint,^
joy or of
his is tlie
ply what
5 tauj^ht;
)een said
e be even

from the

^il^lHI

1 ■ '

'f ■

' i.

Prof. Max Muller, Oxford University.

Greek Philosophy and the Q^t^stian

f^eligion.

Paper by PROF. MAX MULLER, of Oxford University.

HAT I have aimed at in my Gifford
Lectures on Natural Religion is to
show that all religions are natural, and
you will see from my last volume on
Theosophy or Psychological Religion
that what I hope for is not simply a
reform, but a complete revival of re-
ligion, more particularly of the Chris-
tian religion. You will hardly have
time to read the whole of my volume
before the opening of your religious
congress at Chicago, but you can easily
see the drift of it. I had often asked
myself the question how independent
thinkers and honest men, like St. Clem-
ent and Origen, came to embrace
Christianity and to elaborate the first'
system of Christian theology. There was nothing
to induce them to accept Christianity or to cling
to it if they had found it in any way irreconcila-
ble with their philosoj)hical convictions. They were philosophers first, '
Clnistiaiis afterward. They had nothing to gain and much to lose by
joining and remaining in this new sect of Christians. We may safely
conclude, therefore, that they found their own philosophical convic-'
tions, the final outcome oi the long preceding development of phil-
osophical thought in Greece, perfectly compatible with the religious
and moral doctrines of Christianity as conceived by themselves.

Now, what was the highest result of Greek philosophy a^ it
reachcil Alexandria, whether in its stoic or Neo-Platonic garb? It was
the ineradicable conviction that there is reason or logos in the world
When asked whence that reason, as seen by the eye of science in the
phenomenal world, they said: " From the cause of all things which is

217

ConvicUo

1 ' '>

;;!

"■11

! 'I

The
Step.

Critical

■

! I'

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

beyond all names and comprehension, except so far as it is manifested
or revealed in the phenomenal world."

What we call the different types, or ideas, or logoi in the world
are the Xo^m or thou^dits or wills of that bein^^ whom human language
has called God. These thoughts, which embrace everything that is,
existed at first as thoughts, as a thought-world, before by will and
force they could become what we see them to be, the types or species
realized in the visible world. So far, all is clear and incontrovertible,
and a sliarj) line is drawn between this philosophy and others, likewise
|)owcrfully represented in the previous history of Greek philosophy,
which denied the existence of that eternal reason, denied that the world
was thought and willed, as even the Klameiths, a tribe of red Indians,
professed, and ascribed the world, as we see it as men of science, to
purely mechanical causes, to what we now call uncreate protoplasm,
assuming various casual forms by means of natural selection, influence
of environment, survival of the fittest, and all the rest.

The critical step which some of the philosophers of Alexandria
took, while others refused to take it, was to recognize the perfect real-
ization of the divine thought or logos of manhood in Christ, as in the
true sense the Son of God; not in the vulgar nythological sense, but in
the deep mctai)hysical meaning which had long been possessed in the
(ireek philosophy. Those who declined to take that step, such as
Celsus and his friends, did so either because they ilenied the possi-
bilit)' of any divine thought ever becoming fully realized in the flesh
or in the phenomenal world, or because they could not bring them-
selves to recognize that realization in Jesus of Nazareth. Clement's
conviction that the phenomenal was a realization of the divine reason
Avas basetl on purely philosophical ground, while his conviction that
the ideal or the divine conception of manhood had been fully realized
in Christ and in Christ onl\,d}ing on the cross forthe truth a.s revealed
to ilim and by Him, could have been based on historicalgrounds only.

Everything else followed. Christian morality was really in com-
plete harmony with the morality of the stoic school of philosophy,
though it gave to it a new life and a higher purpose, liut the whole
world assumed a new aspect. It was seen to be supported and per-
vaded by reason or logos; it was throughout teleological, thought and
willed by a rational power. The same divine presence had now been
perceived for the first time in all its fullness and perfection in the one
Son of God, the i)attern of the whole race of men, henceforth to be
called "the sons of (iod."

This was the groundwork of the earliest Chri.-itian theology, as
presupposed by the author of the fourth Gospel, and likewise by many
passages in the synoptical Gospels, though fully elaborated for the
first time by such men as St Clement and Origen. If we want to be
true and honest Christians, we must go back to those earliest ante-
nicene authorities, the true fathers of the church. Thus only can we
use the words: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word became
flesh," not as thoughtless repeaters, but as ' ->nest thinkers and be-

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

219

lievers. In the first sentence, "In the beginninpf was the Word," requires]
thought and thought only; the second, "and the Logos became flesh," (
requires faith — faith such as those who know Jesus had in Jesus, and j
which we may accept, unless we have any reasons for doubting their'
testimony.

There is nothing new in all this; it is only the earliest Christian
theology restated, restored and revised. It gives us at the same time
a truer conception of the history of the whole world, showing that
there was a purpose in the ancient religions and philosophies of the
world, and that Christianity was really from the beginning a synthesis
of the best thoughts of the past, as they had been slowly elaborated by
the two principal representatives of the human race, the Aryan and
the Semitic.

On this ancient foundation, which was strangely neglected, if not
purposely rejected, at tlic time of the Reformation, a true revival of
the Christian religion and a reunion of all its d'vi:'ions may become
|)ossible, and I have no doubt that your Congress of the Religions of
the World might do excellent work for the resuscitation of pure and
primitive ante-Nicene Christianity.

•5

!.^

•

;i I

Christ the §avior of the World.

Paper by REV. B. FAY MILLS, ofPawtuxet, Khode Island.

h I

No EXCQBO

for Sin.

arc all agreed that, in its present con-
dition, this is not an ideal woriti. W'c
all believe that it is not what it is
meant to be; we all hope tliat it is not
what it is to become.

The (U)etrine ot Christianity cen-
ters not in a tlieorx' ot morals nor a
creed, but in a person. Christ is the
revelation of what ticxl is and ot what
man must become, lie revealed the
char.icter of God as lo\e sutferin^^ for
the sins of man. lie showetl the tri-
iimi)liant possibility of life anioiij; the
hardest human conditioiis, when lived
(iotl. 1 le tauijht
ssoii of trial and
ould be no excuse
" no escape from
nission and mes-
lis Son into the
rid throULili 11 im

and myster\- and
estin\-of the lace.

n th

ese words:

11 thout,dit of His
upreme title and
Is nor any chosen
sa\e humanity in
so to sa\e st)ciety

I" unixersal life ot
)v trodden under
n w itli 1 lis claim

'! 1

i, 'i

tsl

i •

Rev. B. Fay Mills, Pawtuxet, R. I.

J :

11'

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUG/ONS.

228

Whenever in the teachinfjs of Christianity tliere lias been a limita-
tion of the extent of the atoncnjent of Christ, for the saving of tiiis
world from out its present conlitions of bondage and sin into the
glorious liberty of redemption, tliere lias come a deadly paralysis of
His spirit and of the progress of His kingdom.

There is a very real sense in which it was not necessary for Christ
to come into the world in order that indivitluals might liecome ac-
quainted with (iod.

"The true light, that which lighteth every man that cometli into
the world," was shining in darkness for all the ages before the shepherds
heard the angel song, and "as many as received Him, to them gave
He the power to become the sons of (iod." And then the "Word be-
came flesh and dwelt among us, and \vc beheld His glory, the glory as-
of the only begotten of the Father; full of grace and truth."

The Scriptures of the Old Testament anil the annals of all nations
teach us that "there never was a time when a penitent and consecrated
soul might not walk with God." Knoch "walked with God," "and be-
fore his translation he had his testimony that he pleased God." Abra-
ham was called the "friend of (lod." Closes was called "the man (jf
God." .Socrates was, in his light, a true prophet of the Most High and
a forerunn*";* of Jesus of Nazareth.

But the mission of Jesus was to save the world itself. As a recent
writer has well said, it is a deadly mistake to suppose that "Christ sim-i
ply came to rescue as many as possible out of the wrecked and sink-
ing world."

He came to give the church a "commission 'hat includes the sav-
ing of the wreck itself, the question of its confusion and struggle, the
relief of its wretchedness, a deliverance from its destruction." This
certainly was his own conception of his mission upon earth.

The first annunciation by his immediate forerunner, when he stood
in his presence, was: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away
the sins of the world." He said of Himself, "For the bread of God is
He which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world."
"1 am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man cat
of this bread he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give him
is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." He said to
His followers: "In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good
cheer; 1 have overcome the world."

The mission of Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world may be
expressed, as has already been suggested, in four conceptions.

First. He has a new and complete revelation of (jod's eternal
suffering for the redemption of humanity. He showed that God was
pure and unselfish, and meek and forgiving, and that He had always
been suffering for the sins of men. "God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto Himself." He revealed the meaning of forgiveness
and of deliverance from sin.

A popular writer has suggested to us the vast distinction between
indifference to sin and its forgiveness, which may well be illustrated

The True
Light.

Mission o f
JeHusl'hribt.

22A

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIC IONS.

Toleration of
Siu.

by the experience of an individual in forp[ivin}:j injury against himself.
Resentment aj^ainst sin is a far liijjher experience than that of indiffer-
ence to it, but there is somethiiitf far better than either, and that is to
realize the enormity of the transj^ressor at its very worst and then to
let resentment be destroyed and a sclf-sacrificinfj love fill the place
that had been occupied by the resentment.

It would be better for (iod to hate sin than to tolerate it; it would
have been better to punish the most trivial sin of the most thoughtless
sinner with all the excruciating; tortures of the most terrible unending
hell conceived by the imagination of man; but, it was iniinitely better
to take up into His own pure heart the blackest and deadliest sin
of the lowest sinner, who should be willing to forsake it and return to
God, and there let it be forever blotted out; to bind it upon the bleed-
ing Lamb of God and let Mini bear it away, as far as the east is from
the west, into God's eternal forgetfulness of love.

A tender-spirited follower of Jesus Christ said to me not long ago
that it had taken him twelve years to forgive a a injury that had been
committed against him; and (iod's forgiveness of sin means something
infinitely in contrast to His being able to look at it with indifference,
and something even infinitely beyond the mere destruction of its grasp
on man and his deliverance from its penalty and power. It meant
the realizing of it in God's own soul in all its foul hidcousness and
deadly strength, and the consuming it in the fires of his infinite love
"He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him.'

Jt has been costing God to forgive sin all that it had cost man \.o
bear it and more. This had to be in Goil's thought before He made
the world. In the words t)f a modern prophet, " riie cross of Christ
indicates the cost and is the pledge of (iod's eternal friendship for
man." Jesus Christ came to show what (jod was. He was in no sense
a shield for us from the wrath of (iod, but "was the effulgence of (iod's
glory and the very image of His substance." He said to one of His
disciples, "He that hath seen Mc hath seen the Father." The heart of
His teaching was "that God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son." He taught, not that He had come to reconcile (iod
unto the world, but that "God was in Christ reconcilingthe world unto
Himself." He .said of His Father, "I delight to do Thy will, O, God,
Thy law is written on My heart." He said in His pra\er to His Father,
"I have declared Thy name unto them; yea, and I will declare it. 1
have glorified Thee on the earth, 1 have finished the work."

He came to show us that the world had never belonged to the
powers of evil, but that, in His original thought, God had decided that
a moral world should be created, and that in this decisi(Mi, which gave
fion V'Parrof to humanity thc choice of good and evil, He had to take upon Ilim-
UieCreauon. j,^j£ infinite Suffering until the world should be brought back to Him.
The redemption of the world by Christ is a part of the creation of the
world for Christ. The cry upon thc cross, "My God, My God, why
hast Thou forsaken Me?" was the exhibition of what had been in the

The Rp<lemp-

nisclf.
(lil'fcr-
it is to
hen to
: place

WDUl'l

i^htless
ciuHn^

lietter
lost sin
turn to

bleed-
is from

ong nj^o
n\ been
inethin<^
ference,
ts grasp
It meant
less and
ite love
nade the

!t man to
He made
of Christ
dship for
I no sense
; of Cjod's
lie of His
heart of
: His only
ncile God
iorld vinto
1, O, God,
[is Father,
:larc it. 1

rod to the
■cided that
I'hich gave
apon liim-
:k to Him.
tion of the
' God, why
been in the

T//E irO/iLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

heart of God through the ages of the world, and was God's eternal cry
of self-renunciation as He forsook Himself in order that 'le might
forgive us.

The .Son of God was "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the
world." He was "foreordained before the foundation of the world, but
was manifested in these last times for us." Our hope of eternal life
was promised by "God, that cannot lie, before the world began," and
"God hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began."

This is a prodigal world, and the Father's eyes have been looking
through the centuries until He should sec it coming to Him from the
far-off country to have its stripes healed with His love, its weakness
made strength with His self-sacrificing power, its hunger appeased
unto fullness in the banqueting house of love, the new robes placed
upon it, the dead made alive again and the lost forever found

Acciirilinu

Our second thought, concerning the mission of Jesus, is, that His\
life was the expression of the origin and destiny of man. We are told I
that Adam was created in the image of (lod, and if he had been an
obedient child, it may have been that he would have grown up to be a
full grown son of the Internal, but he sold his birthright for a mess of
jjottage. The second Adam was the son of man, revealing to us that
the perfect man differs in ?U) respect from the perfect God. He was
God. He became man -not a man, but man. He was God and man,
not two persons in one existence, but revealing the identity of man
and God, when man should have attained unto the place that he had
always occupied in the eternal thought.

The marvelous counterpart of this revelation is, that when God
shall have jjcrfected His thought concerning us, that man shall have to
become in all things like unto Jesus Christ. Maniel says that all
depends on whether we consider the first or second Adam the head of
the human race. "I would have you know," says the great apostle of
the (icntiles, "that the head of every man is Christ."

Jesus says: "I know whence I came and whither I go," and He
thereby indicates that there is, in another's words, "no power to come
forth out froni the beginning or the end, from the first to the last, with ci^U'r^of^aii
intimation of force or fear, that can claim subjection from man or as- '^Wngs.
sert dominion over him, or can effect the subversion of the love that
is at the source and center of all things, or the disruption of the unity
that is in the will of (jod, that is manifesting itself in the reconcilia-
tion of all things.

Christ says: "I am the first and the last, the beginning and the end-
ing; I am He that was, and is, and is to come." The blood of the world
was poisoned and needed an infusion of purity for the correction of its
standards and bestowal of desire and power to attain unto its high
possibility. This was a partial object and result of the mission of
Christ. "He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin."
He said that His own body was the temple of God, and He taught His

Sourcp a n <1

i ')

1 ■ i

: 1 ■

■■ ■ i; ;

226

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

.If .

f ■-*

Destiny of
Mm.

Chridt'i Abil-
ity to Save.

followers that they, too, were to become temples of the living God in
Avhich God should meet with man.

He showed that the destiny of man was to be one with God, aiul that
infinite misery would be the result of the avoidance of this jj^reat op-
portunity, and that God would count nothiuf^ "dear to Himself or to
man that this mijjht be accomplished." "Other foundation can no man
lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus."

Under the pride and vanity of the nation; under the scheming and
frivolity and dishonesty and self-will of those who sit in hi^h places in
the earth; under the disregard of the law of love by the social, com-
mercial and industrial orjjanizations of the day; under every disobe-
dience of the domestic and individual life is tiie eternal righteousness
of Jesus Christ striving for manifestation and "straitened until its bap-
tism is accomplished."

The third great thought in connection with the salvation of Jesus
Christ is, that through the completeness of 1 1 is redemption there is no
necessity or reason for any form of sin in the individual.

'' Now, if we be dead with Christ, wc believe that we shall also live
with Him. Knowing that Christ being raised fro.n the deail, dieth no
more, death hath no dominion oxer him. Kor in that he died, he died
unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto (iod. Likewise,
reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto (iod
through Jesus Christ cnir Lord.

Let nc^t sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should
obey it in the lusts thereof.

Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness
unto sin. But yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from
the dead, and your members as instrutnents of righteousness unto
God.

For sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not luulci
the law, but under grace."

A great preacher has told us that Christ is able to save "unto the
uttermost ends of the earth, to the uttermost limits of time. t'> tlic
uttermost period of life, to the uttermost length of depravity, to tlio
uttermost depth of misery and to the uttermost measure of perfection."

The Quaker poet has beautifiilly written:

" Through all the iJL'p'hs df sin and loss
Drops the ])luniini t of tlie cross.
Never yet abyss was found,
Deeper than the cross could sound."

Paul says, "If any man be in Christ he is a new creature. Old
things have passed away. liehold, all things have become new."

It is when the soul is willing to .say, "He was wounded for my
transgressions," that he is in a position to realize that if he will sur-
render himself unto the cross of Jesus and to the teachings of Jesus,
the power of death and hell over him shall have forever been broken
and he may live a life of freedom in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

The way of salvation for the individual through Christ is the

THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

227

ocl in

ml th;it
;vt op-
f or to

O lUiUl

n^ ami
aces in
I, cotn-
ilisobc-
Dusncss
itsbap-

)f Jesus
re is no

iilso live
dieth no
he (lied
likewise,
into (iod

should

teousness
live Uo\\\
less unto

not undei

"unto the
me, t') the
ity, to the
cr'tection."

iturc. Old

new.

led for my
he will sur-
s of Jesus,
,een broken
esus Christ.
:hrist is the

knowledge of tiic love of God making,' atonement for the sins of the

world; the discerning, the only real principle of power, in losiu^^ the

life in order to save it, and the glad forsaking of all things to become wuy of H«l.

His disciple and to "fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of »«'«»"•

Christ for His body's sake."

It is here that the teaching and the life of Jesus arc in glorious
unity. The cross is not one thing and the Sermon on the Mount
another. The kingdom which the Prince of I'cace came to establish
on earth hail for its constitution those vital wortls whicii may be ex-
pressed by the one word, love.

God was "not willing that any should perish," and the bitterest
drop in the dregs of the unrepentant sinner's cup of woe will be that
it is utterly needless, and worse than needless, becau.se of the redemp-
tion of tl)<- world through Jesus Christ.

Hut il a man "sin willfully after that he hath received the knowl-
edge o<^ the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin;" and to-
day, in view of the infinite love and purpose of God and the great
possibility and destiny of man, 1 tlo "beseech you, that you receive
not the grace of Gt)d in vain."

The last thought concerning the salvation of the world through
Jesus Christ is, that the loving righteousness of (iod must be finally
triumphant. We cannot conceive of a heaven in which man should
not be a moral being and free to choose good or evil, as he is upon
this earth; and the joy of heaven will consist largely in that glad fixity
of will that shall eternally lose itself in (Jod.

But what a terrible conception comes to us of the lost world, when
we conceive ourselves, in spite of all the loving kindness and sacrifice
of the eternal God, as still choosing to go on in sin, determining to
resist His love, conscit)Us of it, and yet without the power to escape it,
saying: "H 1 make niy bed in hell, behold thou art there," and yet
choosing through the ages and ages to turn away from the righteous-
ness of God and to pursue a life of indifference and sin.

" Though God be pood and free be heaven,

No force can love compel;
And though the sonps of sin forgiven

Might sound through lowest hell;
The sweet persuasion of His voice

Respects thy sanctity of will.
He giveth day. Thou hast thy choice

To walk in darkness still."

No hell can extinguish the righteousness of God, and no flames
consume His love, which is the manifestation of His righteousness,
and must pursue all unrighteousness in every sinner with a "worm that
dicth not and a fire that is not quenched." "It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. For our God is a consuming fire."

And as for our conception of heaven, when the world shall obey
Jesus Christ and when all those who have surrendered unto His heart
of love and have been working with Him throughout the eons, in the
establishment of righteousness, shall be with Him in the new earth, no

ff^

Hid RiKl't-

fOUUUUHH.

i ■ i

I i!)

«.!

Not Fnlly
Doui> His Will,

Tonfession of

Compiirativo

Kailare.

22S

oth

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

cr licavcn can l)c .iiuisrincd. Tlic rcdccincd earth shall be at least

a part of hca\eii, and the city which John saw, the new Jerusalem
descendiii^r out of heaven from God, shall be established.

" The tabernacle of God shall be with men and He will dwell with
them, and they shall be His peojile; and God, Himself, shall be with
them and be their (ioil. And He shall wipe away every tear from
their eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor cryii;;,;,
neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed
away.'

This must be the end of the atonement of the life and the death
of Jesus Ciirist and the keeping of His commandments, which are all
summed \\\> in the great name of God, which is Love.

With shame 1 confess that all the disci])les naming the name of
Jesus Christ ha\e not full\- done His will in J I is spirit of self-sacritice,
and. indeed, have sometimes scarcely seemed to api^rehend it. H we
had, if is my honest conviction that we couUl not be gathered here to-
da\- as a " Parliament of Religions," but that we would all be praising
Goii together for His wonderful salvation in Jesus Christ our Lord.

We have already in this Parliament been rebuked by India and
Japan with the charge that Christians ilo not practice tne teachings of
Jesus. If China has not been hearil from in words of even keener cen-
sure, it has not been because she has not had good cause, as she thinks
of the opium curse forced upt)n her by the laws of Christian I'".nglantl
anil of tile action of the corrupt legislatures and congresses and pres-
idents who have enacted, or stood by and consentetl to the enacting
of the unjust, selfish, unreasonable, inhuman, unchristian and barbaric
anti-Chinese laws of these Christian United .States.

I might reply by pointing to our hospital walls and college towers
and myriad missionaries of mercy, but I forbear. We have done some-
thing, but with shame and tears I say it — as kingdoms and empires and
republics, as states and municipalities, ami in our commercial and in-
dustrial t)rganizations, and even, in a large measure, as an organized
church, we lia\e not been jjracticing the teachings of Jesus as He said
them ami meant them, as the earliest disciples understood anil prac-
ticed them, and as we must again submit to them if we are to be the
viiiners of the worlil for Jesus Christ.

It is no excuse to say that with Christians the nation is not the
church. That is a still further confession of comj)arative failure, for,
in so far as tlxj Christian church and Christian state are not coincident,
the church hr.s come short of the command of the Master: "Go ye
therefore, and discii le all nations, teaching them to observe all thing.s
whatsoever I have commanded you."

One of the local papers said the other day that perhaps the non-
Christian delegates to this Parliament might be converted to Chris-
tianity if they could be taken about Chicago blindfolded.

There have been, and are today, in every Christian community
white-soulcd saints of God, who arc following "the Lamb whitherso-
ever He goeth" and bearing His cross after Him; but let us be willing

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

229

to say plainly, althov;p;l> with shame, that while we have in the life and
death and resui'-eclion and teachin<^s of Christ and the descent of the
Holy Ghost the eoniplete remedy for all the ills of iiulividuals and
nations, we have lacked the power of conquest because organized
Christianity has been sayinf^, "Lord, Lord," to her Master and, as
refjards politics and society and property and iiulustr\', has not been
doing the things that He said.

lienjaniin Franklin said that a generation of followers of Jesus,'
who practiced His teachings, would change the face of the earth j
And it is true. When evil shall go forth with its deadly poison ready
for dissemination, and find Christians who are meek and merciful and
poor in spirit ami pure in heart, and who count it all joy to be perse-
cuted for righteousness' sake; when it shall dart its venomed tongue
at men and women who "resist not evil," who "give to him that ask-
eth" and from the borrower do not turn awa\'; who "being struck
upon one cheek turn the other also;" who love their enemies, bless
those that curse them, do gooil to them that hate them and pray for
them that despitefuUy use them and persecute thenv, who forgive their
debtors because Ciod has forgiven them; then shall the oUl serpent
finil no blood that shall be resi)onsive to his poisonous touch, and shall
sting himself unto the death, even as he did under that other cross
which he looked upon as the token t)f the impotence of righteousness,
but which was the wisdom and the pt)wer of (iod unto salvation and
the prophecy of the trium|)h of eternal love

Aiul this I will say: That our brethren from across the sea have
said all we need ask them to say, when, instead of attacking the life
and teachings of Jesus, they show that we fail only because we may have
said, "Lord, Lord," and not done the things that He said. And this univorsal
also I say: That the only hope of Asia, as of America and of Africa, KjjiKdom of
as of Knrope, is in the love of God anil the establishment of His uni-
versal kingdom of peace which must be set up on earth and which
shall have no end.

This, my brothers, is all that must, is all that can endure; it is the
teaching of teachings and the inspiration of inspirations for the sons of
men.

It is of universal application. Jesus was born in the east and has
gained His greatest present triumphs in the west. When men shall
have begun again to practice the teachings of Jesus in e\ ery walk and
relationship of life, then there will be no social enigmas unsolved and
iio \)olitical questions unanswered; but men shall be in union with (iod
and at peace with one another, and heaven and earth shall be one in
the creation of the "new earth wher<.'in dwelleth righteousness."

'lU

And there are indications of such a triumph now. Isvery Ian-
age ma\' be translated into every other tongue of man. The last

IndicAtidDR of

umpb,

religion of the world has been investigated and its teachings arc open guch aXri-
to the eyes of all. (iod today looks down upon such a spectacle c)f
sincere desire antl of honest |)urpose to know the truth as the gro.m-
ing and travailing creation has never before seen, and the only st)lu-

■ :■(

H' i! i I

230

r//E IVORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

■

i -

i i
1

U 1

!! .

! il

■1'

■f'J

I r

I !

l i

.;■ 1

I I

111

El I

On« Rrxly nnd

tion of all the questionings and differences and hopes of men must be
in the principles of the ruler of the kinjjdomof God: "Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all
thy niiiul and with all thy strength, andthy neighbor as thyself."

No message of love to God and man lias ever been in vain. No
love ot" man or God has ever perished from the universe; no life of
love has c\ er been or ever can be lost. This is the only infinite and
only eternal message, and this is the reason why the mission and the
message of jesus of Nazareth must abide. This is the reason that the
life of Jesus is eternal and that all things must be subdued unto Him;
for "Lc)\e never faileth; but whether there will be prophecies, they
shall he done away; whether there be tongue.^, they shall cease;
whether there be knowledge, it shall be done awaj'. For we know in
part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect is
come, that which is in part shall be done away. For now we see in a
miiTor (larkl\', but then face to face; now we know in part, but then shall
we know even as also we are known."

'' For, lo! the days are hastening on

Hy [)ro|)het l)ar(ls foretold,
When, with the ever circling; ycirs,

Comes round the aj;e of pold;
When i)eace shall, over all the earth,

Its ancient splendor fliti;,'.
And the whole workl ^ive hack the son>j

Which now the angels sing."

And when, at lasi, we shall clearly know what we now dimly sec
in Josus Christ, that " Love is righteousness in action;" that mercy is
the necessary instriunent of justice; that "good has been the final goal
of ill," ami that through testing, innocence must have been glorified
into virtue; when we shall see that God is love and law is gospel, and
sin has been transformed into right^eousness- then shall we also see that
"there is one bod)' and one spirit, even as also we were called in one
hope of oiu' calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one (iod and
h'atherof all, who is over all and through all and in all." Then shall we
.see "that imto each one of us was this grace given acct .ding to the
measure of the gift of Christ, and we shall all attain unto the imity of the
faith aiul of the knowledge of the .Son of God; unto a full grown man;
unto the measure <>f the stature of the fullness of Christ," and

"Every kindred, every tribe on this terresiinl hr.il,
Tu Him all majesty ascribe and crown Him Lord ot all.'

!'■■

Qhristianity in Japan; jts present C^"'
dition and putare Prospects.

Paper by PROF. HARNICHI KOSAKI, of Japan.

editing papers.

ROGRESS of Christianity in Japan is quitp re-
markable. It is only thirty-four years since
the first Protestant missionary put his foot on
its shore. And it is scarcely twenty years
since the first Protestant church was organ-
ized in Japan. Yet now there are more
Christians here than in Turkey, where mis-
sionaries have been workinff more than sev-
enty years, and there are more self-support-
ing churches there than in China, where
double or thrice number of missionaries have
been working nearly a century. In Japan,
Christian papers and magazines are all edited
hj' the natives, not only in name but in real-
Christian books, which have been most influ-
ential, have nearly all been written or translated by
them, while in other countries it is very rare to find
the native Christians writing Christian books or
Only recently the Christian, the mos«- influential

C hristian paper in Japan, had a symposium to name hitcen books
i icli arc most useful in leailing men to Christianity, instructing

' in Uians and giving gocd counsel to young peoi)le; and it is interest-
rr. lo see that most of the books named are those written or translated

bv V:i;)ancse Christians.

Christianity in Japan has already reached a stage that no other

ill

1 M

Leading all

iing

missionary fields have ever attained. Their native Christians not only oiMionsr ^"^
take a put in all discussions, but they are in fact leading all kinds of
iliscussioiis, theological as well as practical. They arc leading, not
( nly in all kinils ol Christian work, literary and evangelistic, educa-
tional and charitable, but they arc also leading Christian thought in
Japan. Let mc relate one or two instances.

Some si.x or seven years ago, when we were contemplating the

•^31

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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union of the Itochi and Kumiai denominations, the two most powerful
Christian bodies in Japan, among twenty members of a joint committee
appointed by the synod of one and the general council of the other,
there were only four missionaries. When a few years ago, the Kumiai
denomination adopted a new confession of faith, the missionaries took
almost no part. This confession was drawn up by a committee, con-
sisting entirely of Japanese, and adopted in the general council, in
which missionaries took very little or no part. In Japan mission-
aries are really "helpers," and I should say to their credit, they, in
most cases, willingly take secondary position in all Christian works.
All this, I say, is not to disparage the work of missionaries, but only
to show the progress of Christianity among the natives of Japan.

There are now many peculiar features in Japanese Christianity
which are seldom ; «, en in other countries.

One distinctive ■ ' > lies in the peculiarity of the constituency
of its membership. 1 er countries female members ahva\s pre-

dominate. For install- , in most of the churches in this country
teniale members are almost two to one in projiortion to male
memiiers. The membership of the Congregational church in 1S92
stanils as follows: Male members, one hundred and seventy thousand;
female members, three hundred and fifty thousand.

Hut it is quite otherwise in Japan. Female members, in relation
to male members, are nearly three to four. It is almost in inverse
ratio as it is in the United .States. The statistics of the Kumiai
churches in the last )ear is this: Male members, 6,087; female mem-
bers, 5,087.

Another fact we may notice is the predominance of young people
in our churches. Vou niay step into any of our churches in any city
or village and see the audience, and you will be struck by the great
preponderance of young faces. We have not yet taken any statistics
of members as to their age. Hut anyone who has experience in Chris-
tian work there notes this peculiarity. The last year when Dr. F. K.
Clark, president of the V. P. S. C.Iv, was in Japan, in advising the need
of that society, he saul that >oung people were hard to reacli and were
diffident and slow t>- take any part in Christian work. Hut the case is
different there. In many places young people are the only people
who are accessible. The\- are most easily reached. In most of our
churches young people are most active in all kinds of Christian works,
while in some churches young people are so predominant and take
everything into their hands that elderly people feel often quite
annoyed. ^

One more point is the predominance of the Shizoku, or military
class. They have been, and still are, the very brains of the Japanesp
people. Though they are not usually well off in material wealth, they
TiioBhizokn are superior intellectually and morally. Christians in other missionary
fields are usually from the lower classes. In India the Hrahmans
rarely become Christians, neither do the literary class in China. I3ut
in Japan the Shizoku class take a lead.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

233

^rrcat

These peculiarities in the constituency of the membership of
Christian churches in Japan may be accounted for by the simple fact
that the males, the youu^^ and the Shizoku classes are most accessible.
I'he Shi/oku class, as a body, has had hitherto almost no religion, and
they have been mostly Confucianists. Hy the last revolution tiicy lost
their profession as well as their means of support, and thus they are
all unsettled in life, and so accessible to every kind of new influence
and truth. Young people have also no settled opinions and are open
to new influences, and tluis accessible to new truth. And so it is with
men as compared with women. They are generally more progressive
and, hence, more accessible.

These peculiarities are of its strength as well as its weakness. As
the Japanese Christian population is composed of such a constituency,
the native Christians are more progressive, more active, more able to
stand on their own feet, and more capable of establishing self-support-
ing churches. Hut this strength is also their weakness. They are more
liable to be drifted, more apt to be changed and more disposed to be
flippant.

The next peculiar feature of Japanese Christianity is lack of sec-'
tarian or ilenominational spirit. About thirty different denominations;
of Protestant churches, represented by about an equal number of mis--
sionary boards, are on the field, each teaching its own peculiar tenets.
Hut tliey are making very little impression on our Christians. In fact,
denominations which have strong denominational spirit are getting
fewer converts than those which have less. The broader their princi-
ple or spirit the greater is the inmiber of their converts. Any one who is
at all conversant with the history of denominations knows that all
over the world, other things being equal, denomitiations having stronger
denominational spirit are making greater gains in their membership
than those which have less. Hut in Japan it is the exception.

We have been having, at first annually, but lately once in three
years, what was called " Dai Shin Haku Kwai," which was afterward
changed into the l^vangelical Alliance, the meeting of all Christians
in Japan, irrespective of denominations or churches— the most popular
and interesting meeting wc ha\e. Japanese Christians do not know
any distinction in denominations or churches. Hut when they found
out that there are many different folds, and that one belongs to his
denomination not by his own choice but simply by chance or circum-
stance which could in no way be controlled, there is no wonder that
these Christians begin to ask: Why should not we, all Christians, unite
n one church ?

The union movement in Japan rose at first in some such way.
Though we have now lost much of this simple spirit, still Japanese
Christians are essentially undenominational. Vou may see that the
church which adopts Presbyterian forms of government refuses to be
called "Presbyterian," or "Reformed," and adopted the broad name
"Itschi," the "United;" but, not content even with this broad name, it
has recently changed it to a still broader name, "Nippon Kinisuto Kio
Kwai," "The Church of Christ in Japan."
10

No Distinc-
tion in Deni>in>
inutiuOB.

r !

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

i ..

Doctrinal Mat-

*\\

Ab to the
Crueds.

The church which has adopted an Episcopal form of government
lately dropped the name of Episcopacy and adopted instead the name
of "The Holy Church of Japan." Kumiai churches fur along time had
no name except this: "A Church of Christ." When it was found out
that it is necessary to adopt some name to distinguish it.self from other
churches, its Christians reluctantly adopted the name of "Kumiai,"
which means "associated;" for at that time they happened to form an
association of churches which was until then independent of each
other. They always refused to be called the "Ct)ngregati<)nal
churches," although they have adopted mostly Congregational policy
of church government.

The church union which failed lately may not be revived in any
near future. But there is a hope that some day our different denom-
inations may be united in some way. ,
The third distinctive feature of Japanese Christianity is the prev-
alence of lilieral spirit in doctrinal matters. While missionaries ar^
both preaching and teaching the orthodo.x doctrines. Japanese ClirisV
tians are eagerly studying the most liberal theology. Not onl)' are they
studying, but they are diffusing these liberal thoughts w ith zeal and
diligence, and so I believe that, with a small exception, most of Jap-
anese pastors and evangelists are more or less liberal in their theolog).
While the Presbyterians in the United .States are i)ersecuting IJrs.
Briggs and .Smith, the Presbyterians of Japan are almost in a body on
the side of these two professors. While the A. 1^ C. V. I\I. is strenu-
ously on the watch to send no missionary who has any inclination
toward the Andover thct)logy. the pastors and evangelists of the
Kumiai churches, which are in close connection with the same board,
arc advocating and preaching theology perhaps more liberal than the
Anilover theology. JtisV to illustrate, scjme years ago. in one ol our
councils, wheti we were going to install a pastor, he expressed the or-
thodox belief on future life, whicii was a great surprise to all. Then
members of the council pressed hard questions to him so as to force
him to adopt the doctrine of future probation, as though it is the only
doctrine which is tenable.

Only recently, when abishopof a certain church was visiting Japan,
he was surprised to find that a young Japanese professor in the sem-
inary connected with his own church was teaching quite a liberal the-
ology, and he gave him a strong warning.

As to the creeds: When the "Church of Christ in Japan" was or-
ganized it adopted the Presbyterian and the Reformed standards,
namely, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the Canon of Dort and
the Heidelberg Confession of Faith. But Christians of the same
church soon found them too stiff, one sided and conservative, and thus
they have lately dropped these standards as their creed altogether.
They have now the "Apostles' Creed" with a short preface attached
to it.

When the Kumiai church was first organized it adopted the nine
articles of the basis of evangelical alliance as its creed. But Christians

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

285

denomination became soon dissatisfied with its nar-
so, in 1890, they made their own creed, which is far

of the same
rowness, and

simpler and broader. But even this creed is not understood as bind-
ing to all, but only as a common expression of religious belief and pre-
vailing amonj^ them in general.

Though Japanese Christians are largely on the side of liberal the-
ology, they are not in any way in favor of Unitarianism or even Uni-
versalism. Some years ago there was a rumor that the Japanese were
in general inclined to Unitarian Christianity. The most of our edu-
cated classes have no religion. Though they favor certain kinds of
Christian ethical teachings, they have no faith in any religion or super-
natural truth, and thus they are seemingly in the same position hs cer-
tain Unitarians. But Christians are, as a whole, loyal to Christ, and
ate all to be characterized as evangelical. Often Unitarians and those
who call themselves "liberal Christians are as narrow and prejudiced
as some orthodox Christians. And, moreover, their beliefs are too
negative. Where there p_ ijl;,jted, hard orthodox Christians they
may have soil to thrive on; but in such a place like Japan they will
find it hard work to keep up interest enough to have any religion.

There was a time when Christianity was making such a stride in
its progress that in one year it gained forty or fifty per cent increase.
This was between 18S2 and 1888. These years may be regarded as a
flowery era in the annals of Japan. It was in 1883 that, when we were
having the "Dai shin Boku Kwai" in Tokyo, perhaps the most inter-
esting meeting in its history, one of the delegates expressed his firm
belie, that in ten years Japan would become a Christian country. This
excited quite an applause, ami no one felt it as in any way too extrav-
agant to cherish such a hope; such was the firm belief of most Chris-
tians at that time. Since then progress in our churches has not been
such as was expected. Not only members have not increased in such
a proportion as jears before, but in some cases there can be seen a
decline of religious zeal and the self-sacrificing spirit. And so in these
last few years the cry heard most freciuently among our churches has
been, "Awake, awake, as in the days past!"

To show the decline of that religious enthusiasm, I may take an
illustration from statistics of the Kumiai churches as to its amount of
contribution. In 1882 this amount was SS6.72 per Christian; in 1888
this amount ran down to JS2.15, and in the last year there has been still
nu)re decline, coming down to ^J.QS. In amount of increase of mem-
bership there has been a proi)ortional ilecline. Why there was such
decline is not hard to see. Among various causes I may mention
three principal ones:

First. Public sentiment in Japan has been always fluctuating
from one side to another. It is like a pendulum, now going to one
extreme and then to another. This movement of public sentiment,
within the last fifteen or twenty years, can easily be pointed out.
From 1877 to 1882 I may regard as a period of reaction and that of
revival of anti-foreign spirit. During this period the cry "Repel for-

A Flowery Eru.

Public Senti.
ment.

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23C

77/ j; UVALV'S COA'HA'ESS OF K ELI C IONS.

ei^ncrs," wliich was oti the lips of every Japanese at the time of the
revolution, and since tlicn unlieard, was again heard. It was at this
time that Confucian teaching was revi\ed in all the public schools, and
the emperor issued a proclamation that the western ethical principles
were not suitable U) the Japanese, and were not to be taught in our
public schools.

Then the pendulum went to the other side. And now another era
came in. This was a period of western ideas which covers the years
between iSSj and iSSS. This was the age of great interest in every-
thing that came from al)road. Not only was Knglish eagerly taught,
but all sorts of foreign manners and custom were busily introduced.
Foreign costumes, not onl\- of gentlemen l)ut of ladies, foreign diet as
well as foreign licpujrs I)ecame most popular among all classes. Mvery
newsi)aper, almost without exception, advocated the adoption of every-
thing foreign, so that japan seemed as if it would be no longer an ori-
ental nation, but would become occidcntalized. It was at this time
that such a pa|)er asjiji .Shimpu advocateil adoption of Christianity as
the national religion of Ja])an. It was no w<jnder that pet)ple poured
into Christian churches aiul that the latter niaile unprecetlented strides
in progress.

Hut tile pendulum swung to its extreme and now another move-
ment came in. The sign of reactionary and anti-foreign spirit might be
seen in everxthing in cu.-^tonis, in sentiments, as well as in opinions.
Then the "japan for the Japanese" became heard in all the corners of
Anti-Foreign the empire. i'",\er\thing that has fla\or of foreign countries has been
stigmatized as unwortii)- of atloption on' tlie Ja|)anese, and, instead of
it, e\er\thing nati\e is praised as superior or worth)' of preservation.
Jiuddhism, whicii has been regartled for years as a religion of the
ignorant and inferior classes, is now ])raised as a superior religion,
much su])erior to Christianit}-, and many who once favored adoption
of Christianitx as the national religion are seen publicly in \\\n\-
dhistic ceremonies. Christianity is denounced as antagonistic to the
growth of our national spirit, in conflict with our best morality, and
also as against the intent of the imperial edict which was issued two
years ago as the code of morals in all our schools. Conflict between
Christianity and national education has Iiecome the most po|)ular
theme among certain classes ol the people. .Strong sense of national
feeling has bi'i'U aniuse<l aiiKdigall classesof people, and now it is not
strange that C"hristians also feel its influence.

And thus the tloors to Christianity seem to have been closed and
we have a great decline in its growth, liut now, again, the pendu-
lum has reached another end ami there are signs that another era is
ushering in. i"-very mo\ement has rhythm, says Herbert Spencer, and
this is true in the progress ol Christianity in Japan.

One word as io the prospect in future. That Japan will not
become a Christian nation in a few years is a plain fact. Hut that it
will become one in the course of time is almost above iloubt, and it is
only a question of time. Still "Rome cannot be built in a day," and

spirit

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

237

so it will take time to Christianize Japan. That there are strong
obstacles and ^rcat hindrances can ea^^ily be seen. It may be easy to
show the reasonableness of Christianity, but to instill true Christian

it into the heart of thi

task. VV«

spirit into tne neart ot tne people is not an easy tasK. vve can show
them more easily the folly of other religions, but to build up a true
Christian church requires a lon^ time. As it was in the time of the
apostles and prophets, so it will be in Japan that, except a certain
jTiain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it abideth by itself alone.
Unless a fjreat many precious lives shall be spent in this difficult and
great work we cannot hope much for its results.

I am not at all anxious about the future of (Jhristianity in Japan,
as far as its final victory is concerned. Hut there are many difficult Fntnroof
problems pressing us hard for their solution. 1 shall here simply state * ''"japan * '"
these problems in a few words.

First. The first problem that conies under our notice is that of
relation between Christianity and our nationalit), namely, our naticjnal
habit and spirit. Professor Inonge and others ha\e lieeii raising their
voices against Christianity, claiming it is in confiict with our national
spirit. y\nd this cry against Christianity has become so popular
anu)ng Huddhists. Shintoists and Reactionists that they make it the
only weapon of their attack against Christianity. Hut in my belief
this problem is not so hard as it looks. What outsiders think to be
the real conflict seems to us only shadow and vapor.

.Second. Relation between missionaries arid native Christians is
another problem, llow must they be related? in other countries,
such as India or China, such a (juestion, perhaps, ma\- never arise, but
in Japan it is entirely different. Japanese Christians will never be sat-
isfied uiuler missionary auspices. 'Fo be useful \.o t)Ui»C()imti>' the mis-
sionaries must either co-operatf or join native churches and become
like one of the native workers.

Third. Problem of tlenominations ami church government is
another difficult)-. Of course we shall not entirely dispense with
denominations and sects, liut it seems rather foolish to have all
denominations which arc jieculiar to some countries and which have
certain peculiar history attacheil to them, introduced into Japan where
no such history exists and where circumstances are entire!)- different.
Anil so we think we can reduce the number of denominations. Hut
how to begin is a hard problem.

So, also, with the form of church go\eniment. It is needless to say
that we need not or ought not to copy in any way the exact forms of
church governments which are in vogue in the United States or in any
other countries. Hut to formulate a form of goxernment thatsuitsour
country the best, and at the same time works well elsewhere, isi|uitea
difficult task.

Fourth. Whether we need any written creed, and if so, what kind
of creed is best to have, is also a question. In all teachings of mis-
sionaries and others there is always more or less of husks mixed with
genuine truth. And at the same time every form of Christianity has

,'ir

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238

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

HnxkHwitli
GonuinpTruUi,

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some excellent truth in it. And it is hard to make distinction between
essentials and non-essentials, between creed and husks. This is a hard
problem for Japanese theologians to solve.

Japanese Christians must solve all these problems by themselves.
I believe there is a grand mission for Japanese Christians. I believe
that it is our mission to solve all these problems which have been and
arc still stumbling blocks in all lands; and it is also our mission to
give to all the oriental nations and the rest of the world a guide to true
progress and a realization of the glorious Gospel which is in Jesus
Christ.

And now, in conclusion, I may say that Christianity is from God
and so it will be in all times. We may plan many things, but all will
be executed by the divine will. As the saying runs, " Man proposes
and God disposes." Then our prayer is and always must be: "Thy
kingdom come, Thy will be done as in heaven so in earth."

i .1

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Rev. George Dana Boardman, Philadelphia, Pa.

■BHi

Christ the (Jnifier of ]V\ankind.

Paper by REV. DR. GEORGE DANA BOARDMAN, of Philadelphia.

NVOVS ICxtraordinary and Ministers IMcni-
potcntiary in the Kin},ulom of Gotl, Men
and women: The hour tor the closinj^ of
this most extraordinary convention has
come. Most extraordinary, I say, for this
conjjress is unparalleled in its purpose— not
to array sect ajjainst sect, or to exalt one
form of religion at the cost of all other
forms, but to unite all relifrion affainst all
irreligion. Unpatalleled in its composition
save on the day ol Pentecost, and it is I'en-
tecostal day again,for here arc gathered to-
gether devout men from every nation under
heaven — Persians and Medes and l\lamites
and dwellers in Mesopotamia, in Juilc.i and
Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, in Phrjgia
and Pamphylia, in Kgypt and the parts of
Lybia about Cyrenc, and sojourners from Rome, both Jews and Pros-
elytes, Cretans and Arabians, we do hear them speaking every man in
his own language, and yet as though in one common vernacular, the
wonderful works of God.

All honor to Chicago, whose beautiful "white city" symbolizes the
architectural unity of the one city of our one God. AH honor to those
noble officers — this James the Just, surnamed Bonney, and this John
the Beloved, whose name is Barrows— for the far-reaching sagacity
with which they have conceived and the consummate skill with which
they have managed this most august of human parliaments, this crown-
ing glory of the earth's fairest fair.

And what is the secret of this marvelous unity? Let me be as
true to my own convictions as you, honored representatives of other
religions, have been nobly true to your own. I believe it is Jesus of
Nazareth who is the one great unifier of mankind. Jesus Christ unifies
mankind by His incarnation. For when Me was born into the world
He was born "The Son of Man." Ponder the profound significance of
this unique title. It is not "a son of men," it is not "a son of man,"

241

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

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of Mankind.

it is not "the son of men," but it is "The Son of Man." Thai is to
say, Jesus of Nazareth is the universal Homo, the essential Vir, the
son of human nature blending in Himself all races, ages, se.xes,
capacities, temperaments. Jesus is the archetypal rnan, the ideal hero,
the consummate incarnation, the symbolofpcrfecteil human nature, the
sum total unfolded, fulfilled humanity, the Son of Mankind.

All other religions, comparatively speaking, arc more or less topo-
The iteiiKion graphical. For example, there was the institute religion of I*alestine;
the priest religion of hgypt, tiie hero religion oi Greece, the empire
religion of Rome, the Gueber religion of I'ersia, the ancestor religion
of China, the Vedic religion of India, the lUiddlia religion of Hurmah,
the Shinto religion of Japan, the Valhalla religion of .Scaiulinavia, the
Moslem religion of Turkey, the spirit religion of our American aborig-
ines. Hut Christianity is the religion of mankind. Zoroaster was a
Persian; Mohamnvd was an y\rabiaii. J^ut Jesus is the .Son of Man.
And, therefore. His religion is ecpially at home among black and
white, red and tawny, mountaineers and lowlanders, kuulsmen and
seamen, philosophers and journeymen, men and women, partriarchs
and children.

Jesus Christ is unifxing mankind by His own teaching. Take, in
way of illustration. His doctrine of love asset forth in i lis own mountain
sermon. For instance. His beatitudes, His precepts of reconciliation,
non-resistance, lo\'e of enemies, Hisbidiling each of us i\se, although
in solitary closet praxer. the i)lural, "Our, we, us." Or take, particu-
larly, Christ's summary of His mountain teaching as set forth in His
own golden rule. It is Jesus Christ's posiiive contribution to sociology,
or the philosophy of society.

Without loitering amid minute classification, it is enough to say
that the various theories of society niaj', substantially s|)eaking, be
reduced to two.

The first theory, to borrow a term from chemistry, is the atomic.
It proceeds on the assumption that men are a mass of separated units
or independent Adams, having no common bond of organic union or
interfunctional connection. Pushing to the xtreme the idea of indi-
vidualism, its tendency is egotistic, ilisjunctive, chaotic.

The second theory, to borrow again from chemistry, is the molo:-
ular. It [jioceeds on the assumption thai there is such an actuality as
mankind, and this mankind i>, so to speak, one colossal pirson ; (.ach
individual membei thereof forming a \ital com|)oueiit, a fiuictioiial
factor in the one great organism, so that membership in societ)' is uni-
versal, mutual, co-membership. Recognizing each iiuiividual of man-
kind as a c<-)nstituent member of the one great human cori)us, its ten
dcncy is altruistic, co-operati\e, constructive. Us motto is, " We arc
members one of another." It is the theory of Jesus Christ and those
who are His.

1 say, then, that it is Jesus Christ Himself who has g-ven us the key
to that greatest of modern problems— the problem of sociology. Do
you not see, then, that when every human being throughout the world

THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

<>bcys our Master's golden rule, all mankind will, indeed, become one
glorious unity?

Or take Christ's doctrine of neighborhood, as set forth in His
parable of the good Samaritan. According to this parable neighbor-
hood does not consist in local nearness; it is not a matter of ward,
city, state, nation, continent; it is a matter of glad readiness to relieve
tlistress wherever found. Jesus transfigures physical neighborhood
into moral, abolishing the word "foreigner," making "the whole
world kin." " Mankind," what is it but "Man-kinned? " How subtle
Shakespeare's play on words when he makes Hamlet whisper aside in
presence of his royal but brutal uncle :

A little 1111)10 tluiii kill and less than kind.

Or take Christ's doctrine of mankind as set iorth in His own
missionary commission. After two thousand years of an exclusively
Jewish religion the risen Lord bids His countrymen go forth into all the
world and preach the Gospel of reconciliation to every creature,
discipling to Himself every nation under heaven. How majestically
the son of Abrahani dilates into the .Son of Man. How heroically His
great apostle to the gentiles, .St. I'aul, sought to carry out his Master's
missionary commission. In fact, the mission of Paul Was a reversal of
the mission of y\braham. Great was Abraham's call ; but it was a call
to become the fouiulcr of a single nationality and an isolated religion,
(ireater was I'aul's call, for it was the call to become the founder, imder
the St)ii of Man, of a universal brotherhood aiul a cosnuipolitan
religion. He himself was the first conspicuous human illustration of
his Master's parable of the gootl .Samaritan.

And so he sent forth into all the world of the vast Roman empire
aniunmcing, it might almost be said in literal truth, to every creature
luuler heaven the glad tidings of mankind's reconciliation in Jesus
Christ. In the matter of the " solidarity of the nations," Paul, the Jew
apostle to the Gentiles, towers over every other human hero, being
himself the first conspicuous human deputy to the parliament of man,
the federation of the world.

Do you, then, not see that when every human being believes in
Christ's doctrine of mankind, as set forth in His missionary commis-
sion, all niankiiul will indeed become one blessed unity?

Or take Christ's doctrine of the church, as set forth in His own
parable of the sheep and the goats - a wonderful parable, the magnifi-
cent catholicity of which we miss, because our commentators and the-
ologians, in their anxiety for standards, insist on applying it only to
the good and the bad living in Christian lau''^, whereas it is a parable
of all nations in all times.

Wliat unspeakable catholicity on the part of the Son of Man! Oh,
that His church had caught more of His spirit; even as His Apostle
Peter did when, discerning the unconscious Christianity of heathen
Cornelius, he exclaimed: "Of a truth I perceive that God is no
respecter of persons; but that in every nation he that feareth Him,
and worketh righteousness, is acceptable to Him."

Paul the Ha-
man Hero.

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?'//£ IVORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Do you sec, then, that when every human being recognizes in
every ministering service to others a personal ministry to Jesus Christ
Himself, all mankind will indeed become one blessed unity?
o , Once more, and in a general summarj' of Christ's teachinir, take

Summary <)f ,,. .^ r ^i i 4. r i.i • ii- ^ .1 1 .

rhriHt's Teach- His own cpitome ot the law as set forth m His answer to the lawyers
""**■ question: " IMaster, which is the greatest of the commandments?"

And the Master's answer was this: "Thou shalt love tlij Lord thy
God 'vith all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with rJl thy mind,
and with all thy strength; this is the first and great commanilment.
And a second like unto it is this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thjself. On these two commandments hangeth the whole law
and the prophets."

Not that these two commandments are really two; they arc
simpi\' a twofold commandment ; each is the complement of the
other ; both being the obverse and the reverse legends engraved on
the golden medallion of God's will. In other words, there is no real
difference between Christianity and moralil)-, for Christianity is
morality looking (iodward ; morality is Christianity looking inanuartl.
Christianity is morality celestialized. Thus on this twofold command-
ment of love to God and lo\e to man hangs, as a mighty portal hangs
on its two massive hinges, not only the whole Bible from (iciiesis to
Apocalypse, but also all true morality, natural as well as revealed, or,
to express myself in language suggested by the undulatory theory :
Love is the ethereal medium pervading God's moral uni\erse, i)y means
of which are propagated the motions of His impulses, tlu- heat of His
grace, the light of I lis truth, the electricit\' of 1 lis activities, the mag-
netism of His nature, the affinities of His character, the gravitation of
His will. In brief, love is the \ery definition of Deity Himself: "God
is lo\c; and he that abideth in love abideth in God and (lod in

him."

" I'm ai)t to tliiiik tlic man'
That loiild .surrmiiHl tlic ^^llm of tliiiij,fs, ami spy
'I'he lifart of ( ]ih\, and secrets of His einitire,
Would speak hut love. With him the bright result
Would ( haii,i;e liie iuic of intermeiliate S( eiies,
And make one thiii^ of all tiieoloiry."

Do you not, then, see that when every human being loves the
Lord his God witii all his heart, and his neighbor as his own self all
mankind will indeed lecome one blessed imity?

Jesus Christ is iniii\ing mankind by His own ilcath. Tasting, by
the grace of (iod. death for every man, He became by that death the
|-)ro|)itiatioii, not only for the sins of the Jew, but also for the sins of
the whole world. Antl in thus taking away the sin of the whole world
by reconciling in Himself (iod to man and man to God, He is also
reconciling man to man. What though His reconciliation has been
slov.', ages have elapsed since He laid dow n His own life for the life of
the world, and the world still rife with wars and rumors of wars,
underrate not the reconciling, fusing power of our iMediator's blood.

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

245

Recall the memorable prophecy of the high priest Caiaphas, when he
counseled the death of Jesus on the ground of the public necessity:

"Ye know noth'ng at all, nor do yc take account that it is expedi-
ent for you, that one man should die for the people and that the whole
nation perish not."

But the Holy Ghost was upon the sacrilegious pontiff, though he
knew it not, and so he builded larger than he knew. Meaning a nar-
row Jewish polii.)-, he pronounced a magnificently catholic prediction:
Now this he said not of himself; but being high priest that year
he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation; and not for the
nation only, but that lie might also gather together (.synagogue) into
one the children of God that are scattered abroad.

Accordingly, the moment that the Son of Man bowed i lis head
and gave back I lis spirit to liis l"'ather, the veil of the temjile was rent
in twain from the top to the bottom; thus signifying that the way into
the true Holy of Holies was henceforth open to all mankind alike; to
Roman Clement as well as to Hebrew IVter; to Greek Athanasius as
well as to Hebrew Jt)lin; to Indian Khrishnu I'al as well as to Hebrew
Paul. l'"or in Christ Jesus, Gentiles, wlio were once far off, are made
nigh; for He is the uorlil's peace, making both Jews and non-Jews one
body, breaking down the midiUe wall of partition between them, hav-
ing abolished t)n His own cross the emiiity, that He might create in
Himself of the twain, Jews ami non Jews, one new man, even mankind
Christiani/.i'd into one unity, so making peace. Thus the cross declares
the brotherhood ol :nan, under the l'"atherhooil of (iod, in the .Son-
hood of Christ. A\e, Jcsiis Christ is the unifier of inankind.

Jesus Christ is unifj'ing mankind hy His own i:iimortality. I''or wc
Christians do not worship a deail. embalmeil l.)eil\ . Ibe .Son uf ]\I;in
has burst the bars of death and is alive for evermore, holding in His
own grasp the keys of liades. The foUowi of Buddha, if I mistake
not, claim that Nirvana, that state of existeroe so nebulous that we
cannot tell whether it means simple unconsciousness or total ex-
tinction, is the supremest goal of aspiration; and tli.ii even Buddha
himself is no longer a self-conscious person, but has him elf attain^ 1
JUiddhahood, or Nirvana. On the other hand, the followers of Jesu.T
claim til. a He is still alive, sitting at the right hand of the Majesty in
the heavens. from henceforth expecting, till I le make 1 lis foes I lis foot-
stool. lh)lding personal communion with Him, His disciples f i ( ! the
inspiration of His vitali/ing touch, and, therefore, are ever waking to
broader thoughts and diviner catholicities.

As He llimself promised. He is with His followers to the en<l of
the eon, imbuing them with his own gracious spirit; inspiring them
to send forth His evangel to all nations; to soften the barbarism of tUe
worUl's legislations; to al)olish its cruel slaveries, its desolating wars,
its murderous dramshops, its secret seraglios; to found institutes for
body, and mind and heart; to rear courts of arbitration; to lift up the
valleys of poverty; to cast down the mountains of opulence; to
straighten the twists of wrongs; to smooth the roughness of environ-

Alivo F <> r
livermtiro.

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rilE WORLD'S COXGRESS OF KEUGIOSS.

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TheOneUni
versul Man

inent; in brief, to uprcar out of the debris of human cliaos the one
august teinnle of the new mankind in Jesus Christ.

Thus the Son of Man, by His own incarnation, by His own teach-
ings, by His own death, by His own immortality, is most surely unify-
ing mankind.

And the Son of Man is the sole unifier of mankind. Huddha was
in many resjiects very noble, but he and his religion are Asiatic.
W'iiat has liudilha done for the unity of mankind? Mohammed
taught some very noble truths, but Mohammedanism is fragmental
aiui antithetic. Why have not his followers invited us to meet at
Mecca? Jesus Christ is the one univcrs'd man, and therefore it is
that tiie lirst parliament of religions is meeting in a Christian land, un-
der Christian auspices. Jesus Christ is the sole l)ond of the human
race; the one nexus of the nations, the great vertebral column of the
one body of mankind. He it is who by His own pcrsonalit) is Ijridg-
ing the ri\ers of languages, tunneling the mountains of caste, dismnn-
tling the fortresses of nations, spanning the seas of races, incorpo-
rating all iiuman \arieties into one majestic tem])le-bod\- of mankind.

For Jesus Christ is the true center of gravitw and it is oidy as the
forces of mankind arc pivt^tetl on Him that they are in !)alance. i\iul
the oscillations of mankind are perceptibl\- shortening as the time of
the promised equilibrium draws near. There, as on a great white
throne, serenely sits the swordless King of ages Himself both tiie an-
cient and the infant of days -cahnl\- abiding the centuries, mendingthe
bruised reed, fanning tiie ilx'ing wick, sending forth righteousness un-
to victory; there lie sits, e\ermore drawing niankiiul nearer and nearer
Himself; and as they approach I sec tiiem dropping the s])ear, wa\ ing
the oli\e ijranch, arranging themseKes in symmetric, siiining, raptur-
ous groups around the divine .Son of Man. He HiiiiseU being tiieir ever-
iastincf mount of beatitudes.

( i

^1 '

Down the dark future, ttirou^h loiifj KeiicrjUioiis.

Tlie echoing smincls j^row fainter ;nnl then cease;
And like a hell, with solemn, sweet vihrations,

1 hear once more the voice of Christ say "I'eace."

Peace, and no longer from its Kr.'izen portals

The blast of War's ^;rcat or^^.m sliakes the skies;

Hut beautiful as souths i.l the iiuinoitals
The holy melodies of love arise

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The Church of St. John the Baptist, Samaria.

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UnivprMil
UiviuH Liove.

f^econciliation V^^^^ Not \^icarious.

Paper by REV. THEODORE F. WRIGHT, Ph. D.

HERE are certain dicta of Scripture which are
universal because fundamental, and fundamen-
tal because universal. One of these is that
saying of the Apostle John, "God is Love, and
he that dwelleth in Love dvvelleth 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 lovcth not knoweth not
God, for God is love; beloved, if 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.
Thev all see that there is as the center and source of life a fountain of
fatlieiliness which is even begetting and nurturing, so that, indeed, we
cannot conceive of tiie idle God, the neglectful God or the God of
limitcil interests. Our minds will not work until we i>lace before tiiem
the ever-creating God who neither slumbers nor sleeps; the ever pres-
ent Help. "I'eradventure He sleepeth" might be said of Haal, for
there was no answer; but when Elijah called on the God of Abraham,
of Isaac a. id 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 ascer-
tained the limits of the Divine care, but now we know that God is one,
and that "His tender mercies are over all His works." 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

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

249

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 patliway
with longings, and sends his love after the boy, and when the way-
ward one is yet a great way off, he sees, he hath compassion, lie runs,
he ialls on his neck, he kisses him, he bids them bring the robe, the
ling, the shoes, the fatted calf, he reproves the cold vindictivcness of
llie elder brother, he is all she])herd-like.

We need not dogmatize as to the fallen st.ite of man. Intellect-
ually man has not fallen. He is as bright as he ever was. I le is grow-
ing brighter. The evolution of the intellect is indisputable, liiit 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
compel iiiniself to do it? There is a degree of ignorance, 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 ilepths.
The moti\es behind our thinking want renewal, else mind life is like
John Randolph's mackerel in the moonlight, which stank as it shone.
So was man in the sad d/ys of Roman sensuality and Jewish hypocrisy,
and so do our daih' chronicles testify today.

The cure for the lost sheep is, to seek for it till it is found. " All
we like shee|) have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own
way.' (Is. liii, 6. ) The (piestion is: How should the I)i\ine Lord
accomplish the purpose with which it must be teeming — the recovery
of the lost state? ( )ur answer is in general, to say that the remeily was
within the keeping of the infinite love and wisdom which had so far
made and coiulucted man, orwe 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 with-
out 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 peo-
ple out of the wilderness into their inheritance. And a virgin con-
ceived and bore a .Son, and called His name Jesus — that is Joshua.
The wisdom or word of God was made flesh, so that wc 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 Zacha-
rias. She said: "My spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Saviour. He hath
showed strength with His arm. He hath holpen His serxant, 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 deli\ered
out of the hands of our enemies, might serve Him without fear all the
days of our life; the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give
light to theiii that sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide
our feet in the way of peace." Therefore, John the Baptist proclaimed
Him as "the Lamb of God that takcth away the sin of the world." and

Fallen
of Man.

State

Prophetic
SongH of Mi'ry
and Zauharias.

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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The Inoiri-
tablo Conflict.

therefore He bade His hearers prepare the way of Jehovah and make
strait His path.

Born of wonian, and so open to every temptation, He was early
led to find the written word, His light of life. He went ahout His
father's business by expoundinj^ it. Tried in the wiUierncss, He made
no other answer than the law. Goin<f about doing good, He healed
the sick and gave sight to the blind atid brought good tidings to the
meek. At Jerusalem Ho cleansed the temple of its corru])tion, even
as He was daily rentlering His own nature the temple of (iod. The
inevitable conflict was not shunned. The perceivccl unfaithfulness of
many did not provoke a word of resentment. The attempts of habit-
ual sinners 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 com-
mandment of love to one another. He bade them be not troubled,
and spoke of the peace 1 le had to give to them. I le cliasttiucl 1 lim-
seH in the garden. On His way to the cross He asked tlicm to weep
rather for themselves than for Him. He ga\e the mollur 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, l-'or His lo\e they
were His adversaries, but He gave Himself unto pra\er.

Rising again He came with indescribable gentleness to the rec-
ognition of Alary Magdalene. To the two discouraged tliscii)les He
was all j)atience. To iloubting Thomas He was infinitely condescend-
ing. As He stood there for the time made visible to their s|)iritual
sight, having entered where the doors were shut, He was the endxxl-
iment of prophecy fulfilletl, of divine lo\e triumphant. He Wits, He
is "Our Lord and our God," "the brightness of His glory, the express
image of His person."

This is no mereh' vicarious act of a subordinate or additional per-
son of God. It was the act of (iod Himself to restore the vital union
between man and Himself, that union which man had severed by in
creasing self-assertion, wajuardness and wickedness, and w Inch could
only be reneweil by contrition aiul return and reconciliation. In the
case of the man healed of his blindness, in the ninth clia])ter 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
Vital Union of safety for him established with the Lord, as shown b}' his saying,
Midlfwi *'"" " I-ui'^J. I believe," and by his worshiping Him. In more difficult cases,
as we know fjysome 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 ilivine aid, to hate what we once wickedly loved, and to love
what we once wickedly hated, and so, little by little, born from ai)ove,
a new heart is formed within us, anil we come to act as f.iithful rather
than as unfaithful servants of the I^ord, 3s friemls rather than as

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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 to rescue and to
reconcile wayward souls sprang from the infinite love; that the method
is that of the divine order, and that the result in the individual re-
deemed tiirough rejjentance and regeneration is just what man's fallen
state required and requires. It is precisely as Paul said: " God was in
the Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." (2 Cor., v, 19.)
And again He said: " In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
l)odily." (Col., xi, 9) "We dwell in Him," said John once more,
" and He in us; we love 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.

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The Gate ot Jerusalem.

Xhe 0^'y Possible ]\/\ethod of f^eligious
Unification of the H^"^^^ f^ace.

Paper by REV. WILLIAM R. ALGER, of New York.

»c^^"

N considcriiifj the subject that now asks your
attention, "The Only Possible Method of Relig-
ious Unification." we must work our way to the
solution of the problems by dcfiniiif^ our terms
and distin^uishint:^ the steps. What is unity?
The most authoritative speculative thinker that
ever lived has j^iven the onl)- possible defini-
tion of urnty that ever has or ever can be
j^iven: "Unity is the measure of f^enus and the
head or principle." Unity, therefore, is not
oneness within itself, a series of self-distinction
in a free whole. No unity can be divided, but
every unity can be indefinitely multiplied.
There is no real unity except a person, a free
spirit, and the genus of that order of individu-
als is God. God is the measure of all person-
alities. God is Himself an absolute, self-determined and free self-
consciousness; that is, the measure of genus and the head of the
innumerable niunber of its rc[)resentatives. Unification is the taking
up of many into an already e.xisting unity and the pervasion of the Unltie"
many by the one. All unities are tlerived from God, the absolute
unity.

l-'ourteen Iiundred million human beings represent a generic unity
of mankind. I low can they be unified? Never by any mere struggles
of their own, but just in proportion as they face their egoistic wills and
place them with the divine will they become unified. The ideal unity
ot the human race already exists in the mind and purpose of God and
in the developing destiny of the human race; but, alas! it is not con-
sciously recognized by the component individuals who represent it,
and is not manifested by them in their own voluntary activity. Why?
The reason why is this cosmic spirit, of which I'rofessor Huxley has
so recently spoken, the insurrectionary spirit of the parts, the rebellion

253

Sonrce of All

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of the parts afrainst tlie whole. This insurrectionary spirit is a personi-
fication, a collectivity in a person, an act of sin-j,niilt. It is evil, l)iit
not ^iiilt. Guilt comes in with the voluntary rebellion of the individual
free spirit. Liberals have rebelled, but they simply blink the whole
problem of evil and assert "there is no evil, man is divine." Man is
not divine in actuality; he is in potentiality. Man is a rational animal.
He is a divine animal. The animality is actual, until he develops the
|)otentiality by voluntary co-operation with divine {^race.

The first form of partial unification of the human race is the .es-
thetic unification. The second step is the scientific uniticatioti; the
third is the es.scntial; the fourth is the political unification bj' the es-
tablishment of an international code for the settlement of all disputes
by reason. The fifth will be the commercial and .social, the free cir-
culation of all the component items of humanity through the whole
of humanity. Our commerce, steamshi|)s, telefj[iaplis and telephone,
The Boverai ''^'^*^' ''" f^^^th ; the ever increasinfj travel is rapidly bringing that about,
8t«t|)8in Uuifi. but the commercial spirit, as such, is cosmic, is selfish. Thev seek to
make money out of others by the principle of profit, fjettin^ more
than they should. The next partial form of unification is the ecoiu)mic.
The economic unification of the human race will be what? The trans-
fer of civilization from its pecuniary basis to the basis of labor. The
whole effort of the human race must not be to purchase floods and
sell them in order to make money. It must be to produce ^oods and
distribute them on the principles of justice for the supply of human
wants, without any profit. The pursuit of money is cosmic and hos-
tile. The money I get nobody else can have, but the spirit of co-
operation is unifying and universal, because in the spiritual order there
is no division; there is nothing l)ut wholes. The knowledge I have all
may have, without division. And when we work in co-operation, in-
stead of antagonism, in producing and distributing the goods of this
life, the interest of all men will be one, namely, to reduce cost to the
minimum and increase product to the maximum. That will abolish
waste and make the whole earth one in interest, while now they are
bristling wit'h hostility.

There arc three in unity, if I may so speak, unification of the whole
race, for which seven is whole, the whole made up of six preceding
distinctions. Now the seventh is a trinity. Let us see what arc the
three. We have the philosophical unification and the theological uni-
fication, and the unity of those is the religious unification. Let me
define. Philosophy is the science of ultimate ground. Theology is
the science of the first principle. The unity of those two, transfused
through the whole personality and applied as the dominant spirit of
life in the regulation of conduct through all its demands, is religion.
That is the pure, absolute, universal religion in which all can agree.

The first great obstacle to overcome is our environment — our so-
cial environment. Our social environment, instead of being redeemed,
instead of representing the archetype mind of God, the redemptive, is
cosmic, and it is utterly vain for us to go and preach Christianity,

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

when just as fast as wc utter these precepts they arc neutralized by the
atmospheric cnviroiuucnts in which they pass. The [,'reat anti-Christ
of tile world is the unchristian character and conduct of Christendom.
All through Christendom we i)reach and profess one set of precepts
and practice the opposite. \Ve say, "Seek ye first the kinjfdom of
heaven and righteousness, and all elsi/ shall he added unto us." We
put the kiuffdom of heaven ami its rijrhteousness in the background
and work like so many incarnate devils for every form of self-jfratifi-
cation.

The j^reat obstacle to the religious unification of the liuman race
is the irreligious always associated and often identified with the relig-
ious, There are three great specifications of that. First, hatred is a
made religion. Did not the Hrahmans and the Mohammedans slaugh-
ter each other in the streets of Bombay a few days ago, hating each
other more than they loved the generic humanity or God? Did not
the Catholics and I'rotestants struggle together furiously and come
near committing murder in Montreal and Toronto a few days ago?
All over the world the hatred of the professors of religion for one an-
other is irreligion injected into the very core of religion. That is
fatal.

Rites and ceremonies arc not religion. A man may repeat the
soundest creed verbally a hunilred times a day for twenty years. He
may cross himself three times and bend his knee and bow his head,
and still be full of pride and vanity; or he may omit those ceremonies
and retreat to himself into his closet and shut the door, and in strug-
gle w ith God efface his egoism and receive the divine spirit. That is
religion, and so on through other manifestations. We must arrive at
pure, rational, universal interpretations t)f all the dogmas of theology,
\\'e must interpret every dogma in such a way that it will agree with
all other dogmas in a free circulation of the distinctions through the
unity. Then the human race can be united on that. They never can
on the other. We must put the pre|)onderating emphasis, without
any division, on the ethical aspects of religion instead of on the spcc-
ulati\e. l''ormerl\', it was just the other way. We are rapidly coming
to that. The liberalists began their protests against the Catholic and
evangelical theology by supporting the ethical, emphasizing charac-
ter and conduct. \S\\i all the churches now recognize that a man must
have a good character, that he must behave himself properly, morally.
There is not one that doubts or questions it. These have become
commonplaces, and yet the liberals stay right there and don't move a
step.

Liberalism thus far has been ethical and shallow. lu'angelicanism
has been dogmatic, tyrannical and cruel, to some extent irrational, but
it has always been profound. It has battled with the real problems
which the liberalists have simi)ly blinked at, and settled these prob-
lems in universal agreement. For example, the doctrine of the fall of
Adam, There was a real problem. The world is full of evil; God is
perfect; he could not create imperfections. How happened it? Why,

ObRtaclei to
Religion.

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Redemption
Must lie Real-
izeil on Earth.

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r///S WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

man was created all right, but he fell. It was an amazi*^;;'/ original,
subtle and protc und stroke to settle a real problem. The liberals came
up and, saying it was not the true solution, they blinked at the prob-
lem and denied that it existed. Now the real solution seems to me is
not that the evils in the universe have come from a fall.

The fall of an archdemoniac spirit in heaven does not settle the
problem; it only moves it back one step. How did he fall? Why did
he fall? There can be no fall in the archetypal of God. Creatures
were created in freedom to choose between good and evil in order that
thr )ugli their freedom and the discipline of struggle with evil they
migut become the perfected and redeemed images of God. That set-
tles the problem and we can all agree on that. Of course you want
an hour to expound it. This hint may seem absurd, but there is more
in it. Finally, I want to say we must change the emphasis, from the
world of death to this world. Redemption must not be postponed to
the future. It must be realized on the earth. I don't think it is
heresy to say that we must not confine the idea of Christ to the mere
historic individual, Jesus of Nazareth; but \vc must consic'er that Christ
is not merely the individual. He is the completed ger us incarnate.
He is the absolute generic unity of the human race in inanifestation.
Therefore, he is not the follower of other men, but their di 'ine exem-
plar. We must not limit our worship of Christ to the mere historic
person, but must sec in the individual person the perfected genus of
the divine humanity which is God Himself, and realize that that is to
be multiplied. It cannot be div ided, but it may be multiplied commen-
suratcly with the dimensions of the whole human race.

it'r

Tfhe fSleed of a \Yider Co^^^P^^o"
of Revelation, or Lessons from the
Sacred B^o^^ of the \Yorld.

Paper by PROF. J. ESTLIN CARPENTER, of Oxford.

HE congress which I have the honor to address
in this paper is a unique assemblage. It could
not have met before the nineteenth century,
and no country in the world possesses the
needful boldness of conception and organiz-
ing energy save the United States of America.
History does indeed record other endeavors
to bring the religions of the world into line.
The Christian fathers of the fourth century
credited Demetrius Phalereus, the large-
minded librarian of Ptolemy Philadelphus,
about 250 H. C, with the attempt to procure
the sacred books, not only of the Jews, but
also of the Ethiopians, Indians, Persians,
P.lamites, Babylonians, Assyrians, Chaldeans,
Romans, Phoenicians, Syrians and Greeks. The great iMuj^M^r Akbar
(the contemporary of Queen I{lizabeth) invited to his court Jews,
Christians, Mohammedans, Hrahmans and Zoroastrians. He listened
to their discussions, he weighed their argumentij, until (says one of
the native historians) there grew gradually as the outline on a stone
the conviction in his heart that there were sensible men in all relig-
ions. Different indeed is this from the court condemnation by the
English lexicographer, Samuel Johnson, who said a hundred years
ago: "There are two objects of curiosity — the Christian world and the EeligioM^' "*
Mohammedan world; all the rest maybe considered barbarous." This'
congress meets, I trust, in the spirit of that wise old man v.ho wrote:!
"One is born a Pagan, another a Jew, a third a Mussulman. The true
philosopher sees in each a fellow seeking after God." With this con-{
viction of the sympathy of religions, I offer some remarks founded on
the study of the world's sacred books.
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I will not stop to define a sacred book, or distinguish it from
[those which, like the "Imitatio Christi," the "Theologia Gcnnanica,"
( or "Pilgrim's Progress," have deeply influenced Christian thought or
' feeling. It is enough to observe that the significance of great collec-
' tions of religious literature cannot be overestimated. As .soon as a
jfaith produces a scripture, /. i\, a book invested with legal or other
'jauthority, no matter on lunv lowly a scale, it at once acquires an cle-
knent of permanence. Such permanence has both advantages and dan-
gers. First of all, it provides the great sustenance for religious affec-
tion; it protects a young and growing religion from too rapid change
through contact with foreign influences; it settles a base for future in-
ternal development; it secures a certain stabilit)'; it fi.xes a standard
of belief, consolidates the moral type.

It has been sometimes argued that if the Gospels had never been ^
written, the Christian church which existed for a generation ere they
were composed, would still have transmitted its orders and administered J
its sacraments, and lived on by its great tradition. But where would/
have been the image of Jesus enshrined in these brief records? How
could it have sunk into the heart of nations and served as the impulse
and the goal of endeavor, unexhausted in Christendom after eighteen
A Nation centuries.'' The diversity of the religions of Greece, their tendency to |

uires*"* ^"*^ P**^-^ '"**^ ^"*^ another, the ease with which new cults obtained a foot-'
ing in Rome, the decline of any vital faith during the last days of the
republic, supply abundant illustrations of the religious weakness of a
nation without scriptures. On the other hand, the dangers are obvious.
The letter takes the place of the spirit, the transitory is confused with
the permanent, the occasional is made universal, the local and tem-
poral is erected into the everlasting and absolute.

The sacred book is indispensable for the missionary religion.
Even Judaism, imperfect as was its development in this direction, dis-
covered this as the Greek version of the seventy made its way along
the IMeiliterranean. Take the Koran from Islam, and where would
have been its conquering power? Read the records of the heroic
. labors of the Buddhist missionaries and of the devoted toil of
HnmcU'Bt Eie- the Chinese pilgrims to India in search of copies of the holy books;

in...it f.t H.'ve- yQ^, j^,.jy, j-jj^. ^^ ^ j^j^^ ^y understanti the enthusiasm with which they

ga\e their lives to the reprotluction of the teachings of the Great Mas-
ter; you will see how clear and immediate was the perception that the
diffusion of the new religion depended on the translation of its scriptures.
And now, one after another, our age has witnessed the resurrection
of ancient literatures. Philology has put the key of language into our
hands. Shrine after shrine in the world's great tenq)le has been
entered; the songs of praise, the commands of law, the litanies of peni-
tence, have been fetched from the tombs of the Nile or the mounds
of Mesopotamia, or the sanctuaries of the Ganges. The Bible of hu-
manity has been recorded. What will it teach us? I desire to suggest
to this congress that it brings home the need of a conception of revel-
ation unconfined to any particular religion, but capable of application

liitum.

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

259

r\.-.\jy

o-'

in diverse modes to all. Suffer me to illustrate this very briefly under
three heads: First, ideas of ethics; second, ideas of inspiration; third,
ideas of incarnation. ;

The sacred books of the world are necessarily varied in character!
and contents. Yet no group of scriptures fails to recognize, in thq
long run, the supreme importance of conduct. Here is that which, in
the control of action, speech and thought, is of the highest signifi-
cance for life. This consciousness sometimes lights up even the most
arid wastes of sacrificial detail.

All nations do not pass through the same stages of moral evolu-
tion within the same periods, or mark them by the same crises. The The Develop,
development of one is slower, of another more swift. One people evolution,
seems to remain stationary for millenniums, another advances with each
century But in so far as they have both consciously reached the same
moral relations and attained the same insight, the ethical truth which , <

they have gained has the same validity. Enter an Egyptian tomb of
the century of Moses' birth and you will find that the .soul, as it came
before the judges in the other world, was summoned to declare its in-
nocence in such word-s as these: "I am not a doer of what is wrong, I
am not a robber, I am not a murderer, 1 am not a liar, I am not un-
chaste, I am not the causer ot others' tears." Is the standard of duty
here implied less noble than that of the decalogue? Are we to depress^
the one as human and exalt the other as divine? More than five hun-'
drcd years before Christ the Chinese sage, Lao Tsze, bade his disciples, \
"Recompense injury with kindness," and at the same great era, faithful/
in noble utterance, Gautama, the Buddha, said, "Let man overcome'
anger by liberality and the liar by truth." Is this less a revelation of \
a higher ideal than the injunction ot Jesus, "Resist not evil, but who- \
soever smitcth thee on thy right check turn to him the other also?"
The fact surely is that we cannot draw any partition line through the
phenomena of the moral life and affirm that on one side lie tlie gen-
eralizations of earthly reasons and on the other the declarations of
heavenly truth. The utterances in which the heart of man has em-
bodied its glimpses of the higher vision are not all of equal merit, but
they must be explained in the same way. The moralists of the flowery
land, even before Confucius, were not slow to perceive this, though
they could not apply it over .so wide a range as that now open to us.
Heaven in giving birth to the multitudes of the people to every faculty
and relationship affixed its law. The people possess this normal virtue.

In the ancieni "-^cords gathered up in the Shu King, the Duke of |
Chow related hew Ilea would not follow the leading of .ShangTi.i
supreme ruler of God. "In the daily business of life and the most!
common actions," wrote the commentator, "we feel, as it were, an]
influence exerted on the intelligence, the emotions and the heart./
Even the most stupid are not without their gleams of light." This is
the leading idea of Ti, and there is no place where it is not felt.
Modern ethical theory, in the forms which it has assumed at the hands
of Butler, Kant and Martineau, recognizes this element. Its relation

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260

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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to the whole j)hik)Sopliy of reUgion will no doubt be discussed by
other s])e;ikers at this congress.

Suffer me in brief to state my conviction that the authority of con-
science oiil)- receives its full e.\[)lanation when it is atlmitted that that
difference which we desit^iuite in ft)rnis of "higher" and "lower" is not
of our own making. It issues forth from our own nature because it
has been fust implanted w ithin it. It is a speech to our souls of a
loftier \()ice, grow ing clearer and more articulate as thought grows
wider ami feeling more pure. It is, in fact, the witness of God within
V us; it is the sell-manifestation of His righteousness, so that in the com-
mon terms of universal moral experience lies the first and broadest cle-
ment of Revelation. lUit ma\' we not appl)'the same tests, the worth of
belief, the genuineness of feeling, to more special cases? If the divine
life shows itself forth in the development of conscience, may it not be
traced also in the slow rise of a nation's thought of (iod, or in the
swifter response of nobler minds to the appeal of heaven? The fact
is, that man is so conscious of his weakness that in his earlier days all
higher knowledge, the gifts of language anil letters, the discovery of
the crafts, the inventions of civilization, poetry and song, art, law, phi-
losoph)', bear about them the stamp of the superhuman. "From thee,"
sang Pindar ( nearest u( (ireeks to 1 lebrew prophecy), "cometh all high
excellence to nu)rtals." .Such love is, in fact, the teaching of the
unseen, the manifestati(jn of the infinite in our mortal ken. If this
conception of pnnidential guidance be true in the broad sphere of
human intelligence, does it cease to be true in the realm of religious
thought? Read one of the I'^gyptian h\-mns laid in the believer's cof-
fin ere Moses was born:

" Praise to Amen-Ra, the good God beloved, the ancient of heavens,
the oklest of the earth, Lord of Paternity, Maker Kverlasting. He is
the Causer of pleasure and light. Maker of grass for the cattle and of
fruitful trees for man, causing the fish to live in the river and the birds
to fill the air, lying awake when all men sleep to seek out the good of
11 is creatures. We worship Thy spirit whoaione hast made us; we, whom
Ihou h.is made, thank Thee that Thou hast given us birth J wc give Thee
praises for Thy merc\- to us."

Is this less inspired than a Hebrew psalm? .Study that antique
record of all the Zaratluistra in the (iathas, which all scholars receive
as the oldest part of the Y.cnd Avesta. Does it not rest on a religious
experience similar in kind to that of Isaiah?

Tlieologies may be many, but religion is but one. It was after this
that the \'edic seers were groping when the}' looked at the varied wor-
ship around them and cried: "They call Him India, Mitra, Varuna,
Kc" -^^^"i' ■'^'i.i,^'-"^ name \ariousIy Him who is but one;" or again, "the sages
in their hymns give many forms to Him who is but one." It was this
essential fact with which the early Christians were confronted as they
saw that the (ireek poets and philosophers had reached truths about
the being of God not at all unlike those of Moses and the prophets.
Their solution was worthy ot the freedom and universality of the spirit of

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

261

Jesus. They were for recop[nizinff and welcomirifj truth wherever they
found it, and they referred it without hesitation to the ultimate source
of wisdom and knowledj^e, the Lotjjos, at once the minor thouj^ht and
the uttered word of (iod. The niart)r Justin affirmed that the Logos'
had worked through Socrates, as it had been i)resent in Jesus; na>', with
a wider outlook he spoke of the seed of the Lofjos implanted in every
race of man. In virtue of this fellowship, therefore, all truth was rev-
elation and akin to Christ Himself. "Whatsoever things were said
among all men are the property of us Christians." The yMexandrian
teachers shared the same conception. The divine intelligence per-
vaded human life and history and showed itself in all that was best in
beauty, goodness, truth. The way of truth was like amighty river ever
flowing, and as it passeil it was ever receiving fresh streamson this side
and that. Nay, so clear in Clement's view was the work of Greek phi-
losophy that he not onl\' reganled it like L;iw and {i()si)el as a gift of
God, it was an actu.tl covenant as much as that of Sinai, possessed of
its own justifying power, or following the great generalization of St.
I'aul. 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," aflirmed the author of the
wisdom of .Solomon, "wisdom entering iiitodioh' souls maketh them
friends of God and prophets." .So \\c ma\' claim in its widest applica-
tion the saying of Mohammed: "Kver\- nation has a creator of the
heavens- to which they turn in praj'er it is Ciod who turneth them
toward it. 1 lasten, then, emuk)usly after gootl wheresoever ye be.
God will one day bring you all together."

We shall no longer, then, speak like a distinguished Oxford pro-
fe.ssor of the three chief false religions -Hrahmanism, Huddhism,
Islam. In so far as tlie soul discerns Ciod. the reverence, adoration,
trust, whi(;h constitute the moral and spiritual elements of its faith,
are in fact identical through every variety of creed. They may be
more or less clearly articulate, less or nu)re crude and confused, or
pure and elevated, but they are in substance the same.

"In the adoration and beneilictions of righteous men," said the
poet of the Masnavi-i-Mana\i, "the praises are mingled into one
stream; all the vessels are emptietl into one ewer; because lie that is
prai.sed is in fact only one. In this respect all religions arc only one
religion. Can the same thought be carried one step farther? If in-
spiration be a world-wide process unconfmed by specific limits of one
people, or one book, may the same be saiil of the iilea of incarnation?
Theconception of incarnation has man\' lorms, anil in different theol-
ogies serves various emis. Hut they all possess one feature in common.
Among the functions of the manifestatii)n of the divine man is instruc-
tion; his life is in some senseor otlu-r a mode of revelation. Study the
various legends belonging to Central America, of which the beautiful
story of the Mexican Ouet/alc<iatl may be taken as a type — the virgin
born who inaugurates a reign of peace, who establishes arts, institutes

Revorence,

Adoration,

Trust.

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Goal of
riiristiau
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TliouKht.

beneficent laws, abolishes all human and animal sacrifices and sup-
presses war — they all revolve around the idea of disclosing amonjj
men ahiLjher life of wisdom and righteousness and love, which is in truth
an unveiling of heaven. Or, consider a much more highly developed
type, that of the Buddhas in theistic Buddhism, as the manifestation
of the self-existent, everlasting God. Not once only did lie leave His
heavenly home to become incarnate in His mother's womb.

" Repeatedly am I born in the land of the living. And what reason
should I have to manifest myself? When men have become unwise,
unbelieving, ignorant, careless, then I, who know the course of the
world, declare, 'I am so-and-so,' and consider how I can incline them to
enlightenment, how they can become partakers of the liuddha nature."

To become ])artakers of the divine nature is the goal also of the
Christian believer. Hut may it not be stated as already implicitly a
present fact? When St. Paul quoted the words of Aratus on Mars
Hill, " For we also are His offspring," did he not recognize the sonship
of man to God as a universal truth? Was not this the meaning of
Jesus when He bade His followers pray, "Our Father who art in
heaven?" Once more Greek wisdom may supply us with a form for
our thought. The Logos of God which became flesh and dwelt in Christ,
wrought, so Justin tells us, in .Socrates as well. Was its purpose or
effect limited to those two? Is there not a sense in wiiich it appears
in all men? If there is a true light which lighteneth every man that
Cometh into the world, will not every man, as he lives by the light,
himself also show forth God? The Woril of (lod is not of single ap-
plication. It is boundless, unlimited. For each man as he enters into
being, tliere is an idea in the divine mind — may we not say in our poor
iiunuin fashi(jn? — of what God means him to be; that dwells in every
soul, and realizing itself, not in conduct only, but in each several high-
est forms of human endeavor. It is the fountain of all lofty thought,
it utters itself through the creations of beauty in poetry and art, it
I^rom )ts the investigation of science, it guides the inquiries of phi-
ly. There are so many kinds of voices in the world, and no kind
lout signification. So many voices! So many words! ICachsoul
a fresh word with a new destiny conceived for it by God, to be some-
thing which none that has preceded has ever been before; to show
forth some purpose of the divine Being just then and there which none
else could make known.

Thus conceived, the history of religion gathers up into itself the
history of human thought and life. It becomes the story of God's
continual revelation to our race. However much we may mar or frus-
trate it, in this revelation each one of us may have part. Its forms
may change from age to age; its institutions may rise and fall; its
rights and usages may grow and decline. These are the temporary,
the local, the accidental; they arc not the essence which abides. To
realize the sympathy of religions is the first step toward grasi)ing this
great thought. May this congress, with its noble representation of so
many faiths, hasten the day of mutual understanding when God, by
whatever name we hallow Him, shall be all in all.

l(jsop
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African Mission Children of the Upper Congo,

Ity pi'iMiissiini of Mr. Win. S. C'lu'riy.

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Fonnded on
Beli^ions Tol«
eration.

fhe Synipathy oLReligions.

Address by COL. T. W. HIGGINSON, of Cambridge.

AM sorry to sec that our chairman keeps up a
practice, in the introduction of many gentle-
men with long names from many other coun-
tries, of heaping injudicious epithets upon them
with a result that could silence anybody but an
American. [Laughter.] It is interesting to
think, as a result of his great labors and your
sympathy, that all over this land probably
^- fM^H^^^^H»r- hundreds of pulpits were making this parlia-
^ >X^^^h^HH^^ ment of religions their topic for discussion yes-
terday. All over this land there were discus-
sions varying in a range only to be equaled by
the range of the parliament itself. Some of
those discussions had a breadth and grasp, no
doubt, worthy of their subject; others among those
discussions had a concentrated narrowness and
pettiness which could only be illustrated by what a Washington lady
said about the English statesman, Mr. Chamberlain, after his residence
there. "He is a nice man," she said, "but he doesn't know how to
dance. He takes steps so small that you'd think he had practiced on
a postage stamp." [Laughter.] Amid all that range of discussion,
how few there probably were who recognized that this is, after all, not
the first American parliament of religions, but that the first parliament
was coincident with the very foundation of this government and was
accepted in illustration of its workings.

When in 1788 the constitution of the United States was adopted

and a commemorative procession of 5,000 people took place in Phila-

t delphia, then the seat of government, a place in the triumphal march

was assigned to the clergy, and the Jewish rabbi of the city walked

between two Christian ministers, to show that the new republic was

founded on religious toleration It seems strange that no historical

, painter, up to this time, has selected for his theme that fine incident.

' It should nave been perpetuated in art, like the landing of the Pilgrims

or Washington crossing the Delaware. And side by side with it might

well be painted the twin event which occurred nearly a hundred years

WBo afBimrr sx:

■*«*r*i

TJ/E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

265

later, in a Mohammedan country, when in 1875 Ismael Pasha, then
khedive of Egypt, celebrating by a procession of two hundred thous-
and people the obsequies of his beloved and only daughter, placed the
Mohammedan priests and Christian missionaries together in the pro-
cession, on the avowed ground that they served the same God, and
that he desired for his daughter's soul the prayers of all.

During the interval between these two great symbolic acts, the
world of thought was revolutionized by modern science, and the very
fact of religion, the very existence of a divine power, was for a time
questioned. Science rose, like the caged Afreet in the Arabian stoiy,
and filled the sky. Then more powerful than the Afreet, it accepted
its own limitations and achieved its greatest triumph in voluntarily
reducing its claims. .Supposed by many to have dethroned religion
forever, it now offers to dethrone itself and to yield place to imagina-
tive aspiration, a world outside of science, as its superior. This was
done most conclusively when Professor Tyndall, at the close of his
lielfast address, uttered that fine statement, by which he will perhaps
be longest remembered, that religion belongs not to tiie knowing pow-
ers of man, but to his creative powers. It was an epoch-making sen-
tence.

If knowing is to be the only religions standard, there is no middle
ground between the spiritual despair of the mere agnostic and the
utter merging of one's individual reason in some great organized church
— the Roman Catholic, the Greek Catholic, the Mohanuiicdan, the
lUiddhist. Hut if human aspiration, or in other words, man's creative
imagination, is to be the standard, the humblest individual thinker may
retain the essence of religion and may, moreover, have not only one
of these vast faiths but all of them at his side. Kach of them alone is
partial, limited, unsatisfying.

Among all these vast structures of spiritual organization there is
.sympathy. It lies not in what they know, for they are alike, in a
scientific sense, in knowing nothing. Their point of sympathy lies in
what they have sublimely created through longing imagination. In
all these faiths is the same alloy of human superstition, the same
fables of miracle and prophecy, the same signs and wonders, the same
perpetual births and resurrections. In point of knowledge all are help-
less; in point of credulity, all puerile; in point of aspiration, all sub-
lime. All seek after God, if haply they might find Him. All, more-j
over, look around for some human life, more exalted than the rest,
which may be taken as God's highest reflection. Terror leads them to
imagine demons, hungry to destroy, but hopf^ creates for them redeem-
ers mighty to save. Buddha, the prince, steps from his station; Jesus,
the carpenter's Son, from His, and both give their lives for the service
of man. That the good thus prevails above the evil is what makes
religion — even the conventional and established religion — a step for-
ward, not backward, in the history of man.

Every great medieval structure in Christian Europe recalls in its
architecture the extremes of hope and fear. Above the main doors of
18

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.^■n MA W f-iif ' ^ " ---

266

77/A" n'OIiUrS COAGNESS OF liELIGJONS.

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lloiieiiud Fear.

Kxcrrigo
tllf IlIlllK
(ion.

the cathedral of Xotrc Dame, hi Paris, stran<Tc tip;ures, imprisonctl by
one arm in the stone, strive with agonized faces to i,fet out; devils sit
upon wicked kinf,fs and priests; after tlie last judgnient demons, like
monkeys, hurry the troop of the contlemned. still includinjf kint^s and
|)riests, away. Yet nature triumphetl o\er all these terrors, and 1
remember that between the horns of one of the chief devils, while I
observed it, a swallow had built its nest and twittered securely. And
not only did humbler nature thus triumph beneath the free air, but
within the church the beautiful face of Jesus showed the victory of
man over his fears.

In the same way a recent ICnglish traveler in Thibet, after describ-
ing an idol room filled with pictures of battles between hideous fiend.s
and ccpially hideous gods, many-headed and many-armed, says:

"Hut among all these repulsive faces of degraded t>'pe, ilistorted with
evil [)assions, we saw in striking contrast here and there an image of
the contemplative Huddha, with beautiful, c.ilm features, pure and
pitiful, such as they have been handed down by painting and sculpture
for two thousand years, and which the Lamas (|)riests), with all their
perverted imagination, have never ventured t change when designing
an idol of the (ireat Incarnation,"

The need of this high e.xercise of the imagination is shown even
inii- ^y ^^^^ regrets of those who, in their devotion to i)ure science, are least
willing to share it. The penalties of a total alienation from the relig-
ious life of the world are perhaps severer than even those of sujjer-
stition.

1 know a woman who, passing in early childhood from the gentle-
ness of a Roman Catholic convent to a severel)' evangelical boarding-
school, recalls distinctly how she used in her own room to light
matches and smell of the sulphur, in order to get used to what she
supposed to- be her doom. Time and the grace of (iod, as she
thought, saved her from such terrors at last; but what chance of
removal has the gloom of the sincere agnostic of the Clifford or
Ambcrley type, wlio looks out upon a universe impoverished by the
death of Deity?

The pure and high-minded Clifford said: "We have seen the
spring sun shine out of an empty heaven upon a soulless earth, and we
have felt with utter loneliness that the (ireat Companion was dead."
"In giving it up" (the belief in God and immortality), wrote Viscount
Amberley, whom I knew in his generous and enthusiastic \outh, with
that equally high-minded and more gifted wife, both so soon to be re-
moved by death, "We are resigning a balm for the wounded spirit, for
which it would be hard to find an equivalent in all the repertories of
science and in all the treasures of philosophy."

It is in escaping this dire tragedy- in believing that what we
cease to hold by knowledge we can at least retain by aspiration — that
the sympathy of religions comes in to help us. That sympathy unites
the kindred aspirations of the human race. No man knows God; all
strive with their highest powers to create Him by aspiration; and we

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

SO*

id by
Is sit
s, like
s aiul
uul 1
hilc 1
And
ir, but
ory of

L'scrib-
riciul?>

jil with
a^c of
re ami
iilpture
11 their
siynin^

,n even
vie least

le reliu'-
f super-

: ^entle-
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to li'f,dit
vhat she
as she
lance ol
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cl by the

seen the
1, ami we
is deatl."
Viscount
uth, with
to i)C re-
;pirit, for
rtories of

what wc
Ition— that
thy unites
^ God; all
,n; and wc

iced, in this vast effort, not the support of some single sect alone, like
Roman Catholics or Buddhists, but the strength and sympathy of the
human race. What brings us here today? What unites us? but that we
are altogether seeking alter God, if haply we may find Ilim.

We sliall liiid Him, if we find Him at all, individually; by opening
each for himself the barrier between the created ami the Creator. If
supernatural infallibility is gone forever, there reman what Stuart Mill
called with grander baptism, supernatural hopes. It is the essence of , ,. . ,
a hope that it cannot be formulated or organized or made subject or Ho"«.."* "'
conditional, on the hope of another All the vast mechanism of any
scheme of salvation or religious hierarchy beconus powerless and
insignificant beside the hope in a single human soul. Losing the sup-
jjort of any organizetl human faith we become possessed of that which
all faiths collectively seek. Their joint fellowship tjives more than the
loss of any single fellowship takes away. We are all engaged in that
magnificent work described in the Buddhist "Dhammapada," or. "Path
of Light." "Make thyself an island; work hard, be wise." If each
could but make himself an island, there would yet ajipcar at last above
these waves of despair or doubt a continent fairer than Columbus won.

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Rt. Rev. Bishop C. E. Cheney, Chicago.

(Member General Committee.)

; fX

t ■

\Yhat the £)ead f^eligions H^^^ B^'
queathed to the L'^'"^-

Paper by PROF. G. S. GOODSPEED, of Chicago University.

ilialf
the World K)--
Intpd to One

implies tnat tlic reunions oi tiic worui arc
not isolated or iiulepeiuleiit. The)' arc related
to one another, and so relateil that their attitude is not one of hos-
tility. pA'en the dead religions ha\e left beijiiests to the liviiifj. The
subject also implies that these bequests are positive. It is not worth ^''"'''«'''
our while to consider the topic if we are convinced beforehand that
the dead ielij,Mons have left behind them only "bones and ;i bad odor."
\Ve arc inviteil to recognize the fact that a knowledge of them serves
a somewhat higher j)urpose than "to point a moral and adorn a tale;"
to sec in them stages in the religious histor)- of iuimanity, and to ac-
knowledge that a study of them is important, yes, indispensable, to
adequate understanding of present systems. If they have sometimes
seemed to show "what fools these mortals be" when they seek after
God, they also indicate how lie has made man for himself and how

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SpilPdf l:;rrorB.

270

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

human hearts arc restless till they rest in Him. Thouj^h dead, they
yet speak, and amon;^ their words are some which form a part of oar
inlieritance of truth.

These dead religions may be roughly summed up in several
groups:

1, Prehistoric cults, which remain only as they have been takeu up into more
developed systems, and the faiths of half-civilized peoples like t'lose ot Central
.Vnierica a!ul Peru.

2. The dead religions of Semitic Antiquity; that is, those of Phccuicia and
Syria, of Habylonia and of Assyria.

;}. The religion of Egypt.

4. The religions of Celtic Heathendom.

T). Th<* religions of Teutonic Heathendom.

<). The religion of Greece.

7. The religion of Rome.

It \v<nild be manifestly impossible in the brief limits of this paper
adequately to present the material which these seven groups offer
toward the discussion of this question. Even with a selection of the
most important systems the material is too extensive Our effort,
therefore, will be directed, not toward a presentation of the material
exhaustively or otherwise, but merely toward a suggestion of the pos-
sible ways in which the achievements of these "dead" systems may
contribute to a knowledge of the living religious facts in general,
with some illustrations from the immense field which the above groups
cover.

There ;ire three general lines along which the dead religions may
be questioned as to their contributions to the living:

1. What are the leading religious ideas around which they have lenterod or
which tlicy have most fully illustrated?

'_'. What are their actual material contributions, of ideas or usages, to other
systems?

.'i. Ill tlie history of their development, decay and death, how do they afford
instruction, stimulus or warning?

All religious systems represent some fundamental truth or ele-
ments of truth. They center about some eternal idea. (Otherwise,
they would have no claims upon humanity and gain no lasting accept-
ance with men. The religions of antiquity are no exceptions to this
principle. They have emphasized certain phases of the religious sen-
timent, grasped certain elements of the divine nature, elucidated cer-
tain sides of the problem of existence, before which man crie- out
after God. It is not necessary to repeat that these truths and clear
perceptions are often mingled with false views and pressed to extrav-
agant and harmful lengths. But progress through the ages has been
made, in sjiite of these errors, by means of the fundamental elements of
truth, to which the very errors bear witness. These are the bequests
of the dead religions to the world. They enrich the sum total of right
thoughts, ncble aspirations, worthy purposes. When patient and ana-
lytic study of the facts of religious histcny has borne in u|icn one the
validity of the principles of development in this field, these religion.'^

"i
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stj

cJ
sil

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

271

I, ihcy
of oar

ral

eve

to more
Central

icia

and

s paper
)s oficr
I of the
• effort,
iiaterial
:he p«)S-
ins may
i^cneral,
,' y, roups

)ns may

entered or
5, to other
hey afford

or ele-
therwise,
r accept-
is to this
ious seri-
ated ccr-
crit^ out
incl clear
o extrav-

has been
cments of

bequests
il of right
: and ana-
n one the
-, religionfj

appear as jjarts of tin- complex whole, ami llie truths they embody
enter into the sphere uf relijj^ious knowledj^e as elements in its ever-
increasing store.

And not merely as units in the whole are these truths part of the
possession of living faiths, but since that u iiole is a di-velopment in a
real sense, thev enter into the groundwork of existing religions. We
do not dei.y 'iiat present life would not be what it is if Kgypt ;uid As-
syria had not played their part in iiistory; so correlated in all history.
Can we then deny that present religion would not be what it is
w ithout their religions? y\n idea once wrought out and applied in social
life beccines not otdy a part of the W( rld's truth, but also a basis for
larger insight and wider application, 'j'd'.is the great and fruitful prin-
cii)les which these deail faiths end)odied ;ii il emmciated, have been
handed do>\n by them to be absorbed into larger and higher faiths,
whose superiority they themselves have had a share "n making po.ssi-
blc. How important and stimulating, therefore, is an investigation of
them.

As illustration may l)e tlrawn from the religions of two ancient
nations, Kg\-pt and Habylonia, which gave two highly influential relig-
ious ideas to the world. There is tlu> religion of l\gypt, that land of
contradiction and myster\-, where men thought deej) things, yet wor- Ekvpi tiud
shiped bats and cranes, were the most joyous of creatures, and yet Habylonia.
seemed to have devoted themselves to buiitling tondjs; e.xploreil many
fields of natural science and practical art, yet give us the height of their
achie\euu'nts, a human mummy. K )ne central religious notion of Kgyi>t
was the nearness of the di\ine. It was .losely connected with a fimda-
menlal social idea of the I\g\'ptians.

The man of l".g>'pt ne\er looked outside of his own land without
disdain. It contained lor him the'fuUness of all that heart could wish.
lie was a thoroughl\' contented and joyous creature, and the favorite
])icture wiiich he formed of the future life was only that of another
l\g\pt like the present. What caused him the most thought was how
to maintain the conditions of the present in the passage through the
vale of death. The bod\-, for example, indispensable to the present,
was e<|ually reipiired in the future and must be preserved. Thus it
came to pass that the l'',gy])tian, happiest and most contented of all
men in this life, has left jehind him tomi)s, mummies and the book of
the dead. Now in this favored land the Egyptian must have his gods.
I)i.'itv must be ne.ir at hand. \\'hat was nearer than His presence and
manifestation in the animal life most characteristic of each district?

'I'hus was wrought into shape, founded on the idea of the divine
nearness, that bizarre worship of animals, the wonder ami the con-
tempt of the ancient world. This idea, which umlerlay that animal
worship, though so crudely conceived, was tleeply significant and con-
stituted a most important contribution to the world.

Another great religion of ancient times — the Habvlonian-Assyrian,
coPtrib\ited (]uite a iliifercnt truth. Living in a l.ind open on every
side tu the as^iaults of nature and man, and having nu occasion to

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Pen itential

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070

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

glorify Babylonia as the Egyptian exalted his native land, the Baby-
lonian found his worthiest conception of the divine in an exalted deity
who, from the heights of heaven and the stars, rained influence. Me
cinphasi/cd the transcendence of the divine. Time does not permit mc
to give the fuller explanation of the origin of this idea or to trace its
growth. .Surrounded by a crowd of indifferent or malevolent spirits,
who must be controlled by a debasing system of magic, these men
looked abo\e and found deliverance in the favor of the divine beings
who gave help from the skies. Their literature gives evidence of how
the)' rose by slow degrees to this higher plane of thought in the con-
stant appeal from the earth to heaven, from the power of the spirits to
the grace of the gods.

Whatever was its origin, it is noticeable that this idea of the eleva-
tion, scparateness, transcendence of deity is a fruitful basis of morality.
Put one's self under the protection of a Lord implies acknowledgment
of a standard of obedience. At first purely ritual or even physical in
its requirements, this standard becomes gradually suffused with ethical
elements. The process is traced in the so-called Babylonian peniten-
tial psalms, which, indeed, do not contain very clear traces, if any, or
purel)' ethical ideas. But the fact remains that the Babylonian doctrine
of tlie transcendence of deity thus developed out of the antagonism of
natural forces is a starting point for the ethical reconstruction of relig-
ion. I'-gypt never could accomplish this with her religion. She has
nt)thing corresponding to the penitential psalms.

Tliese two primitive religious systems gave to the world these two
fundamental ideas. These two earliest empires carried these ideas
w ith their armies to all their scenes of conquest and their merchants
bore them to lands whither their warriors never went. The significance
of this is not always grasped; nor is it easy to trace the results of the
diffusion of these conceptions. Standing among the earliest religious
thoughts, which man systematically developed, they had a wonderful
opportunity, and we shall see that the opportunity was not neglected.

2. In considering the extent and character of the influence exer-
cised by these religious ruling ideas of Egypt and Babylonia, we pass
over to the second element in the bequest of the dead religions to the
living, the direct contributions made by the former to the latter. The
subject requires careful discrimination. Not a few scholars have
gone far astray at this point in their treatment of religious systems.
Formerly it was customary to find little that was original in any
religion. All was borrowed. The tendency today is reactionary, and
the originality of the great systems is exaggerated. There is no
(juestion as to the fact of the dependence of religions upon one
another. The danger is. lest it be overlooked, that similar conditions
in two religions may produce independently the same results. It
must be recognized also that ancient nations held themselves more
aloof from one another, and especially that religion as a matter of
national tradition was much more conservative both in revealing itself
to strangers and in accepting contributions from without.

msES

I'l

7Y/£ IVORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

i73

Yet the student of religion knows how, in one sense, every faith
in the world has absorbed the life of a multitude of other local and
limited cults. This is true of the sectarian religions of India. Islam
swallowed the heathen worships of ancient Arabia. Many a shrine
of Christianity is a transformation of a local altar of heathendom.
There is no more important and no more intricate work lying in the
sphere of comparative religion than an analysis of existing faiths with
a view to the recovery of the bequests of preceding systems. Wlule
much has been done the errors and extrax'agances of scholars in many
instances should teach caution.

We must i)ass over a large portion of this great field. Attention
should be called to the wide range of materials in the realm of Chris-
tianity alone. Tt) her treasury the bequests c>f usage and ritual have
come from all the dead past. From Teutonic and Celtic faiths, from the
cultus of Rome and the worshi[) and thought of Greece contributions
can still be pointed out in the complex structure. Christian scholars
have done splendid work in tracing out those remains. I need but refer
to the labors of Dr. Hatch and Professor Harnack upon the relations
of Christianity to (Greece anil those of the eminent I*"rench scholar,
the late ]'<rnest Renan, in the investigation of Christianity's debt to
Rome, as instances of the richness of the field and the inqjortance of
the results. A more limited illustration which is also in continuation
of the line of thought already followed may be shown in tiie in-
lluence of the religions of I'-gypt and .Assyrio. liabvlonia upon living
faiths, or more exactly the connection of their leading ideas with the
doctrines of Judaism and Christianity.

The religious ideas of lvg)-pt seem to have spread westward anil
to have had their greatest influence upon (jrcece. It has been the
fashion to deny utterly the dependence of Greece upon ICgypt in re-
spect to religion, but it cannot be denied that the trend of recent ilis-
coveries in arch;cology leads to the opposite conclusion. We must
enq^hasize the fact that every people contributes far more to its own
system of religious belief than it borrows from without. \'et Greece
herself acknowledged her debt in this matter to the land of the Nile
and there is no real reason to deny her own testimou)-. It is striking
to observe how the fundamental Egyptian lujtions of the sufficiency of
the present life and the nearness of the tlivine reveal themselves in
Hellas. The tireek conceived these ideas, indeed, in a far higher
fashion. Harmony and beauty were the touchstones l)\' which he
tested the world and found it good. The grcjtesipieness of the
I^gyptian forms yieliled to the grace of the Athenian creations of art
and religion, but beneath them was the same thought. In man and
his works the Greek fouiul the ideal of the divine, ami to him we owe
the transformation of the doctrine cif the divine nearness into that of
God's immanence.

Egypt's infiuence in the cast was cut off early after her period of
conc|uest by the rise of tlu; Hittite empire. It is difficult to see any
traces of her doctrnie in the religions of western Asia, unless it be

Intliipnce
iilion liri'pco.

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uarture from
Egypt.

V I

274 77//i" WORLD'S CO\\;RF.SS OF KFL/aiUNS.

that of I'lKunicia. But with one people, at a later period, it would
seem probable that her religious ideas would find lod^nieiit. For a
number of years, if Israelitish traditions are to be trusted, the Hebrews
were under Egyptian domination, anil the formation of their nation
and their religious system dates from their ileliverance from this bonil-
age. Did they not borrow from the well-organized and imposing
religious system of their captors? Could they avoid doing so? The
evidences of any such borrowing are not easy to discover. Either
they have been carefully removed by later ages or another and more
powerful influence has obliterated them. It is also to be remembered
that the feeling c.xcitetlin Israel bj'the rigors of Egyptian shnery was
one of repulsion and abhorrence of everything J'^gyptian. It is more
probable, therefore, that the intluence of the religion of Egypt upon
Israel was a negati\ e one and that the foundations of her social and
religious institutions were laid in a spirit of separation from what was
characteristic of her oppressor.

This negati\e influence, beginning thus in the birth of the nation
and continuing through several centuries in the relations of the two
peoples, was in its formative power over 1 lebrew religion second only
to that which was positixel)- e.xercisetl b\' another religious sj'stem,
viz., that of iVssyrio-Habj'Ionia, to which we now turn.

There were three great periods in which the llebreus came into
close relations with their neighbor on the Tigris and lCu|)hrates. The
first was that represented b\" the tradition respecting Abraham. He
came from Ur of the Chaldees w itli the doctrine of the true Cn>il. The
circumstances which moved him to depart from that center of the
world's civilization are not clear to us, but the tradition gives no hint of
hostile relations such as occasioned Israel's tleparturr from Eg\pt. It
was here, therefore, that he came in contact with tiiose elevated ideas
of the di\ine transcendence which are characteristic alike of the relig-
ion of Habyloniaand in a higher ami purer det;rce of the religion t)f
Israel. Can he lia\e gained his fust perception of this truth from the
Babylonians? It is not imjirobable, It- is certainly true that a mighty
impetus was gi\en to this doctrine in Israel by this earliest contact
with Babylonian life.

The third of these periods was the Bab>lonian cai)livity. Many
scholars are inclined to assign to this time a large number of accpiisi-
tions by Israel in the field of Babylonian religion, such as the early
traditions of the creation and the deluge. But the)' f(^rget that the
same feeling which led Israel to reject all the attractions of Eg\pt
would be ecpially aroused against Babylon, in whose cruel grasp they
found themselves hehl fast.

It is m the second j)enod, that of tlu Assxrian con(|uest of v.est-
ern Asia, that Israel came most fully under the influence of the relig-
ion and the religious ideas of the Babylonians. Both Israel and
Assj-ria had developed a religious s\-stem, though Assyria was far in
advance of Israel in this respect. IIcu' of Babylon's civilisation anil
religion Assyria had advanced a step beyond her ancestral faith. In

amuaaammmjimii^

wcst-

jy/A IVOKLV'S CONCJiESS OF K ELI G IONS.

'>7r.

the God Ashur the nation worked out a conception of a national God,
before whom the other deities of the pantheon took subordinate posi-
tions. Without denyinf^ the divine transcendence, Assyria moved in
the direction of monotheism. A God of majesty, he was also con-
ceived in the Assyrian style as a God of justice, whose law, though but
slightly tinged with ethical ideas as we hold them, must be obeyed.

The Hebrew conception of Jahveh had also been fashioned in the
struggle after nationality. It was a conception born out of the very
heart of the nation divinely moved upon by the true God. It did not
owe its origin to Egypt or Assyrio-Habylonia. But we cannot fail to
observe how the note of divine transcendence, the majesty of Jehovah,
was ever kept clear in the • linds of the Hebrew nation from the two
opposite influences — the negative force of Egypt's contrary doctrine
and the positive power of the Assyrio-Habylonian religious system as
conceived by the Assyrian empire. They were ever present and im-
pressive examples throughout the centuries of Israelitish history.

Under this supporting influence Israel took the one higher step
which remained to be taken. Moved forward by the irresistible im-
pulse thus outwardly and inwardly felt, the proplicls released Israel's
God from the fetters of nationality and from the bonds of a selfish
morality and preached the doctrine of a transcendent righteous God
of all the earth.

Thus these two elemental truths about Ciod have been conveyed
from l^g\ pt and from lialnlonia to the nations of men, The\- have
come to be together the possession of Christianity. The doctrine of
the divine transcendence is the gift of Judaism to the Christian church,
and Christian theology has wrought it out into complex and impress-
ive s\'stems of truth. The truth of the divine imnuuience earl)- found
its place in the hearts and minds of the believers. It is noticeable that
the scene of its swa\'. if not of its Christian origin, was the cit\' of
Ale.vaudria. The place where Greek and Egj'ptian met was the home
of this Gr;eco-Eg>'ptian doctrine which the Alexandrian lathers
wrought into the Christian system, and which is today beginning to
claim that share in the system which its complementary truth has
seemed to usurp. The religions which flourished and passed away
have in this way contributed to the fundamentals of Christian theism.

The preceding discussion has unavoidably encroached upon the
grouiul of the third line of iiKjuiry, namely, What have the dead
religions afforded to the li\ ing in their history? What instruction do
'heir life and death give as to the success or failure of religious sys
tems? Two a-priori theories occupy the field as exi)lanali()iis of these
r ligions. I""irst, thc\' are regardeil as teaching the bliuilness of man
111 his search after Gotl. and the falsity of humanly constnictetl sj'stems
a[)art from special divine revelation. The dead religions perished Fni
because they were false, the production cither of Satan or of deluded

or nc^ignrng men.

4cp^ 111 the progreNsne evolution oi the leligious life of hum.iiiily,
passing through well-detined and philosophically arranged stages,

Peripliprl np-
rnupp thc.v witp

The second theorv hoUls these religions to be

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Valne of the
Dead Kclig-
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270

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Ends and
Aim» of Truth.

each justifiable in its own circumstances, each a preparation for some-
thing higher.

Both views arc inadequate because they do not include all the
facts. What is needed in the study of religion today more than any-
thing else is a .study of the manifold facts which religions present and
a rigid abstinence from philosophical theories which find facts to suit
themselves.

One great excellence of this parliament is that it brings us face to
face with these facts. These brief sessions will do more for the study
of religion than the philosophizing of a score of years. No religion
in the totality and complexity of its phenomena is wholly false or
wholly true. The death of a religion is not always an evidence of its
decay and corruption, its inadequacy to meet the wants of men. There
are certain phases of living religious life which every sane man would
prefer to see removed and their place supplied by the doctrine and
practice of some dead religions. In the search for the laws of relig-
ious life and the results of religious activity, the dead religions are
particularly valuable because of what these laws and forces have in
them worked out to the end. They have formed a completed struc-
ture or produced a ruin, both of which disclose with equal fidelity and
equal adecjuacy the working of invariable and irresistible law.

Generalization on these phenomena, if correctly made, have a
satisfying quality and a validity which afford a basis for instruction
and guidance. Thus these religions themselves constitute what may
be after all their most valuable bequest, and as such they have a peculiar
interest for the student of religion.

The proofs of this statement throng in upon us and wc can select
but a few. Among the problems of present religious life, that of the
relations of church and state receive light from the.se dead religions.
In antiquity these relations consisted in almost complete identification
of the two organisms. Most frequently the church existed for tiie
state, its servant, its slave. The results were most disastrous to both
parties, but religion especially suffered. Its priesthoods either became
filled with ambitious designs upon the state as in I\gypt, or fell itito
the jx'^ition of subserxiency and weakness as in Habylon and Assyria,
Rome and Greece.

Tlie airrts and ends of truth were narrowed and trimmed In fit
imperfect soci^al conditions, and the fate of religion was bouiul up with
the success or failure or a political policy. The destruction of the
nation meant the disappearance of the religion. Assyria dr.igm.tl into
her grave the religion which she professed. A similar fate attendeti
many ftf the cults of Semitic antiquity through the coiuiucsts of the
great \\orld empires which dominated western Asia. The finished
experience of these dead faiths, therefore, speaks clearly in favor of
the separation of religion from the state.

Another pr-'hlem which they enlighten is that of religious unity
and the ronseqni nt future of religious v\-stems, the ultimate religion.
Where these systcnib survived the rum of the nationality on which

moiSa

i|)

7'ff£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

277

they depended, they met their death through a mightier religious
force. The most brilliant example of this phenomenon is the conflict of
Christianity with the religions of the ancient world. Christianity's
victory was achieved without force of arms. Was it merely that its
foes were moribund that the religious forces of antiquity had all but
lost their power? This is not by any means all the truth. I cannot
glory in the victory of a Christianity over decaying religions that
would have died of themselves if only left alone, but I am proud of
her power in that when "the fullness of the times" was come, when
Kgypt and Syria, Judea, Greece and Rome offered to the world their
best, she was able to take all their truths into her genial grasp and
incarnating them in Jesus Christ make them in Him the beginning of
a new age, the starting point of a higher evolution.

These religions were crippled by their essential character. They
had no real unity of thought. Their principle of organization was the
inclusion of local cults, not the establishment of a great idea. There ^mnt of u
was broad toleration in the ancient religious world, both of forms and tiiooIokj.
ideas, but the toleration of ideas existed because of the want of a
clear thought basis of religion, or, to speak more i)recisely, the want
of a theology. With the absence of this the multiplicity of forms
produced a meaningless confusion. Even where each of these systems
reveals to us the presence of a common idea traceable through all its
forms this one idea is only a phase of the truth.

Assyria's doctrine of the divine transcendence and ICgypt's view
of the divine nearness and Greece's tenet of the divineness of man or
the humaneness of God, were valid religious ideas, but each was partial,
riiese religions, so inclusive of forms, could not include or comprehend
more than their own favorite idea. liut when Christianity came
against them with a well-rounded theology, a central truth like that of
the incarnation, a truth and a life which not merely included, but
reconciletl, all ailments of the world's religious progress, none of these
ancient systems could stand before it.

They seem to tell us that the true test of a religious system is the
measure in which it is filled with God. So far as they saw Him they
led men to find help and peace in Him. They proclaimed His law,
the\- sought to assure to men His favor. So far as they accomplished
this, so far as they were filled with God. both as a doctrine and as a
life, tlu\- fulfilled their part in the education and .salvation of the
human rate. \\y that test they rose and fell; by that measure they
take their place in the complex evolution of the world. And it was
because they failed to rise to the height of Christianity's comprehen-
sion and absorption of God that they perished.

We are sometimes inclined, amid the din of opposing creed.i, to
long for a rtligion without theology. These dead faiths warn us of
the folly (jf any such dream. In the presence of a nniltitude of relig-
ions, such as are represented in this parliament, we are tempted to
believe that the ultimate religion will consist in a boutpiet of the
sweetest and choicest of them all. The graves of the dead religions

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THE WORLD'S COXGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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deciaie that not selection but incorporation makes a rolitJ[ion stronf^;
not incorporation but reconciliation, not reconciliation but the fulfill-
ment of all these aspirations, these partial truths in a hij^her thought,
in a transcendent life.

The sjstcms of rcliLjions here representetl, or to come, which will
not merely select but incorporate, not merely incorporate but recon-
cile, not merely reconcile but fulfill, holds the reliLjious future of
humanity.

Al)art from particular jiroblems these dead relij^ious in clear tones
^ive two precious testimonies. The\- bear witness to man's need of
God anil mail's capacit)' to know lliin. Lookins^back toda)' upon the
dead past, we behold men in the juuij^le and on tlu- mountain, in the
Roman tem|)le and before the Celtic altar, liftinj^ up holv haiuls of as-
piration anil petition to the divine. Sounding,' throuijh (ireek Iniiins
and lialntonian psalms alike are heard human voices crvini.; out after
the eternal.

\h\t there is a nobler heritage of ours in these oldi'st of relis^ions.
The capacity to know (iod is mtt the knowledge of llim. The\- tell
us with one voice that the human heart, the universal human heart
that needs (iod and can know llim was not left to search for 1 1 im
in Ijlindi-.ess and ii^niorance. He |j;ave them of Himself. They recei\e
the lii^ht which lij^hteth every man. That lijjfht has come down the
a;^es unto us, shiniiiLj as it comes with e\er brii,diter beams of divine
re\elation.

"For God who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake unto
the fathers" - and we arc. bej:jinnin;4 to realize today, as ne\er before,
how many are our spiritual fathers in the past - "hath in these last da) s
spoken unto us in the Son."

"i.'og

Interior of the Free Church, Copenhagen, Denmark.

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§tudy of (^omparaXWe theology.

Paper by PROF. C. P. TIELE, of Leiden University.

HAT is to be understood by compara-
tive thcoloy;y? 1 find that English-
writing authors use tiie appellation
promiscuously with comparative re-
ligion, but it' we wish words to con-
vey a sound meaning we should at
' least beware of using these terms as
convertible ones. Theology is not the
same as religion; and, to mc, com-
parative theology signifies nothing
but a comparative study of religious
dogmas, comparative religion nothing
but a comparative study of various
religions in all their branches. I sup-
pose, however, 1 am not expected to
make this distinction, but compara-
tive theology is to be understood to
mean what is now generally called the
science of religion, the word "science" not being
taken in the limited sense it commonly has in
English, but in the general signification of the Dutch Wetenschap
(H. G. Wissenschaft ), which it has assumed more and more even in
the Roman languages. So the history and the study of this science
iMigUm h! hi ^^'o'^'l'' have to form the subject of my paper, a subject vast enough to
Infancy. devote to it one or more volumes. It is still in its infancy. Although

in former centuries its advent was heralded by a few forerunners, as
.Selden ( De Dus.Syriis),de Hrosses (Le culte des dieux fetiches), the
tasteful Herder and others, as a science it reaches back not much
farther than to the middle of the nineteenth century. "Duxius
Origine de tous les Cultes," which appeared in the opening years of
the century, is a gigantic pamphlet, not an impartial historical
research. Nor can Creuzer's and Baur's Symbolik and Mythologie
lay claim to the latter appellation, but are dominated by long refuted
theory. Meiner's "Allgemeine kritische Geschichte der Religionen"
(1806-07) only just came up to the low standard which at that time

280

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

2S1

Hliiirply !)■>•

historical scholars were expected to reach Much higher stood Ben-
jamin Constant, in whose work, "La Religion Considcrce dims sa
Source, ses formes et ses Developpmcnts" (1824), written with French
lucidity, for the first time a distinction was made between the essence
and the forms of religion, to which the writer also applied the theory
of development

From that time the science of religion began to assume a more
sharply defined character, and comparative studies on an ever grow-
ing scale were entered upon, and this was dune no longer chiefly
with by-desires, either by the enemies of Ciiristianity in order to
combat it and to point out that it differed little or nothing from all »"«'' "t'lmn.o.
the superstitions one was now getting acquainted with, or by the
apologists in order to defend it against these attacks and to prove
its higher excellence when compared with all other religions. The
impulse came from two sides. On one side it was due to philosophy.
Philosophy had for centuries past been speculating on religion, but
only about the beginning of our century it had become aware of the
fact that the great religious problems cannot be solved without the aid
of history; that in order to define the nature and the origin of religion
one must first of all know its development. Already before lienjamin
Constant this was felt i)y others, of whom we will only mention Hegel
and Schelling It may even be said that the right method for the
philosophical iiKpiiry into religion was defined by Schelling, at least
from a theoretical point of view, more accurately than by anyone else;
though we should add that he, more than anyone else, fell short in the
api)lying of it. 1 fegel even endeavored to give a classification, which,
it is proved, hits the riglit nail on the head here and there, but, as a
whole, distinctly proxes tiiat he lacked a clear conception of the real
historical development of religion. Nor could this be otluM'wise.
Even if the one had not been confined within the narrow bounds of an
a-prioristic sj'stem of the historical data which were at his disposal,
even if the other had not been led astray by his unbridled fancy, both
wanted the means to trace religion in the course of its developments.
Most of the religions of anticpiity, especially those of the east, were
at that time known but superficially, and the critical research into
the newer forms of religion had as yet hardly been entered upon

One instance out of many. Hegel characterized the so-called
Syriac religions as ''die Religion dcs Sihmcrzcns" (religion of suffering).
In doing this, he of course thought of the myth and the worship of
Thammuz-Adonis. He did not know that these are by no means of
Aryanaic origin, but were borrowed by the people of western Asia from
their eastern neighbors, and are, in fact, a survival of an older, highly
sensual naturMu. Kven at the time he might have known that Aclonis
was far from jeing an ethical ideal, that his worship was far from being
the glorification of a voluntarily suffering deity. In short, it was
known that only th comparative method could conduce to the desired
end, but the means of comparing, though not wholly wanting, were
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Meanwhile, material was being supplied from another quarter.
Philogical and historical science, cultivated after strict methods, arch-
aeology, anthropology, ethnology, no longer a prey to superficial the-
orists and fashionable dilettanti only, but also subjected to the laws of
the critical research, began to yield a rich harvest. I need but hint
at the many important discoveries of the last hundred years, the num-
ber of which is continually increasing You know them full well, and
you also know that they are not confined to a single province nor to
a single period. They reach back as far as the remotest antiquity and
show us, in those ages long gone by, a civilization postulating a long
previous development, but also draw our attention to many concep-
tions, manners and customs among several backward or degenerate
tribes of our own time, giving evidence of the greatest rudeness and
barbarousness. They thus enable us to study religion as it appears
among all sorts of people and in the most diversified degrees of devel-
opment. They have at least supplied the sources to draw from, among
which are the original records of religion concerning which people
formerly had to be content with very scanty, very recent and very
untrustworthy information. You will not expect me to give you an
enumeration of them. Let. me mention only Egypt, Babylonia and
Assyria, India and Persia, and of their sacred books, the " Book of the
Dead," the so-called " Chaldean Genesis," the " Cabylonia," the "pen-
itential psalms " and mythological texts, the "Veda" and the "Avesta."
These form but a small part of the acquired treasures, but though we
had nothing else it would be much.

I krow quite well that at first, even after having deciphered the
writing of the first two named, and having learned in some degree to
understand the languages of all, people seemed not to be fully aware
of what was to be done with these treasures, and that the translations
hurriedly put together failed to lead to an adequate perception of the
contents. I know also that even now, after we have learned how to
apply to the study of these records the universally admitted, sound
philological principles, much of what we believe to be known has been
rejected as being valueless, and that the questions and problems which
have to be solved have not decreaj^ed in number, but are daily increas-
ing. I cannot deny that scholars of high repute and indisputable
authority are much divided in opinion concerning the explanation of
those texts, and that it is not easy to make a choice out of so many
conflicting opinions. How much does Brugsch differ in his represen-
tation of the Egyptian mythology from Edward Meyer and Ermann!
How great a division among the Assyriologists between the Accadists,
or Sumerists and the anti-Sumerists or. anti- Accadists! How much
differs the explanation of the Veda by Roth, Miiller and Grassman,
from that of Ludwig.and how different is Barth's explanation from Ber-
gaigne's and Regnaud s! How violent was the controversy between
Speigel and Haupt about the explanation of the most ancient pieces
in the Avesta; and now in this year of grace, while the younger gener-
ation, Bartholomae and Gcldner on the one hand, Geiger, Wilhelm,

• ■ T-fT

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

288

Hubschmann, Mills on the other hand, are following different roads,
there has come a scholar and a man of genius, who is, however, par-
ticularly fond of paradoxes, James Darmsteter, to overthrow all that
was considered up to his time as being all but stable, nay, even to
undermine the foundations, which were believed safe enough to be
built upon.

But all this cannot do away with the fact that we are following the
right path, that much has already been obtained, and much light has
been shed on what was dark. Of not a few of these new fangled
theories it maybe said they are atleast useful in compelling us once more
to put to a severe test the results obtained. So we see that the modern
science of religion, comparative theology, has sprung from these two
sources; the want of a firmer empirical base of operations, felt by the
philosophy of religion, and the great discoveries on the domain of his-
tory, archaeology and anthropology.

These discoveries have revealed a great number of forms of relig-
ion and religious phenomena which, until now, were known imperfectly
or not at all; and it stands to reason that these have been compared
with these already known and that inferences have been drawn from this
comparison. Can anyone be said to be the founder of the young
science? Many have conferred this title upon the famous Oxford pro-
fessor, K Max Miiller; others, among them his great American oppo-
nent, the no less famous professor of Yale college, W. Dwight Whitney,
have denied it to him. We may leave this decision to posterity. I,
for one, may rather be said to side with Whitney than with Miiller.
Though I have frequently contended the latter's speculations and
theories, 1 would not close my eyes to the great credit he has gained
by what he has done for the science of religion, nor would I gainsay
the fact that he has given a mighty impulse to the study of it, espe-
cially in England and in France.

But a new branch of study can hardly be said to be founded.
Like others, this was called into being by a generally felt want, in
different countries at the same time and as a matter of course. The
number of those applying themselves to it has been gradually in-
creasing, and for years it has been gaining chairs at universities, first
in Holland, afterward also in France and elsewhere, now also in Amer-
ica. It has already a rich literature, even periodicals of its own.
Though at one time the brilliant talents of some writers threatened
to bring it into fashion and to cause it to fall a prey to dilettanti — a
state of things that is to be considered most fatal to any science, but
especially to one that is still in its infancy — this danger has fortunately
been warded off, and it is once more pursuing the noiseless tenor of
its way, profiting by the fell criticism of those who hate it.

I shall not attempt to write its history. The time for it has not
yet come. The rise of this new science, the comparative research of
new religions, is as yet too little a feature of the past to be surveyed
from an impartial standpoint. Moreov^ r, the writer of this paper
himself has been one of the laborers in uiis field for more than thirty

Fol J owing
the Right Path.

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284

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

years past, and so he is, to some extent, a party to the conflict of
opinions. His views would be apt to be too subjective, and could be
justified only by an exhaustive criticism which would be misplaced
here, and the writing of which would require a longer time of prepara-
tion than has now been allowed to him. A dry enumeration of the
names of the principal writers, and the titles of their works, would be
of little use, and would prove very little attractive to you. There-
fore, let me add some words on the study of comparative theolog".

The first, the predominating question is: Is this study possible?
In other words, what man, however talented and learned he may be,
is able to command this immense field of inquiry, and what lifetime is
long enough for the acquiring of an expansive knowledge of all religion ?
It is not even within the bounds of possibility that a man should
master all languages, to study in the vernacular the religious records
of all nations, not only recognize sacred writings, but also those of dis-
senting sects and the songs and sagas of uncivilized people. So one will
have to put up with the translations, and everybody knows that mean-
ing of the original is but poorly rendered even by the best transla-
tions. One will have to take upon trust what may be called second-
hand information, without being able to test it, especially where the re-
ligions of the so-called primitive peoples are concerned. All these ob-
jections have been made by me for having the pleasure of setting them
aside; they have frequently been raised against the new study and have
already dissuaded many from devoting themselves to it. Nor can it
be denied that they contain at least some truth. But if, on account o.
these objections, the comparative study of religions were to be esteemed
impossible, the same judgment would have to be pronounced upon
nian>' other sciences.

I am not competent to pass an opinion concerning the physical
and biological sciences. I am alluding only to anthropology and eth-
nology, history, the history of civilization, archaeology, comparative
philology, comparative literature, ethics, philosophy. Is the inde-
pendent study of all these sciences to be relinquished because no one
can be required to be versed in each of their details equally well, to
have acquired an exhaustive knowledge, got at the mainspring of every
people, every language, every literature,every civilization, every group
of records, every period, every system? There is nobody who will
think of insisting upon this. Every science, even the most compre-
hensive one, every theory must rest on an empirical basis, must start
from an "unbiased ascertaining of facts;" but it does not follow that the
tracing, the collecting, the sorting and the elaborating of these facts
and the building up of a whole out of these materials must needs be
consigned to the same hands. The flimsily constructed speculative
systems, pasteboard buildings all of them, we have done away with for
good and all.

But a science is not a system, not a well-arranged storehouse of
things that arc known, but an aggregate of researches all tending to
the same purpose, though independent yet mutually connected, and

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

1^85

each in particular connected with similar researches in other domain.s
which serve thus as auxiliary sciences. Now the science of religion
has no other purpose than to lead to the knowledge of religion in its
nature and in its origin. And this knowledge is not to be acquired, at
least if it is to be a sound, not a would-be knowledge, but by an
unprejudiced historical-psychological research. What should be done
first of all is to trace religion in the course of its development, that is
to say in its life, to inquire what every family of religions, as for
instance the Aryan and Semitic, what every particular religion, what
the great religious persons have contributed to this development, to
what laws and conditions this development is subjected, and in what
it really consists? Next the religious phenomena, ideas and dogmas,
feelings and inclinations, forms of worship and religious acts are to be
examined, to know from what wants of the soul they have sprung and
of what aspirations they are the expression. Hut these researches,
without which one cannot penetrate into the nature of religion nor
form a conception of its origin, cannot bear lasting fruit, unless the
comparative study of religious individualities lie at the root of them.
Only to a few it has been given to institute this most comprehensive
inquiry, to follow to the end this long way. Me who ventures upon it
cannot think of examining closely all the particulars himself; he has
to avail himself of what the students of special branches have brought
to light and have corroborated with sound evidence.

It is not required of every student of the science of religion that
he should be an architect; yet, though his study may be confined
within the narrow bounds of a small section, if he does not lose sight
of the chief purpose, and if he applies the right method, he, too, will
contribute not unworthily to the great common work.

So a search after the solution ot the abstruse fundamental ques-
tions had better be left to those few who add a great wealth of knowl-
edge to philosophical talents. What should be considered most need-
ful, with a view to the present standpoint of comparative theology, is
this: Learning how to put the right use to the new sources that have
been opened up; studying thoroughly and penetrating into the sense
of records that on many points still leave us in the dark; subjecting
to a close examination particular religions and important periods about
which we possess but scanty information; searching for the religious
meaning of myths, tracing prominent deities in their rise and develop-
ment, and forms of worship through all the important changes of
meaning they have undergone; after this the things thus found have
to be compared with those already known.

Two things must be required of the student of the science of
religion. He must be thotv^ughly acquainted with the present state
of the research, he must know what has already been got, but also
what questions are still unanswered; he must have walked, though it
be quick in time, about the whole domain of his science; in short, he
must possess a general knowledge of religions and religious phe-
nomena. But he should not be satisfied with this. He should then

AKKresate of
Reseurclu'H.

286

THE WORLD'S CONGHESS OF RELIGIONS.

V !

Reqnire-
ments of the
Students,

select a field of his own, larger or smaller, according to his capacities
and the time at his disposal; a field where he is quite at home, where
he himself probes to the bottom of everything of which he knows all
that is to be known about it, and the science of which he then must
try to give a fresh impulse to. l^oth requirements he has to fulfill.
Meeting only one of them will lead either to the superficial dillettan-
teism which has already been alluded to, or the trifling of those Philis-
tines of science, who like nothing better than occupying our attention
longest of all with such things as lie beyond the bounds of what is
worth knowing. But the last-named danger does not need to be
especially cautioned against, at least in America. I must not conclude
without expressing my joy at the great interest in this new branch of
science, which of late years has been revealing itself in the new world.

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Importance of the §tudy of Comparative

f^eligions.

Paper by MRS. ELIZA R. SUNDERLAND, PH. D., of Ann Arbor, Mich.

sign conquc
banner the medieval church was challenged
to give reason why each individual soul
should not inquire and decide freely for itself in matters of religion,
and the Protestant reformation resulted. The old established mon-
archies of Europe were asked to give reason why the many should live
and toil and die for the few, and modern republicanism was born.

Earth, and air and sea were asked to give reason why man should
not enter into his birthright of ownership of all physical nature, and Man's Sover
steamship and steam car, telegraph and telephone came as title deeds '"•^''^y*
to man's sovereignty.

Onward moves the victorious banner, and collective humanity is
asked to show its face and give reason why it is black, and brown, and
white; to produce its languages and give reasons for such infinite
variety; to draw aside the curtain from its holy of holies, pronounce
its most sacred names, recount its myths, recite its mythologies, ex-

289

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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plain its symbols, describe its rites, sing its hymns, pray its prayers
and, finally, jjive up its life history of origins and transformations.
Such in brief is the work of the nineteenth century.

What is the value of this work? I am asked to respond only for
one department of it, namely, that of hierology, or the comparative
study of religions.

What is the value and importance of a comparative study of relig-
ions? What lessons has it to teach? I may answer, first, that the results
of hierology form part of the great body of scientific truth, and as such
have a recognized scientific value as helping to complete a knowledge
of man and his environment; and I shall attempt to show that a seri-
ous study by an Intelligent public of the great mass of facts already
gathered concerning most of the religions of the world will prove of
•great value ill at least two directions — first, as a means of general,
second, as a means of religious culture. Matthew Arnold defines cult-
ure as "the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known
and said in the world and thus with the history of the human spirit."
This is a nineteenth century use of the word.

The Romans would have used instead "humanitas," or, with an
English plural, "the humanities," to express a corresponding thought.
The schoolmen, adopting the Latin term, limited its application to the
languages, literature, history, art and archaeology of Greece and Rome,
assumin. ' thither the world must look for the most enlightening
and hurr- ig influences, and, in their use of the word, contrasting

these a? i.u .an products with "divinity" which completed the circle of
scholastic knowledge. But the world of the nineteenth century is larger
than that of medieval Europe, and we may well thank Mr, Arnold for a
new word suited to the new times. Culture — acquainting ourselves
with the best that has been known and said in the world and thus with
the history of the human spirit This will require us to know a great
body of literature; but when we inquire for the best we shall find our-
selves confronted by a vast mass of religious literature. Homer was a
great religious poet; Hesiod, also. The central idea in all the great
dramas of /Eschylus, Sophocles and Euripides was religious, and no one
need hope to penetrate beneath the surface of any of these, who lacks
a sympathetic acquaintance with the religious ideas, myths and mythol-
ogies of the Greeks. Dante's "Divine Comedy," Milton's "Paradise
Lost" and Goethe's "Faust" are religious poems, to read which intelli-
gently one must have an acquaintance with medieval mythology and
modern Protestant theology.

Then there are the great Bibles of the world, the Christian and
Jewish, the Mohammedan and Zoroastrian, the Brahman and Buddhist
and the two Chinese sacred books. It is of these books that Emerson
sings:

Out of the heart of nature rolled
The burden of the Bible old;
The litanies of nations came,
Like the volcano's tongue of flame,
Up from the burning core below,
The canticles of love and woe.

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUGWNS.

291

He who would be cultured in Matthew Arnold's sense of beinj,'
acquainted with the history of the human spirit must know these
books, and this means a patient, careful study of the growth and de-
velopment of rites, symbols, myths and mythologies, traditions, creeds
and priestly orders through long centuries of time, from far away
primitive nature worship up to the elaborate ritual and developed lit-
urgy which demanded the written book.

But religion is a living power and not, therefore, to be confined to
book or creed or ritual. All these, religion called into being, and is
itself, therefore, greater than any or all of them. So far from being
confined to book and creed and ritual, religion has proved, in the words . , .
of Dr. C. P. Tiele"one of the most potent factors in human history; Power.'""*
it has founded and overthrown nations, united and divided empires;
has sanctioned the most atrocious deeds and the most cruel customs;
has inspired beautiful acts of heroism, self-renunciation and devotion,
and has occasioned the most sanguinary wars, rebellions and persecu-
tions. It has brought freedom, happiness and peace to nations, and,
anon, has proved a partisan of tyranny; now calling into existence a
brilliant civilization, then the deadly foe to progress, science and art!'
All this is a part of world history, and the student who ignores it or
passes over lightly the religious motive underlying it is thereby ob-
scuring the hidden causes which alone cart explain the outer facts of
history.

Again, the human spirit has ever delighted to express itself in art.
True culture, therefore, requires a knowledge of art. But to know the
world's art without first knowing the world's religions would be to
read Homer in the original before knowing the Greek alphabet.
Why the vastness and gloom of the Egyptian temples? the approaches
to them through long rows of sphinxes? What mean these sphinxes
and the pyramids, the rock-hewn temple tombs and the obelisks of
ancient Egyptian art? Why the low, earth-loving Greek temple, with
all its beauty and external adornment? What is the central thought
in Greek sculpture? Why does the medieval cathedral climb heaven-
ward, with its massive towers and turrets?

What is the meaning of the tower temples of ancient Assyria and
Babylon and the mosques and minarets of western Asia? All are
symbols of religious life, and are blind and meaningless without an
understanding of that life. Blot out the architecture and sculpture
whose motive is strictly religious, and how great a blank remains?
Painting and music, too, have been the handmaidens of religion, and
cannot be mastered in their full depths of meaning save by one who
knows something of the religious ideas and sentiments which gave
them birth; eloquence has found its deepest inspiration in sacred
themes; and philosophy is only the attempt of the intellect to formu-
late what the heart of man has strfven after and felt.

Let a student set himself the task of becoming intelligent con-
cerning the philosophic speculations of the world, and he will soon
find that among all peoples the earliest speculations have been of a

h\, !

292

T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Earliest Spec-
nltttions.

i i-

: r

religious nature, and that out of these, philosophy arose. If, then, he
would understand the development of philosophy, he must begin
with the development of the religious consciousness in its beginnings
in the Indo-Germanic race, the Semitic race, and in Christianity. As
Dr. Pfleiderer shows in his "Philosophy of Religion on the Hasis of Its
History:"

"There could have been no distinct philosophy (^f religion in the
ancient world, because nowhere did religion appear as an independent
fact, clearly distinguished alike irom politics, art and science. This
condition was first fulfilled in Christianity. But no philosophy of
religion was possible in medieval Christianity, because independent
scientific investigation was impossible. All thinking was dominated
either by dogmatism or by an undefined faith."

If the germs of a philosophy of religion may be found in the
theosophic mysticism and the anti-scholastic philosophy of the renais-
sance, its real beginnings r , to be found not earlier than the eight-
eenth century, liut what a magnificent array of names in the two and
a quarter centuries since Spino;',a wrote his theologico-political treatise
in 1670. Spinoza, Leibnitz, L<;ssing, Kant, Herder, Goethe, Fichte,
Schleiermacher, Schelling, Hegel, and, if we would follow the tendencies
of philosophic religious thought in the present day, Feuerbach, Comte,
Strauss, Mill, Spencer, Mattiiew Arnold, Hermann, Schopenhauer, Von
Hartmann, Lotze, Edward Caird.JohnCaird and Martineau. No student,
who aspires to an acquaintance with philosophy, can afford to be
ignorant of these thinkers and their thoughts; but to follow most
intelligently the thought of any one of them he will need a prelimi-
nary acquaintance with hierology through such careful, painstaking
conscientious work in the study of different religions as has been
made by such scholars as Max Miiller, C. P. Tide, Keunen, Ernest
Renan, Albert Reville, Prof. Robertson Smith, Renouf, La Saus
saye and Sayce.

If religious thought and feeling is thus bound up with the litera-
ture, art and philosophy of the world, not less close is its relation to
the language, social and political institutions and morals of humanity.
It is sacred names quite as often as any other words which furnish the
philologist his links in the chain of proofs of relationship between
languages. It does not need a Herbert Spencer to point out that
political institutions and offices are frequently related to religion as
effect to cause ; the king's touch and the doctrine of divine right of
kings are only survivals from the days of the medicine man and
heaven-born chief.

The question concerning the relations of religion to ethics is
a living one in modern thought. One class of thinkers insists, that
ethics is all there is of religion that can be known or can be of value
to man; another, that ethics, if lived, will of necessity blossom out into
religion, since religion is only ethics touched with emotion; another,
that religion and ethics are two distinct things which have no neces-
sary relation to each other; and still others maintain that there is

til

■1 1

THh WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

203

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no high and persistent moral life possible without the sanctions of
religion, and no high and worthy religion possible without an accom-
panying high morality; that whatever may be true in low conditions
of civilization, any religion adapted to high civilizations must be eth-
ical, and any ethical precepts or principles which arc to helpfully con-
trol men's lives must be rooted in faith. A wide and careful study of
the world's religions ought to throw light upon the problem.

Such a study would point to the conclusion that, though differing
greatly among themselves in other ways, all religions, even the oldest
and poorest, must have shown some faint traces at least of awakening
moral feeling. From an early period moral ideas are combined wi*h Mondldeu.
religious doctrines, and the old mythologies are modified by them.
Ethical attributes are ascribed to the gods, especially the highest.
Later, but only in the higher nature religions, ctr," ■ 1 as well as intel-
lectual aostractions are personified and worshiped as I'ivine beings.

What are the historic facts in the case? Have religion and mor-
ality had a contemporaneous development, and in conjunction? or has
the history of the two run on distinct and divergent lines? Who shall
answer authoritatively save the student of the history of religions?
Let us q',',e;>tion some such. "All religions," says C. P. Tiele, "are
either race religious or religions proceeding irom an individual
f" mder; the former are nature religions; the latter ethical religions.
In the nature religions the supreme god;? are the mighty powers of
nature, and though there are great mutual differences between them,
some standing on a much higher plane than others, the oldest and
poorest must have shown some faint traces, at least, of awakening
moral feeling. In some a constant and remarkable progress is also to
be noticed. Gods are more and more anthropomorphized, rites
humanized. From an early period moral ideas are combined with
religious doctrines and the old mythologies are modified by them.
Ethical attributes are ascribed to the gods, especially to the highest.
Nay, ethical as well as intellectual abstractions are personified and
worshiped as divine beings, liut, as a rule, this happens only in the
most advanced stages of nature worship. Nature religions can for a
long time bear the introduction into their mythologies of moral as
well as ^esthetic, scientific and philosophical notions; and they are un-
able to shut them out, for if they did so they would lose their hold
upon the leading classes among the more civilized nations.

" If, however, the ethical elements acquire the upper hand so that
they become the predominating principle, then the old forms break in
twain by the too heavy burden of new ideas, and the old rites being
useless, become obsolete. Then nature religion inevitably dies of
inanition. When this culminating point has been reached the way is
prepared for the preaching of an ethical religious doctrine.

" Ethical religions aie communities brought together, not by a com-
mon belief in national traditions, but by the common belief in a doc-
trine of salvation, and organized with the aim of maintaining, fostering, SaiTstion."
propagating and practicing that doctrine. This fundamental doctrine

fi 1

A Doctrine of

J^i^.

294

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

M .1

; ; .

A RuliKiouB
Duty.

is considered by its adherents in each case as a divine revelation, and
he who revealed it, an inspired prophet or son of God."

The ethical religions Tide divides into national, or particularistic
and univcrsalistic. The latter, three in number, are the dominant re-
ligions in the world today. Of these, Islamism has emphasized the
religious side, the absolute .sovereignty of God, opposing to it the
nothingness of man, and has thus neglected to develop morals. Bud-
dhism, on the contrary, neglects the divine, preaches the final salvation
of man from the miseries of existence through the power of his own
self-renunciation, and as it was atheistic in its origin it soon becomes
infected by the most fantastic mythology and the most childish super-
stitions. Christianity in its founder did full justice to both the divine
and human sides; if the greatest commandment was love to God, the
second was like unto it, viz., love to man. Such is a brief resume of C.
P. Tide's account of the mutual historical relations of ethics and
religion.

Albert Rcville devotes a chapter of his "Prolegomena to the His-
tory of Religions" to the same question. He finds that morality, like
religion, began very low down and rose very high; that with morality,
as with religion, we must recognize in the human mind a spontaneous
disposition siii generis, arising from its natural constitution, destined to
expand in the school of experience, but which that school can never
create.

With the entrance of moral prepossessions into religion, life be-

yond the tomb becomes a
a new chapter of religious
between religion and mora

ilace of divine rewards, and thus originates
listory. Under monotheism the connection
ity becomes still closer. Here everything,
the physical world, humansocicty, human personality, has but one all-
powerful master. Moral order is his work by the .same right and as
completely as physical order. Obedience to the moral law becomes
then essentially a religious duty. Consequently, the religious ideal
rises and becomes purified at the same time as the moral ideal. We
may even say that, in the Gospel, religion and morality are no longer
easily to be distinguished; upon the basis of the monotheistic princi-
ple and the affinity of nature between man and God, the religion of
Jesus moves on independently of dogma and of rite, consisting essen-
tially of strictly moral provisions and applications.

"Has morality gained or lost by this close alliance with religion?'
asks Reville; and answers: "In a general way we may say that the
characteristic of tiie religious sentiment, when it is associated with
another element of human life, is to render this element much more
intense and more powerful. P>om this simple observance we have the
right to conclude that as a general rule morality gains in attractive-
ness, in power and in strenj^th by its alliance with religion."

True, unenlightened religion has sometimes perverted the moral
sense and reduced morality to a utilitarian calculation. Most of the
religions which have assigned a large place to morality have found-
ered on the rock of asceticism, especially Brahmanism, Buddhism and

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

295

on, and

ularistic
lant re-
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h super-
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od, the
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ObstTTpr
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the Christianity of the Middle Ages. Religion has sometimes failed to
distinguish between morality and ritual, or morality and occult belief,
and we have the spectacle of a punctilious observer of rites consid-
ered to be more nearly united to God, notwithstanding terrible viola-
tions of the moral law, than is the good man who fails in ritual or
creed. And yet, Reville concludes from the individual point of view:
"The question which the spiritual tribunal of each of us is alone quali-
fied to decide is, whether we ought not to congratulate the man who
derives from his religious convictions, freed from narrowness, from
utilitarianism and from superstition, the source, the charm and the
vigor of his moral life. Persuaded that for most men the alliance be-
tween religion and morality cannot but be salutary, I must pronounce
in the affirmative."

If the conclusions of all students of hierology shall prove in har-
mony with the views here expressed as to the close connection in
origin and in history, between morality and religion, a connection
growing closer as each rises in the scale of worth, until we find in the
very highest the two indissolubly united, may we not conclude a wise
dictum for our modern life to be "what God in history has joined
together let not man in practice put asunder?" Rather let him who
would lift the world morally avail himself of the motor power of re-
ligion; let him who would erect a temple of religion see to it that its
foundations are laid in the enduring granite of character.

I come now to the second division of my subject, namely, the
value of hierology as a means of religious culture.

What is religion? Ask the question of an ordinary communicant
of any religious order and the answer will in all probability, as a rule,
emphasize some surface characteristic.

The orthodox Protestant defines it as a creed; the Catholic, a
creed plus a ritual — believe the doctrines and observe the sacraments;
the Mohammedan as a dogma; the Buddhist as an ethical system; the I'S'o^.
Brahmin as caste; the Confucian as a system of statecraft. But let the
earnest student ask further for the real meaning to the worshiper, of
his ritual, creed, dogma, ethics, caste and ethics-political, and he will
find each system to be a feeling out after a bond of union between the
human and the divine; each implies a mode of activity, a process by
which the individual spirit strives to bring itself into harmonious re-
lations with the highest power, will, or intelligence. Each is of value
in just so far as it is able to inajgurate son-"" '-^ilt relation between the
worshiper and the superhuman powers in ^.hich he believes. In the
language of philosophy, each is a seeking for a reconciliation of the
ego and the non-ego.

The earnest student will find many resemblances between all these
communions; his own included. They all started from the same sim-
ple germ; they have all had a life history which can be traced, which
is in a true sense a development, and whose laws can be formulated;
they all have sought outward expression for the religious yearning
and have all found it in symbol, rite, myth, tradition, creed. The result

What is R«.

2})n

THE IVOKLD'S CONGRESS OF KELIGIONS.

< ; I

■ t;. ■ •

An Attribute
r>f Hnmanity.

Study (if All
lielitiioDH'

of such a study must be to reveal man to himself in his deepest nature;
it enables the individual to trace his own lineaments in the mirror and
see himself in the perspective of humanity. Prior to such study,
religion is an accident of time and place and nationality; a particular
revelation to his particular nation or age, which might have been with-
held from him and his, as it was withheld from the rest of the world,
but for the distinguishing favor of the Divine Sovereign of the universe
in choosing out one favored people and sending to that one a special
revelation of His will.

After such study religion is an attribute of humanity, as reason
and language and tool-making are; needing only a human being placed
in a physical universe which dominates his own physical life, which
cribs and cabins him by its inexorable laws, and, lol defying those
laws he steps out into the infinite world of faith, of hope, of aspiration,
of God. The petty distinctions of savage, barbarian, civilized and en-
lightened sink into the background. He is a man, and by virtue of
his manliood, his human nature, he worships and aspires. A compara-
tive study of religions furnishes the only basis for estimating the relative
worth of any religion.

Many of you saw and perhaps shared the smile and exclamation
of incredulous amusement over the paragraph which went the rounds
of the papers some months ago to the effect that the Mohammedans
were preparing to send missionaries and establish a Mohammedan
mission in New York City. But whythe smile and exclamation? He-
cause of our sense of the superiority of ourown form of religious faith.
Yet Christianity has utterly failed to control the vice of drunkenness.
Chicago today is dominated by the saloons. Nor is it alone in this
res[)ect. Christian lands everywhere are dotted with poorhouses, asy-
lums, jails, penitentiarit;s, reformatories, built to try to remedy evils,
nine-tenths of which were caused, directly or indirectly, by the drink
habit which Christendom fails to control and is powerless to uproot.
Hut Mohammedanism does control it in oriental lands. Says Isaac
Taylor. "Mohanmiedanism stands in fierce opposition to gambling: a
gambler's testimony is invalid in law." And further: "Islam is the
most powerful total abstinence association in the world." This testi-
mony is confirmed by other writers and by illustration. If it can do
so on the western continent as well, then what better thing could hap-
pen to New York, or to Chicago even, than the establishment of some
vigorous Mohammedan missions? And for the best good of Chicago
it might he well that Mayor Harrison instruct the police that the mis-
sionaries are not to be arrested for obstructing the highway if they
should venture to preach their temperance gospel in the saloon
quarters.

Hut if a study of all religions is the only road to a true definition
of religion and classification of religions, it is quite as necessary to the
intelligent comprehension of any one religion, Goethe declared long
ago that he who knows but one language knows none, and Max Miiller
applies the adage to religion. A very little thought will show the

fSl

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS

truth of the application in either case. On the old time supposition
that religion and language alike came down ready formed from heaven,
a divine gift or revelation to man, this would not be true. Complete
in itself, with no earthly relationships, why shoulc' it need anything
but itself for its comprehension. But modern scientific inquiry soon
dispels any such theories of the origin of language and religion alike.
If the absolute origin of each is lost in prehistoric shadows, the light of
history shows each as a gradual evolution or development, whose laws
of development can to some extent be traced, whose history can be,
partially at least, deciphered. But if an evolution, a development,
then are both religion and language in the chain of cause and effect,
and no single link of that chain can by any possibility be compre-
hended alone and out of relation to the links preceding and following.

Allow me to illustrate this proposition at some length. I am a
Christian. I want to know the nature, meaning and import of the
Christian religion. I find myself in the midst of a great army of sects
all calling themselves Christians. I musteithcr admit the claim of all,
or I must prove that only one has right to the name, and to do either
rationally I must become acquainted with all. But they absolutely
contradict each other and some of them, at least, the original records
of Christianity, in both their creed and ritual.

Here is one sect that holds to the unity of God; here another
that contends earnestly for a Trinity; here one that worships at high
altars with burning candles, processions of robed priests, elevation of
the host, holy water, adoration of the Virgin Mother, and humble con-
fessional, all in stately cathedrals, with stained-glass windows, pealing
organ and surpliced choir; there another, which deems that Christian-
ity is foreign to all such ritual, and whose worship consists in waiting
quietly for an hour within the four bare walls of the quaker meeting-
house to see if the inner voice hath ought of message from the great
enlightening spirit.

How account for such differences when all claim a common,
source? Only by tracing back the stream of Christian history to its
source and following each tributary to its source, thus, if possible, to
discover the origin of elements so dissimilar. Seriously entered
upon the quest, we discover here a stream of influence from ancient
Kgypt, "through Greece and Rome, bringing to Roman Catholic Chris-
tendom," so says Tiele, "the germs of the worship of the virgin, the
doctrine of the immaculate conception and the type of its theocracy."

Another tributary brings in a stream of Neo-Platonism with its
doctrine of the Word, or Logos; there a stream of Gra^co-Roman
mythology with a deifying tendency so strongly developed that it will
fall in adoration equallj' before a Roman emperor or a Paul and
Cephas, whose deeds seen marvelous. Another stream from imperial
Rome brings its gift of hierarchical organization, and here a tributary
comes in from the German forests bringing the festivals of the sun god
and the egg god of the newly developing life of spring. Christianity
cannot banish these festivals; too long have they held place in the

»20

All Claim a
("oiiimon
Hource,

; '

298

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

the t^-mitea.

religious consciousness of the people. She can, however, and does
adopt and baptize them, and we have the gorgeous Catholic festivals
of Christmas and Easter.

Christianity itself sends its roots back into Judaism; hence, to
know it really in its deepest nature, we must apply to it the laws of
heredity, i. e., we must study Judaism. Judaism has its sacred book,
and our task will be easy, so we think. But a very little unbiased
study will show us that Judaism is not one, but many. There is the
Judaism which talks freely of angels and devils and the future life,
happiness or misery, and there is the earlier Mosaism which knows
nothing of angels or dcvMs and of no future life save that of sheol, in
which, as David declares, there is no service of God possible. Would
wc understand this difference we must note a tributary stream flowing
in from Babylonia, and if we will trace this to its source we shall find
its fountain head in the Persian dualism of Ormuzd and Ahriman, the
god of light and the god of darkness, with their attendant angels.
Only after the Babylonish captivity do we find in Judaism angels and
a hierarchy of devils.

Pass back through the Jewish sacred books, and strange things
will meet us. Here a "Thus saith the Lord" to Joshua; "Slay all the
Canaanitcs, men, women and helpless children; I suffer not one to
live;" "Sell the animal that has died of itself to the stranger within
your gate, but not to those of your own flesh and blood." The Lord
comes to dine with Abraham under the oak at Mamre on his way
down to Sodom to see if the reports of its great wickedness be true,
and discusses his plans with his host. Naaman must carry home with
him loads of Palestinian earth if he would build an altar to the god of
the Hebrews whose prophet has cured his leprosy.

The Lord guides the Israelites through the wilderness by a pillar
of fire by night and of smoke by day, lives in the ark, and in it goes
before the Israelites into battle; is captured in the ark and punishes
the Philistines till they send Him iJack to His people. The Lord
makes a covenant with Abraham, and it is confirmed according to
divine command by Abraham slaying and dividing animals and the
Lord passing between the parts, thus affirming Hisshare in thecovenant.

Is this the same God of whom Jesus taught? This the religion out
of which sprang Christianity? How, then, account for the immense
distance between the two? To do this we must trace the early Hebrew
religion to its source and then follow the stream to the rise of Chris-
tianity, seeking earnestly for the causes of the transformation. What
was the early Hebrew religion? A branch of the great Semitic family
of religions. What was the religion of the Semites and who were
the Semites? These quest ons have been answered in an exhaustive
and scholarly manner, so far as he goes, by Prof. Robertson Smith in
the volume entitled, "The Religion of the Semites," a volume to which
no student of the Old Testament, who wishes to understand that rich
treasury of oriental and ancient sacred literature, can afford not to
give a serious study.

■~1

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

200

Magic and

The Semites occupied all the lands of western Asia from the
Tigro-Euphrates valley to the Mediterranean Sea. They included the
Arabs, Hebrews and Phoenicians, the Aramaean^, Babylonians and
Assyrians. A comparative study of the religions of all these peoples
has convinced scholars that all were developments from a common
primitive source, the early religion of the Semites. This religion was
first nature worship of the personified heavenly bodies, especially the
sun and moon. Among the Arabs this early religion developed
into animistic polydemonism, and never rose much higher than this;
but among the Mesopotamian Semites the nature beings rise above
nature and rule it, and one among them rises above all the others as
the head of an unlimited theocracy.

If magic and augury remained prominent constituents of their
ceremonial religion, they practiced, besides, a real worship and gave
utterance to a vivid sense of sin, a deep feeling of man's dependence,
even of his nothingness, before God, in prayers and hymns hardly less
fervent than those of the pious souls of Israel. Among the western Augnry.
Semites, the Aramaeans, Canaanites, Phoenicians seem to have so-
journed in Mesopotamia before moving westward, and they brought
with them the names of the early Mesopotamian Semitic gods, with
the cruel and unchaste worship of a non-Semitic people, the Akkad-
ians, which henceforth distinguished them from the other Semites.
From the Akkadians, too, was probably derived the consecration of
the seventh day as a Sabbath or day of rest, afterward shared by the
Hebrews.

The last of the Semitic peoples, the Hebrews, seem to be more
closely related to the Arabs than to the northern or eastern Semites.
They entered and gradually conquered most of Canaan Hv'ring the
thirteenth century, B. C, bringing with them a religion ot extreme
simplicity, though not monotheistic, and not differing greatly in char-
acter from that of the Arabs. Their ancient national god bore the
name El-Shaddai, but his worship had given place under their great
leader, Moses, to a new cult, the worship of Yahveh, the dreadful and
stern god of thunder, who first appeared to Moses at the bush under
the name " I am that I am," worshiped according to a new funda-
mental religious and moral law, the so-called Ten Words. Were this
name and this law indigenous to Arabia or a special revelation, de novo,
to Moses? But whence had Moses the moral culture adequate to the
comprehension and appropriation of a moral system so far in advance
of ^nvthing which we find among other early Semites? Nineteenth
ceiituiy research has discovered an equally high moral code in Egypt,
and the very name "Nukpu Nuk," "I am that I am," is found among
old Egyptian inscriptions.

Whatever its origin, this new religion the Hebrews did not aban-
don in their new home, although they placed their national god. Yah- .TheirNation.
veh, by the side of the deity of the country, whom they called briefly
"the Baal," and whom most of them worshiped together with Ashera,
the goddess of fertility. After they had left their wandering life and

alQod.

300

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

■\\

■:l

All

cred.

Life Sa-

settled down to ajjriculture, Yahveh, however, as the God of the con-
querors, was commonly placed above the others, though his stern char-
acter was softened by that of the gentler Baal, Well for Israel and
well for the world that these two conceptions of deity came together
in Judea twelve centuries before Christ. If the worship of the jeal-
ous god Yahveh made the Jew stern and uncompromising, it also
girded him with a high moral sense whose legitimate outcome was
Israel's great prophets, while the fierceness itself, as gradually trans-
formed by the gentler Baal conception of deity, gives us in the final
outcome, the holy God who cannot look upon sin with the least degree
of allowance and yet pitieth the sinner even as a father pitieth his
children. If any have been perplexed over a religion of love such as
Christianity claims to be, proving a religion of bloody wars, persecu-
tions, inquisitions, martyrdoms, mayhap its Hebrew origin may throw
light upon the mystery. Jesus' thought of a God, a Father, could not
wholly displace at once the old Hebrew Yahveh, the jealous God.

All the Semitic religions, while differing among themselves in the
names and certain characteristics of their deities, had much in com-
mon. Their gods were all tribal or national gods, limited to particular
countries, choosing for themselves special dwelling places, which thus
became holy places, usually near celebrated trees or living water, the
tree, rock or water often coming to be regarded not simply as the
abode, but as in some sense, the divine embodiment or representative
of the god, and hence these places were chosen as sanctuaries and
places of worship; though the northern Semitic worshiped on hills
also, the worship consisted, during the nomadic period, in sacrifices of
animals sacred alike to the god and his worshipers, because sharing
the common life of both, and to some extent of human sacrifices as
well. The skin of the animal sacrificed is the oldest form, says Rob-
ertson-Smith, of a sacred garment appropriate to the performance of
holy function, and was the origin of the expression "robe of righteous-
ness." Is this the far-away origin of the scarlet robe of office?

All life, whether the life of man or beast, within the limits of the
tribe, was sacred, being held in common with the tribal god, who was
the progenitor of the whole tribal life; hence, no life could be taken,
save in sacrifice to the god, without calling down the wrath of the god.
Sacrifices thus became tribal feasts, shared between the god and his
worshipers, the god receiving the blood poured upon the altar, the
worshipers eating the flesh in a joyful tribal feast.

Here, then, was the origin of the Hebrew religion. It was not
monotheistic, but what scholars designated as henotheistic, a belief in
the existence of many gods, though worshiping only the national god.
Thus, a man was born into his religion as he was born into his tribe,
and he could only change his religion by changing his tribe. This
explains Ruth's impassioned words to Naomi, "Thy people shall be
my people and thy God my God." This idea of the tribal god, who is
a friend to his own people but an enemy to all others, added to the
belief in the inviolability of all life save when offered in sacrifice,

un
Se
bn
on
th(
th(
of
th(
pa^
re
u^

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

301

explains the decree that an animal dying of itself might not be eaten
by a tribesman, but might be sold to a stranger. A tribal god, too,
might rightfully enough order the slaughter of the men, women and
children of another tribe whose god had proved too weak to defend
them. Life was sacred only because shared with the god, and this
sharing was limited to the tribe.

The Hebrew people moved onward and upward from this early
Semitic stage and have left invaluable landmarks of their progress in
their sacred books. The story of the sacrifice of Isaac tells of the time
when human sacrifices were outgrown. Perhaps circumcision docs the
same. The story of Cain and Abel dates from the time when agricult-
ure was beginning to take the place of the old nomadic shepherd life.
The men of the new calling were still worshipers of the old gods, and
would gladly share with them what they had to give — the fruits of the
earth. But the dingers to the old life could see nothing sacred in this
new thing, and were sure that only the old could be well pleasing to
their god.

The god who dined with Abraham under the terebinth tree, at
Mamre, was the early tribal god, P^l-Shaddai. Naaman was cured of his
leprosy because the Jordan was sacred to the deity. It was the thunder
god, Yahveh, whom the people worshiped on Sinai and who still bore
traces of the earlier sun god as he guided the people in a pillar of fire.
The ark is a remnant of fetichisni, /. f., a means of pitting the deity
under control of his worshipers. They can compel his presence on the
battlefield by carrying the ark thither, and if the ark is captured the
god is captured also.

A powerful element in the upward development of Mosaism was
prophecy. The eighth century prophets had moved far on beyond the
whole sacrificial system, when, as spokesman for the Lord, Isaiah ex-
claims: "I am tired of your burnt sacrifices and your oblations.
What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, love mercy and
walk humbly with thy God." Jesus condemns the whole theorj' of holy
places when he declares: "Neither in this holy mountain nor yet in
Jerusalem shall men think to worship God most acceptably." God is
a spirit unlimited by time or place, and they who would worship accept-
ably must worship in spirit and in truth.

How long the journey from the early tribal sacrificial, magical,
unmoral, fetich, holy place, human sacrifice worship of the early
.Semites, including the Hebrews, to the universal fatherhood and
brotherhood religion of the Sermon on the Mount and the golden rule,
only those can understand who are willing to give serious study not to
the latter alone, but to the former as well. To such earnest student
there will probably come another revelation, namely, that there is need
of no miracle to account for this religious transformation more than for
the physical transformation from the frozen snows of December to the
palpitating life of June. They are both all miracle or none. The
great infinite life and love was hidden alike in the winter clod and the
human sacrifice. Given the necessary conditions and the frozen clod

Infinito Life
and Love.

802

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUGIONS.

i. \

('Bpacltjr
Change.

' m

has "climbed to a soul in grass and flowers," the tribal god and the
tribal blood bond are seen in their real character as the universal God
Fatherhood and man brotherhood. What the necessary conditions
were, only those shall know who are ready to read God's thoughts
after Him in the patient researches of scientific investigation.

What is to be the future of this religion which has had so long and
varied a history from far away Akkad even to this center of the west-
ern hemisphere, and from twenty centuries before Christ to this last
decade of the nineteenth century after Christ?

One contribution made by the Hebrew to the Christian Scriptures
demands special notice because it occupies so central a place in the
development of the Christian system. I refer to the record of a first
man, Adam, a Garden of Eden, a fall, an utter depravity resulting, and
ending in a universal flood; a re-beginning and another fall and con-
founding of speech at Babel. The founder of Christianity never refers
to these events and the Gospels are silent concerning them. Paul
first alludes to them, but in his hands and those of his successors they
have become central in the theology of Christendom. Whence came
this record of these real or supposed events? Genesis is silent con-
cerning its origin. The antiquary delving among the ruins of ancient
Chaldea finds almost the identical record of the same series of events
upon clay tablets which are referred to an Akkadian people, the
founders of the earliest civilization of the Tigro-Euphrates valley, a
people not Semitic, but Turanian, related, therefore, to the great Tu-
ranian peoples represented by the Chinese, Japanese and Fins.

We started out to make an exhaustive study of Christianity, an
Aryan religion if named from its adherents; Semitic from its origin.
We found it receiving tributary streams from three Aryan sources,
namely, Alexandrian Neo-Platonism, Pagan Rome and Teutonic-Ger-
many; its roots were nurtured in Semitic Hebrew soil which had been
enriched from Semitic Assyria, Aryan Persia, Turanian Akkadia and
Hematic Egypt.

Its parent was Judaism, a national religion, limited by the bound-
aries of one nation. It is itself a universal religion, having transcended
all national boundaries. How was this transformation effected? For
answer go to Kuenen's masterly handling of the subject, " National
Religions and Universal Religions." If our study has been wide we
have learned that religions, like languages, have a life history of birth,
development, transformation, death, following certain definite laws.
Moreover, the law of life for all organisms is the same, and may, per-
haps, be formulated as the power of adjustment to environment; the
greater the adjustability the greater the vitality.

But this means capacity to change. "That which is no longer
susceptible of change," says Kuenen, "may continue to exist, but it has
ceased to live. And religion must live, must enter into new combina-
tions and bear fresh fruit if it is to answer to its destiny; if refusing to
crystalli.'re into formulae and usages it is to work like the leaven, is to
console, to inspire and to strengthen." Has Christianity this vital

Mi ;

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

303

power? "Yes," again answers Kuenen, and quotes approvingly a say-
ing of Richard Rothe: "Christianity is the most mutable of all things.
That is its special glory." And why should this not be so? Chris-
tianity has gathered contributions from many lands and woven them
into one ideal large enough to include all peoples, tender enough to
comfort all, lofty enough to inspire all— the ideal of a universal human
brotherhood bound together under a common Divir e Fatherhood.

■I j

Yhe (^ompeLraXwe §tudy of the YV'o^^^'s

Religions.

Paper by MGR. C. D. D'H^RLEZ, Louvain University.

1 ;

F I ! i

•At

II *z

Kinnl I[iip|>i-
in-H i>f Man.

T is not without piofound emotion that I address
niysclt to an assemblage of men, the most dis-
tinguished, come together from all parts of the
worUl and who, despite essential divergences
of opinion, are nevertheless united in this vast
eilitltx', pursuing one purpose, animated with
one thought, the most no' !e that may occujjy
the human mind, tlie seeking ouL of religious
truth. I have under my e)es this unprece-
dented spectacle, until now unheard of, of dis-
ciples of Kong-fu-tse, of liuddha, of Hrahma,
of Ahura Majda, of Arah, of Zoroaster, of Mo-
hammetl, of Naka-nusi, of Laotze, not less than
those of Moses and of the divine Chri.st, gath-
ered together, not to engage in the struggle of hos-
tilit)', of animosil}', sources of sorrow and griefs, but
to hold uj) before the eyes of the world the beliefs n-liich they profess
and wliicli they have received from their fathers and tlieir religion.

Religion! Word sublime. VuW of harmony to the ear of man,
penetrating on through the depths of his heart and stirring into vibra-
tion its profouiulest chords.

How gooiUy the title of our programme -World's I'arliamcnt of
Religions. 1 low true the thought put forth by one who took part in
lis production: " Comj^arison, not controversy, will best serve the
most wholesome and therefore the most divine truth." Parliam'::nt.
It is in such an asseml)ly that the most weighty interests of humanity
are discussed, that their most accredited representatives come to set
forth what they believe to be most favorable to their development, to
their legitimate satisfaction. But in this parliament of religions it is
not the world that is the question, but heaven — the final happiness of
man.

304

THE IVOKLirS CONGRESS OE EELIGIONS.

805

LcL mc sneak of the importance of a serious study of all systems
of religion. Hut first let us ask if it is useful, if it is {^oocl, to give one's
self to this study. This is in effect the cjuestion which in Europe men
of faith put themselves when this new branch suildcnly sprouted forth
from the trunk of the tree of science. At first it inspired only repufj-
nance, or at least great distrust, and this was not without reason. The
opinions, the designs of those who made themselves its promoters in-
spired very legitimate suspicions. It was evident that the end pursued
was to confound all religions as works of human invention, to put them
all upon a common level, in order to bring them all into common
contempt.

The comparative history of religions in the minds of their orig-
inators was to be an exposition of all the vicissitudes of human thought,
imagination, and, to say the real word, folly. It was to be Darwinism,
evolution applied to religious conditions that were generally held as
coming from God. Naturally, then, a large number of the enlightened
faithful, some of them eminent minds, saw only evil and danger in the
new science. Others, clearer of sight, better informed on prevailing
ideas, on the needs of the situation, convinced, besides, that a divine
work cann4)t perish, and that providence disposes of things for the
greater good of humanity, wclconicil without reserve this new child of
science, and by their example, as by their words, drew with them into
this wiiw field of research e\en the hesitating and trembling. They
thought, besides, that no fieklof science should, or could, be interdicted
to men of faith without placing them and their belief in a state of in-
feriority the most fatal, and that to abandon any one of them whatever EtiTnnl Truth
would be to hand it o\er to the spirit of system and to all sorts of
errors. They judged that any science, seriously controlled in its
methods, can only concur in bringing about the triumph of the truth,
and that eternal truth must come forth victorious from every scientific
discussion, unless its defeiuiers, from a fear ami mistrust injurious alike
for it and its di\'ine author, al)andon it and desert its cause.

Today the nu)st timid Christian, be he ever so little in touch with
the circumstances of the times, no longer dreads in the least the chi-
merical nuuisters i)ictured to his imagination at the dawn of these new
.itudics, and follows, with as much interest as he formerly feared, the
tliscoveries which the savants lay lieforc him What study today
excites more attention aiul interest than the compaiati\e study of
religions? What object more pre-occupies the mind of men than the
one contained in that magic word?

Religion! In Christian countries and this (jualification embraces
the whole of Europe, with the exception of Turkey and all of Amer-
ica -three classes of men maybe distinguished by their dispositions
and attitudes toward relig'ous (juestions. Some possess the truth
doscended from on 'ligh, study it, search into its depths with love and
I pect; others, at the very opposite pole, animated by I do not know
what spirit, wage against it an incessant warfare and do their utmost
to stifle it; others, in fine, ranged between these two extremes, plunged

806

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Snmn t li i n K
<i(li WautinR.

into doubt, ask themselves, thanklessly, what there is in these truths
which they see on the one hand exalted with enthusiasm and on the
other attacked with fury. In no way formed by education to submit
their intelligence to dogmas which they cannot understand nor to reg-
ulate their conduct by inflexible moral prec::pts, hearing, however,
within them a voice which calls upon them to rise above themselves,
they arc cast about upon the sea of doubt and anguish in vain demand-
ing of the earth the bond to cure the evil from which their hearts
suffer.

Yes, this voice whispers to their ears the most redoubtable prob-
lems that ever man proposed. Whence comes he? Who has placed
him upon this earth? VVhither does he go? What is his end? What
must he do to secure it? Immense horizons of happiness or of misery
open out before him. How manage to avoid the one and reach the
other?

Long did men seek to stifle the whispered murmurings of con-
science. It has triumphed over all resistance. Today more than ever,
as it has been so energetically said, "Man is homesick for the divine."
The divine! The unbeliever has sought to drive it out through every
pass. It has come back more triumphant than ever. So. today souls,
not enlightened by the divine light, feel an indefinable uneasiness such
as that experienced by the aeronaut in the supertcrrestrial region of
rarified atmosphere, such as that of the heart when air and blood fail.
Those who confine themselves to earthly pursuits feel even in the
midst of success that something is still wanting; that is, whatever they
say and whatever they do man has not only a body to nourish and an
intelligence to cultivate and develop, but he has, I emphatically aflfirm,
a soul to satisfy. This soul, too, is in incessant travail, in continual evo-
lution toward the light and the truth. As long as she has not received
all light and conquered all truth, so long will she torment man.

Those aspirations, those indefinable states of the soul in the pres-
ence of the dreaded unknown, today so common in our midst, are
without doubt not unknown in the regions of Asia and Africa. There,
too, rationalism, agnosticism, imported from Europe, has made its in-
roads. But on the other hand, such incertitude is not entirely new
Twenty-five centuries ago the Vidist poet proposed the very problems
which today perplex the unbeliever, as we see in the celebrated hymn
thought to be addressed to a god, Ka, the fruit of the imagination of
interpreters, since this word, Ka, was merely an interrogative used by
the singer of the Ganges in asking what hand had laid the foundation
of the world, upon whom depended life and death, who upheld the
earth and the stars, etc., questions to which the poet could give only this
reply, sad avowal of impotence: Kavais Ko Viveda. " Sacred chant-
ers, who knows."

We see from these short extracts to what a height the reformer
of Evan had already raised himself, and how his eye had already
caught a glimpse of many of the mysteries of the metaphysical and
moral world; now, besides, his soul was agitated and troubled, !c

^1.:.

THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

807

up to that heaven which sent him no light. At the other extremity
of the world the greatest philosopher that China has produced, or
rather the greatest moralist, whose lessons she has preserved, Kong-
fii-tze, or, as we call him, Confucius was bearing witness to the impo-
tence of the mind of man to penetrate the secrets of heaven. To the
question which his disciples proposed as to the condition of the soul
on leaving this world, he replied by this despairing evasion: "We do
not even know life; how can we know death?" How many souls at all
times, and in all parts of the world, have been tortured by the same
perplexities. What age has ever ccnmted more than ours?

It has been said with incontestible truth that history is the great
teacher of peoples and of kings; religious principles the most assured
cannot guide us in all the acts of national life, many of which lie be-
yond religious control. Hut history is not composed of a series of
facts succeeding one another at hazard. It is the work, direct or in-
direct, of God, and according to the divine purpose ought certainly to
serve for the instruction of humanity. Now, among all the matters of
which history treats, is there a single one which, I will not say sur-
passes, but equals, yes, even apprt)aches, by the elevation of its object
and the importance of its results, the history of religious opinions and
precepts along through the ages?

If, then, the facts of the earthly temporal life of humanity teach it
lessons which it ought to store by with care in order to profit by them
and direct its actions, what fruits will it not have to gather in from the
happenings of its supernatural and inuuortal life? What dangers it
will escape, remembering the faults and errors of former generations
whose fatal consequences have been evils innumerable!

Does not man there learn only to resist that fever of ambition,
source of so many innovations, useless or hurtful to the peace of the
world, that pride which thinks to have found the solution of prob-
lems the most abstruse, the key to unlock the veiy heavens, if 1 may
so speak, and which burns to propagate mere fruits of the imagina-
tion at the risk of seeing the world ablaze, df)es not man, I say, reach
but this one conclusion, that the fruits of our studies ought to be held
at just so much value as they are prolific in beneficial results.

Besides, nothing is more proper to enlarge the intellectual hori-
zon, to give of every matter a just appreciation, which cuts off irre-
flective enthusiasm as well as unjustifiable prejudices. It teaches not
to attribute to one's self the monopoly of what others equally possess
and thus to employ argument whose recognized fallacy injures enor-
mously the cause one would defend. From history, too, each one re-
quires a more reasonable and scientific knowledge of his own belief.

What unlimited horizons these studies unfold before our eyes!
Where better learn to know the nature of the human mind, its powers
and their limitations, its weaknesses, with their varied causes, than in
this great book of the history of religions? What could better un-
veil to the eyes of the man of faith the action of that providence which
leads him in the midst of continual agitations and disposes of what he

i !

Hintory » h o
(ireat Teacher.

\ .

: r

mnn

308

THE HOJILD'S CONGRESS OF JiELIGIONS.

• i t-

1 11- ■

'■I I t I
f II a

■fiii

in:

Cli'dranil Ra-
tional Ht'licf.

has proposed, the power of the arm invisible and invincible which
chastises him for his faults by his own mistakes and lifts him up, saves
him from the perils which he has brought upon himself when he rec-
ognizes his weakness and his frailty?

Problem admirable and fearful, this providential commission of
the strangest intellectual adorations! What a spectacle, that of man
plunging into an abyss of error and misery because he has wished to
marcii alone to the conquest of truths beyond his reach!

When we see a whole people prostrating themselves before the
statue of a monarch whose mortal remains will be soon under ground,
the prey of the worms or enveloping with the fumes of their incense,
honoring with their homages the figure of a low animal which has to
attract notice only its brutal instincts, its strength and cruelty, who
would not implore of heaven delivering light to save humanity from
degradation so profound and so entirely debasing?

True, it is often most difficult to follow the designs of Providence
in their execution throughout the ages, but it is not always impossible
to divine, to guess at the secret. Have not the excesses of Greco-
Roman polytheism, for example, been committed in order to lead man
to a clearer and more rational belief? Its shameless immorality *to
make him desire a higher life?

It is evident, on the other hand, that in this kind of appreciation
it is necessary to take special count of civilized peoples, of those whose
intelligence has attained a certain degree of development, and only
very little of those unfortunate tribes which have hardly anything
more of man than the bodily form. I come, then, to consider the im-
portant side of the stuily of religion, that is to say, the results it has
to the present day proiiuced, and what it is called upon to produce in
the future.

How many points cleared up in a few years, thanks to the control
exercised uj^on the first explorers in this field by those who came after
them, and who had no ready-made system to defend! This is spe-
cially true for two concepts, upon which we shall principally dwell, the
nature of religion and its origin. What is it that has not been said
upon these great cpiestions? It has, in fact, been demonstrated that
religion is not a creation of the mind of man, still less of a wandering
imagination decei\ed by phantoms, but that it is a principle which im-
poses itself upon him e\ery\vhere and always and in spite of himself,
which comes back again violently into life at the moment it was
thought to be stifled, which, try as one may to cast it off from him,
enters again as it were into man by his every pore.

There is no jjeople without a religion, how low soever it may be
in the scale of civilization. If there be any in whom the religious idea
seems extinct, though this cannot be certainly shown, it is because
their intelligence has come to that degree of degradation in which it
has no longer anything human save the capacity of being lifted to
something higher. The explanations that have been offered of the
religious sentiment inborn in man might be qualified as "truly curious
and amusing were it not a question of matters so grave."

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

309

For some it is unreflecting instinct. Be it so; but wherever came
this instinct? Doubtless from nature. And nature, what is it? It is
reality, as we have said. True instinct docs not deceive. For others,
religion arises from the need man experiences of relationship with R,.iirionH
superior beings. Correct again; but how has man conceived the notion Si-ntiment in-
of beings superior to himself if there are none, and whence arises that ^'"'■" '" '*•""•
natural need which his heart feels, if it has its roots in nothing, a non-
entity Kx nihilo" nihil, from nothing, nothing comes. Shall I speak
of the "celestial harmony which charms the soul and lifts it into an
ideal world," of "those visions which float through the imagination
of man,'' and of other like fane" s? No, it would be to waste incon-
siderately the time of my honored hearers too precious to be taken up
by such trifles. Let us merely note this fact tuUy attested today.
Religious sentiments and concepts are innate in man They enter into
the constitution of his nature, which itself comes from its author and
master; they impose themselves as a duty upon man, as the declara-
tion of universal conscience attests. The idea of a being superior to
humanity, its master, comes from the very depths of human nature and
is rendered sensible to the intellect by the spectacle of the umverse.
No reasonable mind can suppose that this vast world has of itself cre-
ated or formed itself. This is so true that men of science, the most
hostile to religion, the moment they perceive some evidence of design
upon a stone, however deeply imbedded in the earth, themselves pro-
claim that man has passed here.

"It is fear that hath made the gods," said a Latin poet, already
two thousand years ago. No, say others, it is a mere tendency to at-
tribute a soul to whatever moves itself. You are mistaken, says a third;
it is reverence for deceased ancestors which caused their descendants yet
remaining upon earth to regard them as superior beings. You are all
astray, exclai:'is a fourth voice; a religion does not arise from any one
or other of these or like causes in particular, but from all taken to-
gether Fear, joy, illusions, nocturnal visions, the nio\cnicnts of the
stars, etc., have all contributed something, each its own part.

It is not oar task to set forth these different opinions, still less to
criticise them We cannot, however, paNS in silence, till of late uni-
versally in vogue in the free-thinking camp, a system whose founda- u!>rootB(i by
tions historical studies have uprooted. I speak of the theory which "tJ,ji„H ■"''■" '
has borrowed its process from the Darwinian system of evolution, the
system of perpetual progress. If y(ni would believe its authors and
defenders, primitive humanity have no religious sentiment, not the
least notion that raised it above material nature. Hut, fcoiing in him-
self a living principle, man attributed the same to whate\er moved
about him, and thence arose fetichism and animism.

After the first stage of fetichism and animism man would have
considered separately the living principles of the beings to which he
had attributed it, and this separation would have given rise to tlie be-
lief in spirits. These spirits, growing upon the popular imagination,
would have become gods, to whom, ultimately, after the fashion of

iim

310

T//E WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

i 'I!

■ m

A Grain of
Truth Want-
ing.

earthly empires, they would have given a head. These gods would
have at first been exclusively national, then a universal empire would
have been imagined, and national religions would have at length
ended as a last effort of the human mind in universal religions.

Here, indeed, we have an edifice wonderfully planned and per-
fectly constructed. This would appear still more plainly were we to
describe in detail all its parts. Unfortunately, one thing is wanting —
one thing only, but essential — that is a little grain of truth. Not only
is the whole of it the fruit of hypothesis without foundation in facts,
but religious studies have demonstrated all and each of its Jetails to
be false.

The examples of Egypt, of India and of China, especially, have
demonstrated that monotheism real, though imperfect, preceded the
luxuriant mythologies whose development astonishes, but is only too
easily explained. In Egypt the divinity was first represented by the
sun; the different phases of the great luminary were personified and
deified. In the most ancient portions of Aryan India the personality
of Varuna, with his immutable laws, soars above the figures of India
and the other devas who have in great part dethroned him, just as the
Jupiter of Greece supplanted the more ancient Pelagian Ouranas.
Among these two last people, it is true, monotheism is at its lowest
degree; but in China, on the contrary, it shows itself much less imper-
fect than elsewhere and even with relative purity. Shang-ti is almost
the God of the spiritualist philosophy. These facts, we may easily con-
ceive, are exceedingly embarrassing for the adherent of the evolutionary
theory, but they worm out of the difficulty in a manner that provokes
both sadness and a smile. The thesis of national divinities everywhere
preceding the universal divinities is not more solidly grounded. For
neither. Varuna nor Brahma nor Shang-ti nor Tengri ever saw their
power limited by their devotees to a single country. The theory that
fear or ancestral worship gave birth to the gods received in China the
most formal contradiction. In fact, at the very first appearance of this
first great empire upon the scene of history, the supreme deity was
already considered as the father, the mother, not only of the faithful,
but of the entire human race, and the first to receive worship among
the dead were not departed relatives but kings and ministers, bene-
factors of the people. That it is gratitude which has inspired this
worship is expressly affirmed in the Chinese ritual.

It remain:, for us to say a few words about these conditions. The
first is clearly that enunciated In our program. These studies ought
to be serious and strictly scientific. They should be based upon strict
logic and a thorough knowledge of the original sources. Too long
have would-be adepts been given over to fantastic speculations, every-
where seeking an apology for either faith or incredulit" Too long
have they limited themselves to superficial views, to sumi. ry glimpses,
dwelling with complacency upon whatever might favor a pet system.
Or else they have been content with documents of second hand whose
authors themselves had but an imperfect knowledge of who they pre-
tended to treat as masters.

mim»

7'ff£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

311

We may easily understand that in order to be able to choose
among them all, and to distinguish the sources, it is necessary to know
thoroughly the language and the history, both political and literary,
of the people whose religions one would investigate and expose. It is
necessary to be a specialist and a specialist competent in this special
matter. It is only when the work of such authorized and impartial
specialist has been done, the others will be able to draw from the
waters which they have collected. Hov many errors fatal to true
science have been propagated by men too prone to generalize?

This leads us to consider the second condition for the serious
study of the comparative history of religion. It is the necessity of
penetrating one's self with the spirit of the people who form the object
of particular research. It is necessary, asit were, to think with their ^J^^ xhe'i^
minds and to see with their eyes, making entire abstraction of one's Minds,
own ideas, under pain of seeing everything in a false light as one sees
nature through a colored glass and of forming of foreign religious
ideas the most erroneous and often even the most unjust.

' i

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sii»«ii»«U^,.,

il '1

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Swedenborg and the H^^^iony of Religions.

Paper by REV. L. P. MERCER, of Chicago.

i
I

iKFORK the closing of this grand historic as-
sembly with its witness to the worth of every
form of faith by which men worship God and
seek communion with Him, one word more
needs be spoken, one more testimony defined,
one more hope recorded.

Kvery voice has witnessed to the recogni-
tion of a new age. An age of inquiry, expec-
tation and experiment has dawned. New in-
ventions are stirring men's hearts, new ideals
inspire their arts, new physical achievements
beckon them on to one marvelous 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, be-
fore men had yet dreamed of its possibility, and referred its causes to
great movements 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 ,A, Rnypi'itor
and seers rather than with inquirers and speculators; a revelator rather Preacher,
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 hon-
ored and respected in the present, and awaits the thoughtful study,
which the expansion and culmination of the truth and the organic
course of events, will bring with tomorrow; "the permeating and
formative influence "of whose teachings in the religious belief and
life of today, in Christendom, is commonly admitted; who subscribed

813

314

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIOIONS.

Ahead of His
Goaeration.

\'\

with his name on the last of his Latin quartos — Emanuel Swcdcnborg,
" servant of the Lord Jesus Christ."

That Swedenborg was the son of a Swedish bishop, a scholar, a
practical engineer, a man of science, a philosopher and a seer, who
lived between 1683 and 1772, is generally known. That the first fifty
years of his remarkable life, devoted to the pursuit of natural learning
and independent investigation in science and philosophy, illustrates
the type of man in which our age believes is generally con-
ceded. Learned, standing far ahead of his generation; exact, trained
in mathematical accuracy and schooled to observation; practical, see-
ing at once some useful application of every new discovery; a man of
affairs, able to take care of his own and bear his part in the nation's
councils; aspiring, ignoring no useful application, but content with no
achievement short of a final philosophy of causes; inductive, taking
nothing for granted but facts of experiment, and seeking to ascend
therefrom to a generalization which shall explain them — this is the sort
of man which in our own day 'we consider sound and useful. Such
was the man who, at the age of fifty-six, in the full maturity of his
powers, declares that " he was called to a holy office by the Lord,
who most graciously manifested himself to me in person, and opened
my sight to a view of the spiritual world and granted me the privilege
of conversing with spirits and angels." "From that day forth," he
says, " I gave up all worldly learning, and labored '^nly in spiritual
things according to what the Lord commanded me to write."

He tells us that, while in the body, yet in a state of seership, and
thus able to note the course of events in both worlds, and locate the
stupendous transactions in the spiritual world in earthly time, he wit-
nessed a last judgment in the world of spirits in 1757, fulfilling in every
respect the predictions in the Gospel and in the Apocalypse; that he
beheld the Lord open in all the Scriptures the things concerning Him-
self, revealing in their eternal sense the divine meaning, the whole
course and purpose of His providence, organizing a new heaven of
angels out of every nation and kindred and tongue, and co-ordinating
it with the a; cient and most ancient heavens for the inauguration of a
new dispen5;ation of religion, and of the church universal; and that
this new dispensation began in the spiritual world, is carried down and
inaugurated among men by the revelation of the spiritual sense and
divine meaning of the sacred Scriptures, in and by means of which he
makes his promised second advent, which is spiritual and universal, to
gather up and complete all past and partial revelations, to consummate
and crown the dispensations and churches which have been upon the
earth.

The Christian world is incredulous of such an event, and for the
m>. . part heedless of its announcement. But that does not much
signify, except as it makes one with the whole course of history, as
to the reception of divine announcements. What prophet was ever
welcomed until the event had proved his message? The question is
not whether it meets the expectation of men; not whether it is what

ences
turnel

somel
tholol
religif
time

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

315

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 antici-
pate, but they always provide what men need. And the appeal to the
Parliament of Religions, in behalf of the revelation announced from
heaven, is in its ability to prove its divinity by outreaching abundantly
all human forecast whatsoever. Does it throw its light over the past,
and into the present, and project its promise into the future? Docs it
illuminate and unify history, elucidate the conflicting movements of
today, 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 its spirit, scope
and purpose. There is one God and one church. As God is one, the
human race, in the complex movements 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 manhood in the individ-
ual. As the one God is the Father of all. He has witnessed Himself
in every age according to its s.ate 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 lawgiver 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 concerning and embodying all in the Hebrew
Scriptures, fulfilling that in His own person, and now opening His divine
mind in all that Scripture, the religions of the world are to be restored
to unity, purified and perfected in Him.

Nor is this word Swedenborgian, 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 correspondence of
natural with spiritual things, and that they contain an internal spirit-
ual sense treating of the providence of God in the dispensations of
the church and of the regeneration and spiritual life of the soul. Be-
fore Abraham there was the church of Noah, and before the word of
Moses there was an ancient word, written in allegory and correspond-
ences, which the ancients understood and loved, but in process 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 representatives and allegories, in Scriptures and my-
thologies, from which have conv; the truths and fables of the oriental
religions, modified according to nations and peoples, and revived from
time to time in the teachings of leaders and prophets.

Catholicity of
Sweden bor^'H
Teachings.

816

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

anil Hymbols,

Myt

:i I /'

From the same ancient word Moses derived, under divine direc-
tion, the early chapters of Genesis, and to this in the order of Provi-
dence was added the Law and the Prophets. The history of the in-
carnation and the prophecy of a final judgment of God, all so written
as to contain an integral spiritual sense, corresponding with the latter,
but distinct from it as the soul corresponds with the body, and is dis-
tinct and transcends it. It is the opening of this internal sense in all
the Holy Scriptures and not any addition to their final letter which
constitutes the new and needed revelation of our day. The science
of correspondences is the key which unlocks the Scriptures and dis-
closes their internal contents. The same key opens the Scriptures of
the orient and traces them back to their source in primitive revela-
tion.

If it shows that their myths and representatives have been mis-
understood, misrepresented and misapplied, 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 understanding for the separation of truth from error. The
same rational life and science of interpretation 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 Swcdcnborg reveals errors and supersitions 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 of 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 meaning 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 Scriptural depths, the divine sanction to all the
rest and gathers their strains into its sublime symphony of revela-
tion.

So much as 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, internally 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 anyone so believes and so lives
from a principle 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 "whom-
soever in any nation feareth God and worketh righteousness is ac-
cepted of Him." If he sets forth Jesus Christ as the only wise God, in

est
of
woil
opt

der
wh(
res

the
pre
poil

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

317

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 personal God, our Father and Saviour. If he sum-
mons all prophets 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 out.
If he 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 ac-
cording to 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 resur-
rection of the material body.

If he teaches the necessity of regeneration and union with God,
so also does he show that the subjugation and quiesence of self is the
true "Nirvana," opening consciousness to the divine life and confer-
ring the peace of harmony with God.

If he teaches that man needs the spirit of God for the subjugation
of self, he teaches that the spirit 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 suffi-
cient, but faith which worketh by love.

If he denies that salvation is of favor, or immed.ate mercy, and
affirms that it is vital and the effect of righteousness, he also teaches
that the divine righteousness is imparted vitally to him that 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 be-
cause man enters a spiritual world after death, in a spiritual body and
personality, and in an environment in which his ruling love is devel-
oped, his ignorance enlightened, his imperfections removed, his good
beginnings perfected, until he 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 inter-
est in the teachings of this great apostle, who, claiming to be called
of the Lord to open 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 of illimitable spiritual progress.

The most unimpassioned of men, perhaps because he so well un-
derstood 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 liberty that calmly awaits the truth-seekers. If the re-
ligions of the worlf* become disciples then, it will not be proselytism
that will take them there, but the organic course of events in that
providence which works on, silent but mighty, like the forces that
poise planets and gravitate among the stars.

Present history shows the effect of unsuspected causes. This par-

All that is of
Valau in Kelig-
ion.

818

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

II.. {

liament of religions is itself a testimony to unseen spiritual causes, and
should at least incline to belief in Swedcnborg's testimony, that a way
is open, both in the spiritual world and on earth, for a universal church
in the faith of one visible God in Whom is the invisible, imparting
eternal life and enlightenment to all from every nation who believe in
Him and work righteousness.

! i k

t *'

% i I

Harmonies and Distinctions in the The-
istic 1 eaciiings of the Various Historic

Faiths.

Paper by PROF. M. VALENTINE.

N calling attention to the "Harmonies and Dis-
tinctions in the Theistic Teachings of the Vari-
ous Historic Faiths," I must, by very neces-
sity of the case, speak from the Christian stand-
point. This standpoint is tc me synonymous
with the very truth itself I cannot speak as
free from prepossessions. This, however, does
not mean any unwillingness nor, I trust, in-
^^^^^^^^^ ability to see and treat with sincerest candor

\n/^^^B^^Bt^ ^"'^ genuine appreciation the truth that may be
. M^^B^^KK^ found in each and all of the various theistic

conceptions which reason and Providence may
have enabled men anywhere to reach. Un-
doubtedly, some rays from the true divine
"Light of the World" have been shiningthrougli
reason, and reflected from "the things that
arc made" everywhere and at all times, God never nor in any place
leaving Himself wholly without witness. And though we now and
here stand in the midst of the high illumination of what we accept
as supernatural revelation, we rejoice to recognize the truth which may
have come into view from other openings, blending with the light of
God's redemptive self-manifestation in Christianity.

It is not necessary prejudice to truth anywhere when from this
standpoint I am further necessitated, in this comparative view, to take
the Christian conception as the standard of comparison and measure-
ment. We must use some standard if we are to proceed discriminat-
ingly or reach any well defined and consistent conclusions. Simply to
compare different conceptions with one another, without the unifying
light of some accepted rule of judging, or at least of reference, can
never lift the impression out of confusion or fix any valuable points of

319

Standard fni
ConsistentCou
clarions.

820

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

l::U

I I 1

I \

Tho Truth
(lluurly HtH'U.

Theistic Fnitlis
«if Men.

il '. J'

truth. Only to hold our eye to the varied shifting colors and combina-
tions of the kiilcidoscope can brinjf no satisfactory or edifying; conclu-
sion. To the Chiistian's comparative view of the " historic faiths " other
than his own necessarily thus ranges them under his own Christian
canons of juilgment, means no exclusion or obscuration of the light,
but merel)' fi.xes the leading parallelism of its fall, securing consistency
aiul clearness of presentation, a presentation under which not only the
harmonies and distinctions, but the actual truth, may be most clearly
and fairl)- seen.

The phrase "theistic teaching, ' in the statement of the subject of
this paper, I understand, in its broadest sense, as referring to the whole
conception concerning (iod, including the very tpiestion of His being,
and therefore applicable to systems of thought, if any such there be,
that in philosophic reality are atheistic. In this sense teachings on the
subject of Deity or "the divine" are "theistic," though they negative
the reality of God, and so may come legitimately into our comparative
view. And yet, we are to bear in mind, it is onl>' the "theistic" teach-
ing of the historic faiths, not their whole religious view, that falls under
the intention of this paper. The subject is special, restricting us spe-
cifically to their ideas about God.

At the outset we need to remind ourselves of the exceeding diffi-
culty of the comjiarison, or of precise and llrm classification of the
theistic faiths of mankind. They are all, at least all the ethnic faiths,
developments or evolutions, having undergone various and immense
changes. Their evolutions amount to re\olutioiis in some cases. They
arc not permanently marked by the same features, and will not admit
the same i)redicates at different times. Some are found to differ more
from themselves in their history than from one another. There is such
an inter-crossing of principles and manifold forms of representation as
to lead the most learned specialists into tlisputes and opposing con-
clusions, and render a scientific characterization and classification im-
possible. The most and best that call be done is to bring the teach-
ings of the historic religions in this particular into comparison as to
five or six of the fundamental anti must distinctive features of theistic
conception. Their most vital points of likeness and difference will
thus appear. It will be enough t(' include in the comparison, besides
Christianity, the religions of ancient Greece and Rome, of old Egypt,
Indian Hinduism or more exactly Hrahmanism, Persian Parseeism or
Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Chinese Confucianism, Celtic Druidism, the
Norse or Teutonic mythology and Mahonmiedanism, with incidental
reference to some less prominent religions. I class Judaism as the
early stage of unfolding Christianity.

Adopting this method, therefore, of comparing them under
the light of a few leading features oc elements of the theistic view, we
begin with that which is most fundamental — belief in the existence of
God, or of what we call "the divine," Deity, some higher power to which
or to whom men sustain relations of dependence, obligation and hope.
This is the bottom point, the question underlying all other questions

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

321

•yMO-

T)ie Fiinda-
mental and

in rclitjioiis belief: Does ii God exist? And here it is assuring; a
wuiulerliil harmony is found. All the historic faiths, save perhaps one,
rest on belief of some divine existence or existences to be acknowl-
ed^fed, feared or pleased. It seems to be part of the relij^ious instinct
of the race. And the intellect ct)ncurs in fostering and developing
the belief. History, ethnology and philology not only suggest, but
amply prove, that the idea of (lod, of some power or powers above,
upon V horn man depends and to whom he must answer, is so normal
to human reason in the presence and experience of the phenomena
of nature and liie, that it is developed wherever man's condition is
high enough for the action of his religious nature at all.

"God" 1/. the fundamental and constructive idea, and it is the
greatest and m<jst vital idea of humanity. Hut the harmony of the
world's religious faiths in this positive theistic teaching is, according
to prevailing interpretation, broken in the case of Huddhism. Thi.s
ai)peais to be atheistic, a religion, or rather a philosophy, of life, with-
out a deity or even the apotheosis of nature. Many things, however,
incline me to the view of those interpreters who deny, or at least doubt, "onBtrucu'vH
the totally atheistic character of Huddhism. For instance, it is rooted ^"^®''"
in the earlier pantheistic Hindu faith, and has historically developed
a cult with temples and prayers. In the face of these and other things,
only the most positive evidence can put its total atheism beyond tjues-
tion. Gautama's work of reform, which swept away the multitudinous
divinities of the popular theology, may not have been a denial of God,
even as Socrates alleged atheism was not, but rather an overthrow of
the prevalent gross polytheism in the interest of a truer and more
spiritual conception, tlunigh it may haw been a less definite one of the
divine being.

And may we not justly distinguish between Buddhism as a mere
j)hilosophy of life or conduct and Buddhism as a religion, with its
former nature-gods swept awaj', and the replacing better conception
only obscurely and inadequately brought out? At least it is certain
that its teaching was not dogmatic atheism, a formal denial of God,
but marked rather by the negative attitude of failing positively to
recognize and affirm the divine existence. The divergence in this
case is undoubtedly less of a discord than has often been supposed.
There are cases of atheism in the midst of Christian lands, the out-
come of bewilderment through speculative philosophies. They may
even spread widely and last long. They, however, count but little
against the great heart and intellect of mankind, or even as gi /ing a
definite characteristic to the religion in the midst of which they appear.
And they lose sway, even as the Buddhist philosophy, in becoming a
religion that has had to resume recognition of deity. And it is some-
thing grand and inspiring that the testimony of the world's religions
from ail around the horizon and down the centuries is virtually unan-
imous as to this first great principle in theistic teaching. It is the
strong and ceaseless testimony of the great deep heart and reason of
mankind. Nay, it is God's own testimony to His being, voiced
through the religious nature and life made in His image.

31»'2

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

\\\\

' I '

But let these vari )iis religions be compared in the light of a second
principle in tlieistic teaching — that of monotheism. Here it is start-
Discordantly JiifJ to find how terribly the idea of God, whose existence is so unan-
Poiytheistic. iniously owned, has been misconceived and distorted. For, taking the
historic faiths in their fully developed form, only two, Christianity and
Mohammedanism, present a pure and maintained monotheism. Zoro-
astrianism cannot be counted in here, though at first its Ahriman, t>r
cvil spirit, was not conceived of as a (jod, it afterward lapsed into
theological dualism and practical pohtheism. All the rest arc pre-
vailingly and discordantly polytheistic. They move off into endless
multiplicity of divinities and grote.>que degradations of their char-
acter. 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 i)rincipal historic faiths back of their
stages and conditions of luxuriantly developed polytheism the existence
of an early or possibly, though not certainly, primitive monotheism.
This point, I know, is strongly contested, especially by many whose
views are determin«xl by acceptance of the evolutionist hypothesis of
the derivative origin of the human race. Hut it seems to me that the
evidence, as made clear through the true historical method of investi-
gation, is decisive for monotheism as the earliest known form of theistic
conception in the religions of Egypt, China, India and the original
Druidism, as well as of the two faiths already classed as asserting the
divine unity.

Polytheisms are found to lie actual growths. Tracing them back
they become simpler and simpler. "The yoimger the polytheism the
fewer the gods," until a stage is reached where (jod 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 affirmation,
"There is a God," going before the affirmation 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 de-
praved humanity to corrupt the idea oi (lod and multiply imaginary
and false divinities, there are forces th.'it act for correction and im-
provement. The human soul has been formed for the one true and
only (}od. Where r'Mson is highly devel()|)eil and the testing powers
of the intellect and conscience are earnestly applietl to the problems
of existence and duty, these grotesque and gross polytheisms prove
unsatisfactory.

In the higher ascents of civilization faith in the mythologic
divinities is undermined and weakened. Men of lofty genius arise,
men of finer ethicai intuitions and higher religious sense and aspira-
tion and better conceptions of the power by and in which men live and

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

323

move arc reached and a reformation comes. This is illustrated in the
epocli-makiii<j teaching;:: of Confucius in China, of Zoroaster in
i'ersia, of Gautama in India u'ui of Socrates, Plato, Cicero and kindred
spirits in ancient (Ircece and Rome. In their profounder and more
rational intpiirics these, and such as these, have pierced the darkness
and confusit)!! aiul cauLjht sure vision of the one true eternal God
above all tj;ods, at once explaininfif the sip^nificance of them all and
reducini^ all but the one to myths or symbols. Polytheism, which has
put its stani]) so neneraiiy on the historic faiths, has not held them in
undisputed, full, uni)roken sway.

Takiiiij these moilifx-iiii,^ facts into account, the testimony of these
faiths to the unity of (iod is found to be far larger and stronger than
at fust view it seemed. l'"or neither Christianity, with its Old Testa-
ment beginning, nor Mohammedanism, has been a small thing in the
world. They ha\e spoken for the divine unity for ages, and voiced it
far through the earth. And unquestionably the faith of the few grand
sages, the great thinkers of the race, who, by "The world's great altar
stairs that slo[)e through darkness up to God," have risen to clear views
of the sublime, eternal truth of the divine unity, is worth ten thousand
times more, as an illumination and authority for correct faith, than the
ideas and practice of the ignorant and unthinking millions that have
crowded the polytheistic worships.

Ikit of the two fouiul, purely monotheistic Christianity has unique
characteristics. Its witness is original anil independent, not derived
as that of Islam, which adopted it from Judaic and Christian teaching. uniqneChur-
It 's trinitarian, teacliiiig a triune mystery of life in the one infinite act«riHtics.
and eternal (iod, as o\er against Islam's repudiation of this mystery.
The trinities detected in the other religions have nothing in common
with the C^hristian teaching save the use of the number three. And it
stands accredited, iu)t as a mere evolution of rational knowledge, a
scientific discovery, but as a supernatural revelation, in which the
Internal (^ne Himself says to the world: "I am God, and beside Me
there is none."

Hut we pass to another point of comparison in the principle of
personality. Under this principle the religions of the world fall
into two classes -those v.hich conceive of God as an intelligent be-
ing, acting in freedom, and those that conceive of Him pantheistically
as the sum of nature or the impersonal energy or soul of all things*.
In Christian teaching God is a ])ersonal being with all the attributes or
predicates tiiat enter into the concept of such being. In the Christian
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments this conception i.T never
for a mcjinent lf)wered or obscured, (iod, though immanent in nature,
filling it with 1 lis presence and power, is yet its creator and preserver,
keeping it subject to 1 lis will and purposes, never confounded or identi-
fied with it. He is the infim'te, absolute personality.

The finding of this feature of teaching in the other historic religions
depends on the period or stage of development at which we take them.
In the polytheistic forms of all grades of development we are bewil-

■ ■> V

^ lu lm ^M m kK :

'in

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

\ \

% > <

I 1 f ■

:l-

Human Foci.
iun of ]{('l|i-
lessnt't^H,

dcrod by the immense diversity in which, in this particular, the objects of
worship are conceived, from the intense anthropomorphism that makes
the [j^ods but mii^hty men or apotheosized ancestors, down through
endless personifications of the powers and operations to the lowest
forms of fetichism. Largely, however, their theistic thought includes
the notion of personality, and so a point of fellowship is established
between the worshiper and his gods. But we have to do mainly with
the monotheistic faiths or periods of faith. In the early belief of
Egypt, of China, of India, in the teaching of Zoroaster, of Celtic Dru-
idisMi, of Assyrian and Babylonian faith, and in the best intuition of
the Greek and Roman philosophers, without doubt, God was appre-
hended as a personal God Indeed, in almost the whole world's relig-
ious thinking this element of true theistic conception has had more or
less positi\e recognition and maintenance. It seems to have been
spontaneously and necessarily demanded by the religious sense and
life.

The human feeling of helplessness and need called fo»- a God who
could hear and understand, feel and act. y\nd 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 i)urposc in nature speaking to men's hearts and reason led up
to the grand truth that the Maker of all is a Thinker, and both knows
and wills. i\nd so a relation of trust, fellowship and intercourse was
found and recognized. None of the real feelings of worship, love, de-
votion, gratitude, consecration, could live and act simply in the pres-
ence of an impersonal, unconscious, fateful energy or order of nature.
No consistent hope of a conscious personal future life can be estab-
lished except as it is rooted ip faith in a personal Goil.

And yet the personality of God has often been much obscured in
the historic faiths. The observation has not come as a natural and
spontaneous product of the religious impulse or consciousness, but of
mj-stic speculative philosophies. The phenomenon presented by
.Si)inozism and later pantheisms, in the presence of Christianity, was
substantially anticipated again and again, ages ago. in the midst ot
x'arious 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 Druidism is substan-
tially pantheistic, reducing God to impersonal existence or the con-
scious factors and forces of cosmic order. It marks some of these
more strongly and injuriously than others.

How far do the religions harmonize in including crcational relation
and activity in their conception of God? In Christianity, as you
know, the notion of creatorship is inseparable from the divine idea.
"In the beginning (jod created." Creator is another name for Him.
How is it in t' e polytheistic mythologies? The conception is thrown
into inextricable confusion. In some, as in the early Greek and
Roman, the heavens and the earth are eternal, and the gods, even the
highest, are their offspring. In advancing stages and fuller pantheons,

7'ffE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

825

almost everywhere, the notion of creatorship emerges in coimection
with the mythologic divinities. In the monotheisms, wlicther the
earlier or tnose reached in philosophic periods, it is clear and unequiv-
ocal — in China, India, Egypt, Persia and the Druidic teaching.

Pantheistic thought, however, while it offers accounts of world
origins, confuses or overthrows real creational action by various pro-
cesses of divine and self-unfolding, in which God and the universe are
identified and either the divine is lost in the natural, or nature itself is
God. The pantheism seems to lesolve itself sometimes into atheism;
sometimes into acosmism. But while the creative attribute seems to
appear in some way and measure in all the historic religions, I have
found no instance apart from Christianity and its derivatives in which
creatio e.x nihilo, or absolute creation, is taught. This is a distinction
in whic.h Christianity must be counted as fairly standing alone.

A point of high importance respects the inclusion of the ethical
attribute in the notion of God and the divine government. To what
extent do they hold Him, not only a governor, but a moral governor,
whose will enthrones righteousness and whose administration aims at
moral character and the blessedness of ethical order and excellence?
The comparison on this point reveals some strange phenomena. In
the nature-worships and polytheistic conditions there is found an almost
complete disconnection between religion and morality, the rituals of
worship not being at all adjusted to the idea that the gods were holy,
sin-hating, pure and righteous. The grossest anthropomorphisms have
prevailed, and almost every passion, vice, meanness and wrong found
among men were paralleled in the nature and actions of the gods,
Often their very worship has been marked b\' horrible and degrading
rites. But as human nature carries in itself a moral constitution and
the reason spontaneously acts in the way of moral distinctions, judg-
ments and demands, it necessarily, as it advanced in knowledge, crctN
ited the objects of its worship with more or less of the moral qualities
it required in men. The moral institutions and demands could not
act with clearness and force in rude and uncivilized men and peoples,
The degrees of ethical elements in their conceptio.. of the gods
cflected the less or greater development of the moral life that evolved
the theistic ideas.

But whenever the religious faith was monotheistic, and especially
in its more positive and clearer forms, the logic of reason and con-
science lifted thought into clear and unequivocal apprehension of the
Supreme Being as the power whose government makes for righteous-
ness. Finely and impressively does this attribute come to view in the
teacliiinjs of the faith of the ancient Egyptians, of Confucianism, of
Zoroastrianism, of Druidism, and of the theism of the Greek and
Roman sages. But Brahmanism, that mighty power of the east, though
it abounds in moral precepts and virtuous maxims and rules of life,
fails to give these a truly religious or theistic sanction by any clear
assurance that the advancement or triumph of the right and good is
the aim of the divine government. Indeed, the pantheistic thought of

C'rcntional
Relation.

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T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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Moral Attri-
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that system obliterating the divine personality leaves scarcely any
room for a moral purpose, or any other purpose, in the cosmic energy.
And Buddhism, though largely a philosophical ethic only— however, of
the "good" sort — yet by its failure to make ])ositive assertion of a .Su-
preme Being, save simply as the infinite unknown behind nature, of
which (Brahma) nothing may be predicted except that it is, perceives
and is blessed, fails also, of course, to affirm any moral predicates for
its nature or movement. The ethics of life, divorced from religious
sanction, stand apart from theistical dynamics.

Christianity makes the moral attributes of God fundamental. His
government and providence have a supreme etliical aim, the over-
throw of sin with its disorder and misery, and the making of all things
new in a kingdom in which righteousness shall dwell. Anil we rejoice
to trace from the gi t natural religions rountl the globe how generally,
and sometimes inspi>i this grand feature of true tlieism has been

discerned and used for uplifting of character and life, furnishing a

testimony obscured or biuken only by the crudest fetichisnis, or low-
est polytheisms, or by pantheistic teachings that reduce God to imper-
sonality where the concept of moral character becomes inapplicable.

But a single additional feature of theistic teaching can be brought
into this comparative view. How far do the \arious religions include
in their idea of God redemptive relation and administration? .Some
comparativists, as you are aware, class two of them as religions of re-
demption or deliverance — Buddhism and Christianity. But if 15ud-
dhism istobe so classed, there is no reason for not including Brahman ism.
For, as Prof. Max Miiller has so clearly shown. Buddhism rests upon
and carries forward the same fundamental conceptions of the world
and human destiny and the way of its attainment. Tiic>' both start
with the fact that the condition of man is unhappy through his own
errors, and set forth a way of deliverance or salvation. l?oth connect
this state of misery with the fundamental doctrine of metempsychosis,
innumerably repeated incarnations, or births and deaths, with a possi-
ble deliverance in a final absorption intii the rei)ose of absolute exist-
ence or cessation of conscious individualit\- Nirvana.

It is connected, too, in both, with a philosophy of the world that
pantheistically reduces God into impersonality, making the divine but
the ever-moving course of nature. And the deliverance conies as no
free gift, gracious help or accomplishment of (iod, but an issue that a
man wins for himself by knowledge, ascetic repression of desire and
self-reduction out of conscious inilividuality, re-absorption into j)rimal
being. God is not conceived of as a being of redeeming love and loving
activity. A philosophy of self-redemi)tion is substituted for faith and
surrender to a redeeming god. As I understand it, it is a philosophy
that pessimistically condemns life itself as an evil and misfortune to
be escaped from and to be escaped by self-redemption, because life
finds no saving in God. And so these faiths cannot fairly be said to
attribute to God redemptive character ami administration.

Christianity stands, therefore, as the only faith that truly and

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

327

fully conceives of God In redcmptory rulershlp and activity. In this
faith "God is love," in deepest and most active sympathy with man.
While He rules for the maintenance and victory of lii^hteousness, He
uses, also, redeeming action for the same hi<^h ends— recovering the
lost to holiness. In this comes in the uni(iue supernatural character of
Christianity. It is not a mere evolution of natural religious intuitions.
Even as a revelation, it is not simply an ethic or a jihilosophy of happy
life. Christianity stands fundamentally and essentially for a course
of divine redemptive action, the incoming presence and activity of the
supernatural in the world and time.

Let us fix this clearly in mind, as its distinction among all relig-
ions, causing it to stand apart and alone. From the beginning of the
Old Testament to the end of the New it is a disclosure in record of
what God in grace has done, is doing, and will do, for the deliverance,
recovery and eternal salvation from sin of lai^sed, sin-enslaved human-
ity. It is a supernatural redcmptory work and provision with an in-
spired instruction as to the way and duty of life. If Christianity be
not this, Christendom has been deluded. It is the religion ol the
divine love and help whiL-L the race needs and only God could give.

Let us sum up the results of this hurried Comparison. C)n the
fundamental point of affirming or implying the existence of God the
testimony is a rich harmony. To the monotheistic conception there
is strong witness from the chief earliest great historical re ligions— the
Egyptian, Chinese, Indian, original Zoroastrianism and Druidism,
obscured and almost lost in later growths of enormous jjolytheisms, till
restored there and elsewhere in greater or less degree under the better
intuitions of sages, including those of Greece and Rome. The divine
personality is witnessed to, though often under ihe rudest and most
distorted notions, by almost all religions, but darkened out of sight by
pantheistic developments in India, China, Druidism and among the
Greeks. Creational activity in some sense and measure has been
almost easy where inclutled in the idea of God; but creatio ex nihilo
seems peculiar to Christianity. The attribution of ethical attributes to
(iod has varied in degrees accoiding to thecivilization and culture of the
tribes anil nations ortheir religious leaders made inconsistent here and
there by pantheistic theories Christianity, however, giving the moral
idea supreme emphasis. And finally, redeeming love and effort in redemp-
tion from moral evil is clearly asserted only in the Christian teaching.

The other historic faiths have grasped some of the great essential
elements of theistic truth. We rejoice to trace and recognize them. But
they all shine forth in Christian revelation. As I see it, the other his-
toric beliefs have no elements of true theistic conception to give to
Christianity that it has not, but Christianity has much to give to the
others. It unites and consummates out of its own given light all the
theistic truth that has been sought and seen in partial vision by sincere
souls along the ages and round the world. And more, it gives what
they have not- a disclosure of God's redeeming love and action, pre-
senting to mankind the way, the truth and the life. And we joy to
hold it and offer it as the hope of the world.

Supernatnra
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Elements of Universal Religion.

Paper by DR. EMIL G. HIRSCH, of Chicago.

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MK dominion of religion is co-cxtcnsive with the
confines of humanity. For man is by nature
not only, as Aristotle puts the case, the politi-
cal — he is as clearly the religious creature.
Religion is one of the natural functions of the
human soul; it is one of the natural conditions
>^^^Bt 'Wiggum ^^ human, as distinct from mere animal life.
/' ip^HL, ■ 'MpBil^ To this proposition ethnology and sociology

bear abundant testimony. Man alone in the
wide sweep of creation builds altars. And
wherever man may tent there also will curve
upward the burning incense of his sacrifice or
the sweeter savor of his aspirations after the
better, the diviner light. However rude the
form of society in which he moves, or however
refined and complex the social organism, re-
fails to be among the determining forces one of the most
potent. It, under all types of social architecture, will be active as one
of the decisive influences rounding out individual life and lifting it
into significance for and under the swifter and stronger current of the
social relations. Climatic and historical accidents may modify, and
do, the action of this all-pervading energy. But under every sky it is
vital and under all temporary conjunctures it is quick.

A man without religion is not normal. There may be those in
whom this function approaches atrophy. But they are undeveloped
or crippled specimens of the completer type. Their condition recalls
that of the color blind or the deaf. Can they contend that their defect
is proof of superiority? As well might those bereft of the sense of
hearing insist that because to them the reception of sound is denied
the universe around them is a vast ocean of unbroken silence. A
society without religion has nowhere yet been discovered. Religion
may then in very truth be said to be the universal distinction of man.
Still the universal religion has as yet not been evolved in the pro-
cession of the suns. It is one of the blessings yet to come. There are
now even known to men and revered by them great religious systems

329
22 ......

Vital ander
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T//E IVORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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which pretend to universah'ty. And who would deny that Buddhism,
Christianity and the faith of Islam present many of the characteristic
elements of the universal faith? In its ideas and ideals the relij^ion of
the prophets, notably as enlart;ed by those of the Babylonian exile,
also deserves to be numbered amonji; the proclamations of a wider out-
look and a hij^her uplook. These systems are no longer ethnic. They
thus, tlie three in full practice and the last mentioned in spiritual inten-
tion, have passed beyond some of the most notable limitations which
are fundamental in other forms created by the religious needs of man.
They have advanced far on the road leading to the ideal goal; and
modern man, in his quest for the elements of the still broader univer-
sal faith, will never again retrace his steps to go back to the mile-posts
these have left behind on their climb up the heights. The three
great religions have emancipated themselves from the bondage of
racial tests and national divisions. Race and nationality cannot cir-
cumscribe the fellowship of the larger communion of the faithful, a
communion destined to embrace in one covenant all the children of
man.

Race is accidental, not essential in manhood. Color is indeed
Acci- only skin deep. No caste or tribe, even were we to concede the
absolute purity of the blood flowing in their arteries, an assump-
tion which could in no case be verified by actual facts of the case,
can lay claim to superior sanctity. None is nearer the heart of
God than another. He certainly who takes his survey of iiuman-
ity from the outlook of religion and from this point of view
remembers the serious po.ssibilities and the sacred obligations of
human life cannot adopt the theory that spirit is the exponent of
animal nature. Yet such would be the conclusion if the doctrine
of chosen races and tribes is at all to be urged. The racial ele-
ment is merely the animal substratum of our being. Hrain and blood
may be crutches which the mind must use. But mind is always more
than the brain with which it works, and the soul's equation cannot be
solved in terms of the blood corpuscles or the pigment of the skin or
the shape of the nose or the curl of the hair.

Ezra with his insistence that citizenship in God's people is depend-
ent on -Abrahamitic pedigree, and therefore on the superior sanctity
which by very birth the seed of the patriarch enjoys as Zea Kodesh,
does not voice the broader and truer views of those that would proph-
esy of the universal faith Indeed, the apostles of Christianity after
Paul, the Pundits of Buddhism, the Imams of Islam and last, though
not least, the rabbis of modern Judaism, have abandoned the narrow
prejudice of the scribe. God is no respecter of persons. In His sight
it is the black heart and not the black skin, the crooked deed and not
the curved nose which excludes. National affinities and memories,
however potent for good and though more spiritual than racial bonds,
are still too narrow to serve as foundation stones for the temple of all
humanity.

The day of national religions is past. The God of the universe

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

331

speak? to all mankind. He is not the God of Israel alone, not that of
Moab, of KgyjJt, Greece or America. He is not domiciled in Pales-
tine. The Jordan and the Ganges, the Tiber and the Euphrates hold
water wherewith the devout may be baptized unto His service and re-
demption. "Whither shall I j^o from thy spirit? Whither flee from
thy presence?" exclaims the old Hebrew bard. And before his won-
derinjf gaze unrolled itself the awful certainty that the heavenly divis-
ions of morning and night were obliterated in the all-embracing sweep
of divine law and love. If the wide expanses of the skies and the
abysses of the deep cannot shut out from the divine presence, can the
pigmy barriers erected by man and preserved by political intrigues and
national pride dam in the mighty stream of divine love? The prophet
of Islam repeats the old 1 lebrew singer's joy when he says: "The East
is God's and the West is His," as indeed the apostle true to the spirit
of the prophetic message of Messianic Judaism refused to tolerate the
line of cleavage marked by language or national affinity. Greek and
Jew are invited by him to the citizenship of kingdom 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 to 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 forbidding stakes of a creed. Creeds in time to come will be rec-
ognized to be indeed cruel barbed wire fences, wounding those that
would stray to broader pastures 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 church's creed for that
still more presumptuous and deadening one of materialism which would
ask his acceptance of the hopeless perversion that the world 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 produc-
ing 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 purpose which
when revealed to him in the outcome of his own career, he may well
find reflected also in the interrelated life of nature. Hut for all this
man will learn a new modesty now woefully lacking to so many who
honestly deem themselves religious. His God will not be a figment,
cold and distant, of metaphysics, nor a distorted caricature of embit-
tered theology. "Can man by searching find out God?" asks the old
Hebrew poet. And the ages so flooded with religious strife are vocal
with the stinging rebuke to all creed-builders that man cannot. 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
his blurred vision is tne full light and that there can be none other
might which rejjort truth as does his.

The Church
Universal.

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TIIK WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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Says Maimonitlcs, {greatest thinker of the many Jewish philosophers
of the Middle iX^es: "Of God we may merely assert that He is; what
He is in Himself we cannot know. 'My thoughts are not yourthoughts
A rroph tic and l\Iy \\a\s are not your ways.'" This prophetic caution will re-
sound in clear notes in the cars of all who will worship in the days to
come at the universal shrine. They will cease their futile efforts to
^i\e a delinition of Him who cannot 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 Pinkcrton detective should be enabled to
capture Him by the identification laid downin the catalogue of His at-
tributes. The religion universal will not presunse to regulate God's
government of this world by circumscribing 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 re-
ligion will once more make the God idea a vital principle of human
life. It will teach men to find Him in their own heart 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 conscience that God speaks and is to be
found. He believes in God who lives a Godlike, «". r., a goodly life.
Not he who 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. Hut as a weakness to be overcome, an imperfection to be
laid aside, man will be as potently reminded of his natural shortcom-
ings as he is now of that of his first progenitor over whose conduct he
certainl)' had no control and for whose misdeed he should not be held
Rccountable. Religion will then as now lift man above his weaknesses
by reminding him of his responsibilities. The goal before is paradise.
Kden is to come. 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 flown the waters of salvation by whose
magic efficacy all men may be washed clean, if baptized in the spirit
which was living within these God-appointed redeemers of their in-
firmities.

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 bless-
ing of human life. For as man was made in the image of the Creator,
it is his to create. Karth was given him for his habitation. He
changed it from chaos into his home. A theology and a Monotheism,

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

S33

vvliich will not leave room in this world for Juan's free activity and
dooms him to passive inactivity, will not harmonize with the '.ruer
recoj^nition that man and God are the co-relates of a working plan of
life. Sympathy and resijjnation arc iiuleed beautiful flowers j^rown in
the jfarden of many a tender and noble human heart. Hut it is active
love and cner}:[y which alone can push on the chariot of human prog-
ress, and prof^re.ss is the gradual realization of the divine spirit which
is incarnate in every human being. This principle will assign to relig-
ion 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 miser\', but in active work.
"As you have done to the least of these you have unto ]\Ie," will be
the guiding principle of human conduct in all the relations into which
human life enters. No longer shall we hear Cain's enormous excuse,
a scathing accusation of himself, "Am I my brother's keeper?" no
longer will be tolerated or condoned the doufile standard of morality,
one for Sunday and the church and another diametricall>- opposed for
weekdays and the counting-room. Not as now will be heard the cynic
insistence that "business is business" and has as business no connection
with the Decalogue or the Sermon on 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 lowest
possible price, in accordance with a deified law of supplj' and demand,
which cannot stop to consider such sentimentalities, as the fact that
these hands stand for soul and hearts

An invidious distinction obtains now between secular and sacred.
It will be wiped away. Every thought and every tleed of man
must be holy or it is unworthy of men. Did Jesus nierel\- regard the
temple as holy? Did Huddha merely have religion on one or two
hours of the .Sabbath? Did not an earlier prophet deride and con-
demn all ritual religion? "VWish ye, make ye clean." Was this not
the burden of Isaiah's religion? The religion universal will be true to
these, its forerunners.

Hut 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. Hereaftei
Rut it will be most emphatic in winning men to the conviction that a
life worthily spent here on earth is the best, is the onl)- ])reparation
for heaven. .Said the old rabbis: "One hour spent here intrul)- 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 f(-.j^et duty, will
be replaced by a serene trust in the eternal justice of Ilim "in Whom
we live and move and have our being." To have ilone religiously will
be a reward sweeter than which none can be oriercd. Vea, the relig-
ion 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 wretchedness, in the cool assur-

Deatli and

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Ti/E irO/iLD'S CONGh'/:SS OF h'i:L/J/ONS.

ancc that this life is destined or ilooincd to be a free r.ue of lia.i,fj;liii}^,
snarliiifr competitors in wliich, by some mysterious will ol proxideiice,
the devil takes the hindmost.

Will there be pra)er in the universal reli<;ion? Man will worship,
but in the beauty of holiness his prajer will be the prelude to his
prayerful action. .Silence is more reverential and uorshiptul than a
wild torrent of words breathing,' fortii not afloration, but i^reedy re-
quests for favors to self. Can an unfori^nxiiii,^ heart pray "forj^ixe as
we forgive?" Can one ask for daily l)riMd when he refuses to break
his bread with the hungry? Did not the pr,i> ir ol the (ireal Master
of Nazareth thus teach all men antl all aL;es thiit pr;i\ cr must be the
stirriuLj to love?

Had not that little waif cautjht the inspiration of our universal
prayer who, when first taut^ht its sublime phrases, persisted in chantj-
\n\^ the opening words to "\'our h'atlier whicii is in heaven?" Rebuked
time and a^ain by the teacher, he tinally broki' out, "W'c-Ii, if it is our
I^'ather, why, I am your brother." Vea. tlu' <,Mtis of pra\er in the
church to rise will lead to the recoi,Miition of the uiii\ersal brother-
hood of men.

Will this new faith have its Bible?

It retains the old
remembt'riui; that
ion is not a ([ues-

It will.
Bibles of mankind, but j^ivcs them a new luster b\-
"the letter killeth, but the spirit ^iveth life." Keli
tion of literature, but of life. Goil's re\eIation is continuous, not con-
tained in tablets of stone or sacred parchmenl. lie speaks ioday yet
to those that would hear llim. .A book is inspired when it inspires.
Relifjion made the ]?iblc, not the book reli_i,Mon.

And what will be the name of this church? It will be known not
by its founders, but by its fruits, (iod re])lies 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 "tlie church of Ciod," because it will
be the church of man.

When Jacob, so runs an old rabbinical lej^end. weary and footsore
the first nit^ht of his sojourn away from home, would l.iy him down to
sleep under the canopy of the starset skies, all the stones of the
field exclaimed: "Take me for th\- ])illow." And because all were
ready to serve him all were miraculous!)- turned into one stone. This
became Beth VA, the <;ate of heaven. .So will all reIiL,Moiis, because
eager to become the pillow of man, dreamintj of God and beholdiiiL;
the ladder joining earth to heaven, be transformed into one gri'.it rock
which the ages caiuiot move, a foundation stone for the all-embracing
temple of humanity united to do God's will with one accord.

Interior of the Church of Ecce Homo, Jerusalem.

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The Whonce
of Ethical
Sense.

Xhe Essential Qneness of £thical [deas
Among All Men.

Paper by REV. IDA C. HULTIN.

F ethical ideas, nut of ethical systems or
doctrines, am I bidden to speak tixhiy.
Let mc sa\' ethical sense. It will mean
the same and be more simple. The uni-
versality of the ethical sense. Gravitation
is not more surely a fact, it seems to us,
than is the unity of all life. If life is a
H'hole, then that which is an essential
quality of one part must be common to
the whole. Throujrh all life not only an
eternal purpose runs, l)ut an eternal moral
purpose. Human history has been a strufj-
tjlc of man to understand himself and the
other selves, and beyond that the infinite self.

The laws which, with unswerving fidelity,
the stars obey in their eternal sweep through
space, that the dewdrop responds to when it becomes an ocean to mir-
ror back the world, that chisels the lichen's circle and paints the sun-
set, that draws the lily from the black ooze of the pond and calls the
atoms to their foreordained places in the cr, '^♦■al — this law is inerad-
icably written in the nature of man and issues as ethical sense. Of
course, we understand that with some the experiences of animal and*
human life in the long eons of their existence is the explanation of the
existence of this sense. Add to the experience of individuals the
hereditary tendency which accumulates and passes on in increasing
power from generation to generation, the results of all str-uggle, and
you have an all-sufificient answer about the whence of this ethical
sense. We do not deny the truth of the cumulative tendency of ex-
perience, but we do deny that it solves all the problem. Would this
not be evolution, doing that which it claims cannot be done, creating
something out of nothing? If the fittest, morally as well as physically,
is to survive, then there must have been something that had the ele-

336

■;*ii:

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

887

ment of fitness to start with. In the firc-niist and world-stuff of our
soiar system's beginning there were the elements, or clement, from
which, through change and growth, has come the multiplicity of the
life of our world. VVhat is the meaning of all this varied life? It is
not real. It is not stable. To what is it passing? From whence does
it come? Is there no infinite fact to match the finite fact, or the hu-
man mind and soul? Is there no invisible real to which the visible
passing stands related?

The old oak tree, we say, is what it is because it has grown through
years and storms, through heat and cold, withstanding and outliving
them all. What made it to be an oak tree? It will not always be so,
and what will the life of it be when it is not oak tree? Diil sun and
rain and storm and seasons create the oak? Then plant a piece f;om
your polished oak table, give it to the earth and the .un and rain and
storms and ask them to make it grow. Will it? What is in the acorn
that answers back to the call of the voices of the earth and air, and
draws from the invisible places of the universe the atoms that come
trooping to take their i)laces in root and trunk and limb and leaf and
blossom and fruit? Is it not God in the acorn? And could it grow
without its God? I ask this question reverentially, and when I say
God, friends, I mean the same invisible spirit that you mean when you
pronounce another name. We each know that the other is but naming
his or her best conception of the Infinite, and if we should put all of
these words together, we would not have the whole name, for the
secret of its pronunciation lieth with Him, whose children we all are.
This all-pervading ])rinciple — this sense of right, of good that we find
to 1 c the possession of all peoples, of life, is it not God in us? Vou
may call it a categorical imperative, a primitive element in the soul, a
sense rooted in the nature of things, the moral sense of the imivcrse,
what you will, it is the sign and seal of our heretlity from God. Mine,
yours, ours, humanity's. Humanity is not God-touched in spots, with
primitive exterior revelations on mountain tops ior acho^;en few. He
is the Divine Immanence, the source of all — revealing Himself to all;
recognized just So fast as His children grow able to discover Him. It
is an infinite revelation— an eternal discovery. Hunger is the goad to
growth; hunger for protoplasm, and then — Oh. the weary way that
stretches between! — hunger for righteousness. An eternal search
— an eternal finding. The resistless sweep of the divine forces bears
man on to newer and ever newer births.

We find that we caiuiot speak of ethical principles without touch-
ing .eligious realities. Let us identify morals -ith re!igii)n. Is it not
time? I do nf)t mean by religion theologica. formulas, creeds, doc-
trines. I do not mean a religion. I mean oligion. The science of
man's highest development, physical, mental, moral development.
There is no part of life that may not, ought not to be religious. Vou
cannot make one part of your nature religious, as though it were a
side issue of real living. In the last analysis it becomes correlated
with the nature of things, with God. Not simply dependence on, as

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338

T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Ileritugc

thou^fh tlicte was a full sway from Him, but consciousness of unity,
and as if we craved the unity as if lie needed us and we were hasten-
ing to do His will and ours. The doing of the will is ethical action.
It is man at work on the problem, the making of religious conditions.
It is humanity on the road toward God.

How rarely do we enter into the full possibilities of our high her-
itage. They who have learned to live on the heights have been the
onr Higher prophet souls of all ages and all races. The multitudinous voice of
humanity has uttered itself through them. I know that there are sore
souls, but if we would know humanity we must interpret it at its best.
What these are, all humanity may be. The ideal man is the actual
man. It is what all men may become. The ought that moves one
man to deeds that thrill a nation is essentially the same in kind with
the ought that impels the lowliest deed in the obscurest corner of the
world. If one human soul has come into being without a tendency
toward goodness, toward the right, the true, and with hope to at length
reach a divine destiny, then the universe is a failure. There is a place
where God is not, and infinite goodness, infinite justice, is a myth.
Morality may not be ])ossible in ant and bee and beaver and dog, but
ethical principle is there. .Striving to be man, the worm struggles
through all the spheres of form. Not that man is recognized and
there is a conscious reach toward him, but because back of worm and
clod there is the same persuasive power that impelled man to be man,
that led him to lay hold of the forces of the universe and compel
them to serve him. Through the realization of the divine potency of
the ethical sense in the experiences of his own life, man becomes con
scious of Gotl, of God as good. Rising to this higher realization
through the lesser, the lesser takes on new meaning. Our relations to
tree, to dog, to man. assume new dignity. We find the ultimate mean-
ing of these common relationships. Here is the explanation of life's
details. Tiiey are all manifestations of God. He is Lord of these
hosts, He is ail. And we find Him only as we tread loyally the path-
way of the common place. Relationship to Him is the culmination
of all these lesser relationships. And

"We turn from seeking Thee afar
And in unwonted ways,
To l)uil(l from out our daily lives
The temples of Tliy [iraise."

Humanity docs not reach its best life through any scheme of re-

\ demption, hut through an age-long struggle with God. It is not "What

(shall 1 do to he save 1?" but "What shall I do to inherit eternal lite?"

I The moral man is olieying the God-voice, whether he knows to call it

that or not. Is h?; ^li'nied theological classification? Well, it will not

1 be surprising if he enters heaven without a label. He who cannot hear

! God, sec God, feel God in the living, potent things of the every day

must buy a hook and find God and His law there. But if the church

disband or his book is burned, where shall he turn for authority? May

he steal now with impunity? Pity the man whose moral nature is net

Kxplatifition
of Life's l)e-
tailo.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

831)

e of re-
What
lal lite?"
o call it
will not
lot hear
cry day
church
y? May
re is net

a law unto himself. Shrink from it though we may, the truth appears,
when we are honest with ourselves, that churches and creeds have
never done the world's best work. The church has never freed the
slave of any land. In this country, even while the armies were gath-
ering, which eventually freed the slave, ministers were preaching that
slavery was divinely ordained and right according to the word of God.
But the spirit of eternal justice, revealing itself in the ethical sense of
thousands of men and women, ignoring the dogma and its expounders,
moved against the wrong and overcame it. There were those who
could read but one page of God's Word, but in the "terrible swift light-
ning" of that judgment day men read the law written by human
hearts.

Try to evade the truth if you will; you must face it at last. No
creedal church and no form of ecclesiasticism has ever lent itself to
the emancipation of the woman half of humanity. She has suffered
and still suffers because of the results of dogmatic beliefs and theological
traditions, but the ethical senseof the humanity of which she is a part is
lifting her out into the fullness of religious liberty. She docs not
come into the fellowship to write creeds nor to impose dogmas, but to
co-operate in such high living as shall make possible religiousness.
She conies to help do away with false standards of conduct by demand-
ing morality for morality, purity for purity, self-respecting manhood
for self-respecting womanhood. She will holp remove odious distinc-
tions on account of se.x and make one code of morals do for both men
antl women. This not alone in the western world, where circumstances
have been more propitious for woman's advancement, but in all parts
of the world.

Churches as a whole do not feed the hungry, clothe the sick, turn
prisons into reformatories and unite to stay the atrocities of legalized
cruelties. If churches were doing the humane wuik of the w nrld there
would not be needed so many clubs and a^^^ociations ami institutions
for philanthropic work. Men and woniei the churches and out of
them do this work. While theologians are bi>y w ith c;ii h other and
the creeds, these men and women, belonging to all couiitrit s and all
races, who perhaps have not had time to formulate tl ir heliifs about
humanity, are busy working for it. Those who have nevi known liou
to define God are finding Him in their daily lives. Faith .^ \'cs, but
faith wi'hout works is dead. When the ethical intent has Ik en
removed from a theological system it is a dead faith.

Interesting is the history of a religious convention, and not to be
lightly estimated; but as a working force in spiritual advancemtiil it is
useless. It was well said from this platform a few da\'S ago, not Chris-
tianity, but Christ, I plead. Many of us are not |)articular about tlu-
Christian name, but we do care about the Christ spirit; that saiiu
spirit that has been the animating force in every prophet life. Tlu ,».•-
ligious aspirations that gave birth to the ethical science, tiiat made
to be alive oUl forms, have passed on to vivify new forms and systems
that yet shall have a day and give place to others. "It is the spirit
that gives it life; the letter kills it."

Spirit of
Eterniil Justice

Kiiitli
niif VV.

Willi.

840

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Rich wilh
Hlessings.

When you remember some of the things that have been taup^ht
and have been clone in the name of Christ, do you wonder that our
brother said, "If such be the Christian ethics, well, we are perfectly
satisfied to be heaihen ?" Do you wonder that the calm-souled prophet
from India pleads with us for a manifestation of the spirit that was in
Jesus? Do we need assurance that boasting of our religion will not
prove us to be a religious people? This pentecostal session is rich
with blessing if we are able to bear it. May it help us to help each
other, to understand each other, to believe in each other; and out of
the fellowship of this time may there grow a diviner love for all that
is human, a deeper reverence and braver faith in its possibility, a surer
knowledge of this essential oneness. Learning to love each other,
may we abide in the measureless, matchless love which, because we
know no better naming, we call our Father, Mother, God.

1 i I w

! t

(Concessions to fsjative Peligious Jdeas,
pjaving gpecial Reference to p^induism.

Paper by REV. L. E. SLATER, of Bungalore, India.

HE Hindus by instinct and tradition are the
most religious people in the world. Thry are
born religiously, they eat, bathe, sha\\i and
write religiously, they die and are cremated or
buried religiously, nnd for years afterward are
devoutly remembered religiously They will
not take a house or open a shop or office, they
will not go on a journey or engage in any enter-
prise without some religious observance. We
thus appeal in our missionary effort to a deeply
religious nature; we sow the gospel seed in a
religious soil.

The religion of a nation is its sacred impulse
toward an ideal, however imperfectly appre-
hendetl and realized it may be. The spirit of
India's religions has been a reflective spirit,
hence its philosophical character, and to understand and appreciate
them, we must look beyond the barbaric shows and feasts and cere-
monies, and get to the undercurrents of native thought. Hinduism is
a growth from within; and to study it we have to lay bare that ii\
ward, subtle soul which, strangely enough, explains the outward loim
with all its extravagances; for India's gross idolatry is connected with
her ancient systems of speculative philosophy; and with an extensive
literature in the .Sanskrit language; her Kpic, Puranic and Tantrika
mythologies and cosmogonies have a theosophic basis.

India, whose worship was the probable cradle of all other similar
worships, is the richest mine of religious ideas; yet we cannot speak
of the religion of India What is styled "Hinduism" is a vague eclec-
ticism, the sum total of several shades of belief, of divergent systems,
of various types and characters of the outward life, each of which at
one time or another calls itself Hinduism, but which, apparently, bears
little resemblance to the other beliefs. Every phase of religious

341

,V>^

vO'-

HinilniHin
Not, Oue
lieligion,

842

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Hiibits of
Tliduglit uu(i
Lifo.

I 1

thought and philosophic speculation has been represented in India.
Some of the Hindu doctrines are theistic, some atheistic and material-
istic, others i)antheistic — the extreme development of idealism. Some
of the sects hold that salvation is obtained by practicinjj austerities and
by self-devotion and prayer; some that faith and love (bhakti) form
the ruling principle; others that sacrificial observances are the only
means. Some teach the doctrine of predestination; others that of free
grace.

It is hard for foreigners to understand the habits of thought and
life that prevail in a strange country, as well as all the changes and
sacrifices that conversion entails; and, with our brusque, matter-of-fact
western instincts and our lack of spiritual antl philosophic insight,
we too often go forth denouncing the traditions and worship of the
people, and, in so doing, are a])t, with our heavy heels, to trample on
beliefs and sentiments that have a deep and sacred root. A knowl-
edge of the material on which we work is quite as important as deft-
ness in handling our tools; a knowledge of the soil as necessary as
the conviction that the seed is good.

Let us glance now, in the briefest manner, at some of the funda-
mental ideas and aspects of l^rahmanical Hinduism, that may be re-
garded as a ])reparation for the Gospel, and links by which a Christian
acKocate may connect the religion of the incarnation and the cross
with the higher phases of religious thought and life in India. It
should be borne in mind, however, throughout, that this foreshadowing
relation between Hinduism and Christianity is ancient rather than
modern, that these "foreshadowings"of the Gospel are unsuspected by
the masses of the people; and, further, that the points of similarity be-
tween the two faiths arc sometimes apparent rather than real, and that
the whole inquiry becomes clear only as we realize that Hinduism has
been a keen and pathetic search after a salvation to be wrought by
man rather than a restful satisfaction in a redemption designed and
offered by God.

The underlying element of all religions, without which there can
be no spiritual worship, is the belief that the human worshiper is
somehow made in the likeness of the divine. Aiul the central thought
of India, which binds together all its conflicting elements, is the reve-
lation of life, the progress of the pilgrim soul through all definite ex-
istences to reunion with the infinite. l''rom the opening youthfulness,
hopefulness and self-sufificienc\' depicted in the songs of the Rig-veda,
where the spirit is bright and joyous and homage is given to the forms
and powers of nature — the mirror of man's own life and freedom— on
through the dreary stage, where " the weary weight of this unintelligi-
ble w(Mld " and the soul wakes from the illusive dream of childhood
to experience a bitter disappointment, to realize that the search for
individual happiness in tiie infinite or phenomenal is a futile one, to
find that the world is a vain shadow, an empty show, the reverence of
the Indian has not been for the material form, but for pure spirit --for
liis own conscious soul — whose essential unity with the divine is an

Every

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIC IONS.

348

axiomatic truth, and whose power to abide in the midst of all ciianjjjcs
is the test of its everlasting being, the proof of its ininiortalitj'.

The ideal, then, before which the Indian Gnostic bows, is the
spirit of man. The soul retires within itself, in a state of ecstatic
reverie, the highest form of which is called Yoga, and meditates on
the secret of its own nature; and having made the discovery, which
comes sooner or later to all, that the world, instead of being an ely-
sium, is an illusion, a vexation of spirit, the speculative problem of
Indian philosophy and the actual struggle of the religious man lia\ e
been how to break the dream, get rid of tlie impostures of sense and
time, emancipate the self from the bondage of the fleeting world and
attain the one reality — the invisible, the divine. This can only l)e
achieved by becoming iletached from material things, by ceasing to
love the world, by the mortification of desire. And though this "love
of the world" may have little in common with the idea of the Apostle
John, yet have we not here an affinity with the affirmation of Chris-
tianity, that "the things which are seen are temporal; but the things
which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor., iv., iS); that "the world
passeth away, and the lust thereof" (i John, ii., 17); though the
Christian completion of that verse, "but he that doeth the will of God
abideth forever," marks the fundamental defect of pantheistic India
and its .striking contrast to the (jospel.

For the Ciod of Hinduism is a pure Intelligence, a Thinker; not a
Sovereign Will as in Islam, nor the Lord of Light and Right as in
Parsiism, still less having any paternal or providential character.
Nothing is created by His power, but all is evolveili)y emanation,
from the one eternal Entity, like sparks from fire. No commands
come from such a Being, but all things flow from Him, as light from
the sun, or thoughts from a musing man. Hence, while between God
and the worshiper there is the most direct affinity, which may become
identity, there exists no bond of sympathy, no active and intelligent
co-operation, and no quickening power being exercised on the human
will, and in the formation of character, the fatal and fatalistic weak-
ness of Hindu life appears, which renders the Gospel appeal so often
powerless; the lost sense of practical moral distinction, of the recpiire-
ments of conscience, of any necessary connection between thought
and action, convictions and coiuluct, of di\ine authority over the soul,
of personal responsibilitx', of the duty of the soul to love and honor
God, and to love one's neighbor as one's self.

Idolatry itself, foolish and degrading as it is, seeks to realize to
the senses what otherwise is oidy an idea; it witnesses, as all great
errors do, to a great truth; and it is only by distinctly recognizing antl
liberating the truth that underlies the error, and of which the error is
the counterpart, that the error can be successfully combated and slain.
Every error will live as long, and only as long, as its share of truth re-
mains unrecognized. Adapting words tiiat Archdeacon Hare wrote
of Dr. Arnold: "We must be iconoclasts, at once zealous and fear-
less in demolishing the reigning idols, and at the same time animated

Ideal
Jiidiuu
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(inott.

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II i n d u ti

Tliiukpr.

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344

T//E IVORLnS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

with a reverent love for the ideas that the idols carnalize and stifle,"
Idolatry is astroiitj human protest against pantheism, which denies the
personality of God, and atheism, which denies God altogether; it tes-
tifies to the natural craving of the heart to have before it some mani-
festation of the Unseen — to behold a humanized god. It is not, at bot-
tom, an effort 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" — cucharistic, sacramental and propitiatory- bearing the
closest i)arallelism to the provisions of the Mosaic economy and
prompted by a sense of personal unworthincss, guilt and misery — that
life is to be forfeited to the Divine Proprietor — is ingrained in the
whole system of Vedic 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, O thou
lotus-eyed Hari, the remover of sin.

The first man, after the deluge, whom the Hindus called Manu and
the Hebrews Noah, offered a burnt offering. No literature, 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 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 Urahmanas and Upanishads that Prajapati, "the lord and sup-
porter of his creatures" — the Purusha (primeval male) — begotten
before the world, becoming half immortal and half mortal in a body
fit for sacrifice, offered himself for the devas (emancipated mortals)
Sacrifice Co- '^"^' '^"•' ^'^^' benefit of the world; thereby making all subsequent sacri-
eviiwitii c'ren- fice a reflection or figure of himself. The ideal of the Vedic Prajapati,
mortal and yet divine, himself 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 reverenced 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 primiti\e idea of redemption
by the cflicac\- of sacrifice; and when this Christian truth is preached
it ought not to st)und strange to Indian ears. An eminent 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
today is that modern Hrahmanism, like modern Parsiism, is fast losing
its old ideas, relaxing its hold on the more spiritual portions, the dis-
tincti\e tenets, of the ancient faith. Happily, however, a reaction has
set in, mainly through the exertions of these scholars and of the Arya
Somaj; and the more thoughtful minds are earnestly seeking to recover
from their sacred books some of the buried treasures of the past.

For ideas of a divine revelation, " Word of God," communicated
directly to inspired sages or rishis, according to a theory of inspiration

tion.

"T I

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUGIONS.

U7>

higher than that of any other religion in the world, is perfectly familiar
to Hindus, and is, indeed, universally entertained. Yet the conclusion
reached is this: That a careful comparison of religions brings out this
striking contrast between the Bible and all other scriptures; it estab-
lishes its satisfying character in distinction from the seeking spirit of
otiier faiths. The liible shows God in quest of man rather than man
in cpiest of God. It meets the questions raised in the philosophies of
the east, and supplies their only true solution.

The Vedas present " a shifting play of lights and shadows; some-
times the light seems to grow brighter, but the day never comes."
For, on examining them, we note a remarkable fact. While they show
that the spiritual needs and aspirations of humanity are the same — the
same travail of the soul as it bears the burdens of existence — and con-
tain many beautiful prayers for mercy and help, we fail to find a single
text that purports to be a divine answer to prayer, an explicit promise
of divine forgiveness, an expression of experienced peace and delight
in God, as the result of assured pardon and reconciliation. There is
no realization of ideas. The Hible alone is the Hook of Divine Promise —
the revelation of the "exceeding riches of God's grace — " shining with
increasing brightness till the dawn of jierfect day. And for this reason
it is unique, not so much in its ideas, as in its vitality; a living and
regulating force, embodied in a personal, historic Christ, and charged
with unfailing inspiration.

Idea of n Dl-
vino ItovelE^
tiou.

Veda;

Hinduism.

Paper by MANILAL N. DVIVEDI, of Bombay, India.

INDUISM is a wide term, but at the same
time a vafjue term. The word Hindu was
invented by the Mohammedan contiucrors
of Aryavata, the historical name of Jiulia,
and it denotes all who reside beyond tiie
Indus. Hinduism, therefore, eorrectly speak-
ing is no religion at all. Itembraces within
its wide intention all shades of thought,
■■'■L '^^^M^^m^i^^m,^ from the athei.stic Jainas and Hauddhas to
J j|HH^^BH|^H^|y^ the theistic Sampradaikas and Samajists and
^4'^^IiH^^H9piw\ ^'^^' rationalistic Advaytins. But we may

agree to use the term in the sense of that
body of philosophical and religious princi-
ples which are professed in part or whole
by the inhabitants of India. 1 shall confine
in this short address to unfolding the meaniiipf
term, and shall try to show the connection of
this meaning with the ancient records of India, the
Vcdas.

Before entering upon this task permit me, however, to make a few
preliminary observations. And first it would greatly help us on if we
had settled a few points, chief among them the meaning of the word
religion. Religion is defined by Webster generally as any system of
worship. This is, however, not in the sense in which the word is
understood in India. The word has a threefold connotation. Religion
divides itself into physiccs, ontology and ethics, and without~T)eing
that vague something \vTiich is^cTup to satisfy Hie requirements of the
emotional side of human nature, it resolves itself into that rational
demonstration of the universe which serves as the basis of a practical
system of ethical rules. Every Indian religion— for let it be under-
stood there is quite a number of them— has therefore some theorj- of
t.n; physical universe, complemented by some sort of spiritual govern-
ment, and a code of ethics consistent with that theory and that govern-
ment. .So, then, it would be a mistake to take away any one phase of
any Indian religion and pronounce upon its merits on a partial survey.

347

. WhatHindn.
iBva EmbraceH.

848

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

■»l!

i'j

t !::

Fanoifnl
Tiieurks.

Indinn Pliilos.
opliic Thought.

Ijli'r

Hi > I

The next point I wish to clear is the chronology of the I'uri'mas.
I mean the chronoloj^y f^iven in the PurAnas. Whereas tlie Indian
relijjioii claims extravagant anticjuity for its teachin^js, the tenticncy
of Christian writers has been to cramp everything within the narrow
period of 6,000 \ears. Ikit for the numerous vagaries and fanciful tlieo-
ries these extremes give birth to, tiiis point would have no interest for
us at the present moment. With the rapid advance made by physical
science in the west, numerous testimonies have been uneartheil to
show the untenablencss of J^iblical chronology, and it would be safe
to hold the mind in mental suspense in regard to this matter. The
third point is closely connected with the second. lCver\- one has a
natural inclination toward his native land and language, and particu-
larly toward the religion in which he is brought up. It, however,
behooves men of impartial judgment to look upon all religions as so
many different explanations of the dealings of the Supreme with men
of varying culture and nationality. It is impossible to do justice to
these themes in this place, but we will start with these necessary pre-
cautions that the following pages may not appear to make any extra-
ordinary demands upon the intelligence of those brought up in the
atmosphere of the so-called "Oriental research" in the west.

We may now address ourselves to the subject before us. At least
six different and well n)arked stages are visible in the history of
Indian philosophic thought, and each stage appears to have left its
impress upon the meaning of the word Hinduism. The six stages
may be enumerated thus: ( i ) the Vcdas', ( 2 ) the Sutra; ( 3 ) the l)ar-
sana; (4) the Purina; (5) the Samapradaya; (6) the Samaja. Each of
these is enough to fill several volumes, and all I can attempt here is a
cursory survey of " Hinduism," in the religious sense of the word.

I. Let us begin with the Vcdas. The oldest of the four Vcdas is
admittedly the Rigveda. It is the most ancient record of the Aryan
nation, nay, of the first humanity our earth knows of. Traces of
a very superior degree of civilization and art, fountl at every page, pre-
vent us from regarding these records as containing only the outpoi r-
ings of the minds of pastoral tribes ignorantly wondering at the grand
phenomena of nature. We find in the Vedas a highly superior order
of rationalistic thought pervading all the hymns, and we have ample
reasons to conclude that the childish poetry of primitive hearts, Agni
and Vishne and Indra and Rudra, are indeed so many names of differ-
ent gods, but each of them had really a threefold aspect.

Vishne, for example, in his terrestrial or temporal aspect, is the
physical sun; in his corporal aspect he is the soul of every being, and
in his spiritual aspect he is the all-pervading essence of the cosmos.
In their spiritual aspect all Gods are one, for well says the well-known
text, "only one essence the wise declare in many ways." And this con-
ception of the spiritual unity of the cosmos as found in the Vedas is
the crux of western oriental research. The learned doctors are unwill-
ing to see more than the slightest trace of this conception in the Veda,
for, say they, it is all nature worship, the invocation of different inde-

%>:

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

840

pendent powers which held the wondering mind of this section of
primitive humanity' in submissive admiration and praise. However
well tiiis may accord witli the psycholof^ical development of the
human mind, there is not the slightest semblance of evidence in the
V'edas to show that these records belong to that hypothetical period
of human progress.

In the W'llas there are marks everywhere of the recognition of the\
idea of one (ind.the (lod of nature, manifesting Himself in many forms..
This word "(iod" is one of those which have been the stumbling block '
of philosophy, (iod, in the sense of a i)ersonal Creator of the universe,
is not known in the Veda, and the highest effort of rationalistic thought
in India has been to see God in the totality of all that is. And, indeed, ,
it is doubtful whether philosophy, be it that of a Kant or a Hegel, has
ever accomplished anything more. It hereby stands to reason that
nun who are so far admitted to be Kants and Hegels should, in other \
respects, be only in a state of childish wonderment at the phenomena
of nature.

1 humbly beg to differ from those who see in monotheism, in the
recognition of a personal God apart from nature, the acme of intellect-
ual devek)pment. T believe that is only a kind of anthropomorphism
which the luunan mind stumbles upon in its first efforts to understand
the unknown. The ultimate satisfaction of human reason and emotion
lies in the realization of that universal essence which is the all. And I
hold an irrefragable evidence that this itlea is present in the Veda, the
numerous gods their invocations notwithstanding. This itlea of the
formless all, the .Sat — /. c, esse-being— called Atman and Hrahman in
the L'|)anishads, aiul further explained in the Darsanas, is the central
idea of the \'eda, nay, the root idea of the Hindu religion in general.

There are several reasons for the opposite error of finding nothing
more than the worship of many gods in the Vedas. In the first place,
western scholars are not cpiite clear as to the meaning of the word
Veda. Native commentators have always insisted that the word Veda
does not mean the Samhita only, but the Hrahinanas and the Upani-
sliads as well; whereas, oriental scholars have persisted in understand-
iiig.the word in the first sense alone. The Samhita is no doubt a col-
lection of hymns to different powers and, taken by itself, it is most
likely to produce the impression that monotheism was not understood
at the time. Apart, however, from clear cases to the contrary observ-
able by any one who can reatl between the lines, even in the Samhita,
a consideration of that portion along with the other two parts of the
Veda will clearly show the untenableness of the Orientalist position.
The second source of error, if I may be allowed the liberty to refer to
it, is the religious bias already touched upon at the outset. If, then,
we grasp the central idea of the Vedas we shall understand the real
meaning of Hinduism as such.

The other conditions of the word will unfold themselves, by and
by, as we proceed. We need not go into any further analysis of the
Veda, and may come at once to the second phase of religious thought,

UiulerBtand-
inK of the Word
V.dn.

sno

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

\ \

I ;

f ,: -

ll''i^

Tlio Butru
Period,

the Sutras and Smritis, based on the ritualistic portion of ^'cdic litera-
ture.

2. Sutra means an aphorism. In this period we have aphoristic
works bearing upon ritual, philosophy, morals, grammar and other
subjects. Though this period is distinct from the Vedic and subse-
(lucnt periods, it is entirely unsafe to assume that this or any other
period occurred historically in the order of succession adopted for the
purpose of this essay. Between the Veda and .Sutra lie the Brah-
manas, with the Upanishads and Aryanakas and the Smritis. The
i)c)oI:s called Brahmanas and Upat'.ishads form part of the Veda, as
expi.iined before; the fornicr explaining the ritualistic use and appli-
cation of Vedic hymns, the latter sjstematizing the unique philosophy
containetl in them. What the Brahmanas explained allegorica'.ly, and
in the ciuaint phraseology of the Veda, the Smritis, which followed
them, explained in plain, systematic, modern Sanskrit. As the Veda
is called Siruti, or something handed down orally from teacher to
pu])il. these later works are called Smritis, something rjmembered
and recorded after the Smritis, The Sutras deal with the i?'-ahmanas
:ind Smiitis on the one hand, and with the Upanishads o i the other.
These latter we shall reserve for consideration in the rext stage of
religious development, but it should never be supposed tha* the cen-
tral idea of the All as set forth in the Upanishads had at this period,
or indeed at any period, ceased to govern the whole of the religious
activity of India. The Sutras are divided principally into the Grhva,
Sranta and Dharma Sutras. The first deals with the Smritis, the
seconil with the Brahmanas, and the third with the law as administered
by .Smritis. The first set of Sutras deals with th > institution of V^lrnas
and Asramas and with the various rites and duties belonging to them.
The second class of .Sutras deals with the laiger Vedic sacrifices, and
those of the third deals with that special la>' subsequently known as
Hindu law. It will be interesting to deal 'en masse" with these sub-
jects in this place — leaving the subject of law out of considerati(jn.

And first let us say a few words about caste. In Vedic times the
whole Indian people is s|)oken of broadly as the Aryas ant! the Anar-
ya:'. Arya means respectable and fit to be gone, from the root R "to
go," and not an agriculturist, as the orientalist would have it, from a
fancifid root ar, to till. The Aryas arc divided int(j four sections
called Varnas, men of white color, the others being Avarnas. These
four sections comprise, respectively, priests, warriors, merchants and
cultivators, artisans and menials, called Brahmanas, Ksatrivas and
.Sudras. These divisions, however, are not at all mutuallj- exclusive
in the taking of food or the giving in marriage of sons and daughters.
Nay, men used to be promoted or degraded to superior or inferior
Varnas according to individual deserts. In the Sutra per'od we find
all this considerably altered. Manu speaks of promiscuous irtercourse
among Varnas and Avarnas leading to the creation of several jatis,
sections known by the incident of birth, instead of by color as before.

This is the beginning of that exclusive system of castes which has

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

351

proved the banc of India's welfare. Varna and Jati arc foremost
among many other important features which we find grafted on Hin-
duism in this period. We find in works of this perioil that the life of
every man is distributed into four periods — student life, family life,
forest life and life of complete renunciation. This institution, too, has
become a part of the meaning of the word Hinduism. The duties and
relations of Varnas, Jatis and Asramas are clearly defined in the Sutras
and Smritis, but with these we need not concern ourselves except in
this general manner. I can, however, not pass over the well-known
subject of the .Samskaras, certain rites which under the .Sutras every
Hindu is bound to perform if he professes to be a Hindu. Those
rites, twenty-five in all, may be divided into three groups — rites incum-
bent, rites optional and rites incidental. The incumbent rites are
such as every householder is bound to observe for securing immu-
nity from sin. Every householder must rise early in the morning, wi\sh
himself, revise what he has learned and teach it to others without
remuneration. In the next place he must worship the family gods and
spend some time in silent communion with whatever power he adores.
He should then satisfy his prototypes in heaven — the lunar Pitris — by
offerings of water and seamen seeds. Then he should reconcile the
powers of the air by suitable oblations, eiuling by inviting some stray
comer to dinner with him. Beft)re the householder has thus done his
duty by his teachers, gods and Pitris and men, lie cannot go about his
business without incurring the bitterest sin.

The optional rites refer to certain ceremonies in connection w ith
the dead, whose souls are supjiosed to rest with the lunar Pitris for
about a thousand years or more before reincarnation. Tiiesc are
called sraddhas, ceremonies, whose essence is sraddha, faith. There
are a few other ceremonies in connection with the commencement or
suspension of studies, antl these, together with the sraddhas, just re-
ferred to, make up the four oi)tional .Samskaras, which the Smritis
allow every one to perform according to his means.

liy far tlie most important are the sixteen incidental Samskaras.
I shall, however, dismiss the first nine of these with simple enumera-
tion. Four of the nine refer, res])ectively, to the time of first cohab-
itation, conception, quickening and certain sacrifices, etc., performed
with the last. The other five refer to rites performed at the birth of a
child and subsequently at the time of giving it a name, of giving it
food, of taking it out of doors, and at the time of shaving its head in
some sacred jilace on an aus])icious day. The tenth, with tiie four
subsidiary rites connected with it, is the most important of all. It is
called Upanavana, the "taking to the gurnu," but it may yet better i)e
described as initiation. The four subsidiary rites make up the four
pledges which the neophyte takes on initiation. This rite is performed
on male children alone at the age of from five to eight in the case of Brah-
manas, and a year or two later in the case of others, except .Sudras,
who have nothing to do with any of the rites save marriage. The
young boy is given a peculiarly prepared thread of cotton to wear con

( P'

I i

Incidcniiil
HiiiiiHkiiras.

i !?l

352

l".r

I';-. I;

f t. ! (

.i ■ I

JiM

b i

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, 1 ■ 1

I; ^ J''!'-

i H ' i

^ i H

; -P f 1 ; ;

Li iiili

Till' MarriiiKe
Ci'ii'iiiouy.

T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

stantly on the body, passing it crossways over the left shoulder and
under the riifht arm. It is a mark of initiation which consists in the
imparting of the sacred secret of the family and the order to the boy,
by his father and the family gurnu.

The boy pledges himself to his teacher, under whose protection
he henceforth begins to reside, to carry out faithfully the four vows
he has taken, viz., study, observance of religion, complete celibacy and
truthfulness. This period of pupilage ends after nine years at the
shortest, and thirty-six years at the longest period. The boy then re-
turns home, after duly rewarding his teacher, and finds out some suita-
ble girl for his wife.

This return in itself makes up the fifteen Samskars. The last, but
not the least, is the vivaha— matrimony. The sutras and smritis are
mo?t clear on the injunctions about the health, learning, competency,
familj' connections, beauty, and above all, personal liking of principal
parties to a marriage. Marriages between children of the same blood
or family are prohibited. As to age, the books are very clear in ordain-
ing that there must be a distance of at least ten years between the
respective ages of wife and husband, and that the girl may be married
at any age before attaining puberty, preferably at ten or eleven, though
she may beaffiancedatabouteightor nine. Be it remembered that mar-
riage and consummation of marriage are two different things in India,
as a consideration of this Samskara, in connection with the first of
the nine enumerated at the beginning of this group, will amply show,
several kinds of marriage are enumerated, and among the eight gener-
ally given we find marriage by courting as well.

The marriage ceremony is performed in the presence of priests
and gods represented by fire on the altar, and the tie of love is sanc-
tified by Vedic mantras, repetition of which forms indeed an indispen-
sable i)art of every rite and ceremony. The pair exchanges vows of
fidelity and ii. dissoluble love and bind themselves never to separate
even after death. The wife is supposed henceforth to be as much
dependent on her husband as he on her, for as the wife has to com-
plete the fulfillment of love as her principal duty, the husband has, in
return, the entire maintenance of the wife, temporally and spiritually,
as his principal duty. When the love thus fostered has sufificiently
educated the man into entire forgetfulness of self, he may retire, cither
alone or with his wife, into some secluded forest and prepare himself
for the last period of life, complete renunciation, i. v., renunciation of
all individual attachment, of personal likes and dislikes, and realiza-
tion of t!ic All in the eternal self-sacrifice of universal love.

It goes without saying that widow remarriage as such is unknown
in this system of life, and the liberty of woman is more a sentiment
than something practically wanting in this careful arrangement.
Woman us woman has her place in nature quite as much as man as
man, and if there is nothing to hamper the one or the other in the dis-
charge of his or her functions as marked out by nature, liberty beyond
this limit means shadows, disorder and irresponsible license. And

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REL/GIONS.

353

but

are

ncy,

cipal

)loocl

indeed nature never meant her living embodiment of lone woman to be
degraded to a footing of equality with her partner, to fight the hard
struggle for existence, or to allow love's pure stream to be defiled by
being led into channels other than those marked out for it. This is in
substance the spirit of the ancient Sastras when they limit the sphere
of woman's action to the house, and the flow of her heart to one and
one channel alone.

3. We arrive thus in natural succession to the third period of
Aryan religion, the Darsanas, which enlarge upon the central idea of
Atman, or Brahma, enunciated in the Veda and developed in the
Upanishads. It is interesting to allude to the Charvakas, the material-
ists of Indian philosophy, and to the Jainas and the Buddhas, who,
though opposed to the Charvakas, are anti-Brahmanical, in that they
do not recognize the authority of the Veda and preach an independ-
ent gospel of love and mercy. These schisms, however, had an in-
different effect in imparting fresh activity to the rationalistic spirit of
the Aryan sages, lying dormant under the growing incumbrances of
the ritualism of the Sutras.

The central idea of the All as we found it in the Veda is further
developed in the Upanishads. In the Sutra period several sutra works
were composed setting forth in a systematic manner the main teach-
ing of the Upanishads. .Several works came to be written in imitation schools oi
of these subjects closely connected with the main issues of philosophy Philosophy,
and metaphysics. This spirit of philosophic activity gave rise to the
si.x well known Darsanas, or schools of philosophy. Mere again it is
necessary to enter the caution that the Darsanas do not historically
belong to this period, for, notwithstanding this, their place in the
general development of thought and the teachings they embody are
as old as the Veda, or even older.

The six Darsanas are Nyaya, Vaiseshika, .Sankhya, Xoga,
Mimansaand Vcdanta, more conveniently grouped as the two Xyayas,
the two Sankhyas and the two Mimansas Each of these must require
at least a volume to itself, and all I can do in this place is to give the
merest outline of the conclusions maintained in each. Each of the
Darsanas has that triple aspect which we found at the outset in the
meaning of the word religion, and it will be convenient to state the
several conclusions in that order. The Nyaj-a then is exclusively con-
cerned with the nature of knowledge and the instruments of knowl-
edge, and while discussing these it sets forth a system of logic not yet
surpassed by any existing system in the west. The Vaiseshika is a
complement of the Nyaya, and while the latter discusses the meta-
physical aspect v'f the universe, the former works out the atomic
theory and receives the whole of the namable world into seven
categories.

So, then, physically, the two Nyayas advocate the atomic theory

of the universe. Ontologically they believe that these atoms move in

accordance with the will of an extra-cosmic personal creature called

Isvara. Every being has a soul called Jiva, whose attributes are de-

r.4

THE U'OkLD'S CONGRESS OF KEUQIONH.

Wlw

! '. <

m, V

I ' '

\i-M

I'i

Uuitiplicity
of 8(iuIh.

sire, intelligence, pleasure, pain, merit, demerit, etc. Knowledge
arises from the union of Jiva and mind, the atomic manas. The high-
est happiness lies in Jiva's becoming permanently free from its attri-
bute of misery. This freedom can be obtained by the grace of Iswara,
pleased with the complete devotion of the Jiva. The Veda and the
Upanishad arc recognized as authority, in so far as they are the word
of this Iswara.

The Sankhyas differed entirely from the Naiyayikas in that they
repudiated the idea of a personal creator of the universe. They ar-
gued that if the atoms were in themselves sufficiently capable of form-
ing themselves into the universe, the idea of a God was quite super-
fluous. And as to intelligence the Sankhyas maintained that it is inher-
ent in nature. These philosojjhers, therefore, hold that the whole
universe is evolved b\' slow degrees, in a natural manner, from one
primordial matter called mulaprakriti, and that purusa, the principle
of intelligence, is always co-ordinate with, though ever apart from,
mulaprakriti. Like the Naiyayikas, they believe in the multiplicity of
purusas — souls; but unlike them they deny the necessity, as well as
the existence, of an extra-cosmic God. Whence, they have earned for
themselves the name of atheistic Sankhyas. They resort to the Vedas
and Upanishads for support so far as it may serve their purpose, and
otherwise accept in general the logic of the ten Naiyayikas.

The Sankhyas place the summum bonum in "life according to
nature." They endow primordial matter with three attributes — pas-
sivity, restlessness and crossness. Prakriti continues in endless evolu-
tion under the influence of the second of these attributes, and the
purusa false!)- takes the action on himself and feels happy or miserable.
VVhen a purusa has his prakriti brought to the state of passivity by
analytical knowledge ( which is the meaning of the word sankhya), he
ceases to feel himself hapjiv or miserable and remains in native peace.
This is the sense in which those philosophers understand the phrase
"life according to nature."

The other .Sankhya, more popularly known as the Yogo-Darsana,
accepts the whole of the cosmology of the first .Sankhya, but only
adds to it a hypothetical Isvara and largely expands the ethical side
of the teaching by setting forth several physical and psychological
rules and exercises capable of leading to the last state of happiness
called Kanivalya— life according to nature. This is theistic .Sankhya.
The two Mimansas next call our attention. These are the ortho-
dox Darsanas par excellence, and as such are in direct touch with
the Veda and the Upanishads, which continue to govern them from
beginning to end. Mimansa means inquiry, and the first preliminary
is called Purva-Mimansa, the second Uttara-Mimansa. The object of
the first is to determine the exact meaning and value of the injunctions
and prohibitions given out in the V'cda, and that of the second is to
explain the esoteric teachings of the Upanishads, The former, there-
fore, does not trouble itself about the nature of the universe or about
the ideas of God and soul. It tells only of Dharma, religious merit,

li f.'

dge
gh-
tri-
ara,
the
,'ord

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

355

which, according to its teaching, arises in the next world from strict
observance of Vedic duties. This Mimansa, fitly called the purva, a
preliminary Mimansa, we may thus pass over without any further
remark. The most important Darsana of all is by far the Utara, or
final ^Mimansa, popularly known as the Vedanta, the philosophy taught
in the Upanishads as the end of the Veda.

The Vedanta emphasizes the idea of the All, the universal Atman
or Brahman, set forth in the Upamshads, and maintains the unity not
only of the Cosmos but of all intelligence in general. The All is self-
illumined, all thought (gnosis), the very being of the universe.
Being implies thought, and the All may in Venuaiita phraset)logy be
aptly described as the essence of thought and being. The Vedanta is
a system of absolute idealism in whicli subject and object are rolled
into one unique consciousness, the realization wlu-rcof is the end and
aim of existence, the highest bliss — Moksa. This state of INloksa is
not anything to be accomplished or brought about it is in fact the
very being of all existence; but experience stands in the way of com-
plete realization by creating iniaginar\' distinctions of subject and
object. This system, besides being the orthodox Darsana. is philo-
sophically an improvement upon all previous speculations.

The Nyaya is superseded by the .Saidcya, whose distinction of
matter and intelligence is done av.ay with in tliis philosophy of abso-
lute idealism, which has endoweil the phrase "life according to nature"
with an entirely new and more rational meaning. l""or, in its ethics,
this system teaches not only the i)rotherhood, but the .Xtma-hood /Vb-
heda, oneness, of not only man but of all beings, of the whole uni-
verse. The light of the other Darsanas pales before the blaze of unity
and love lighted at the akar of the Veda by this sublime philosophy,
the shelter of minds like IMato, Pythagt)ras, Hruno, Spinoza, I lagel,
Schiipenhauer in the west, and Krisna, \Vasa, .Sankara and others in
the east.

We cannot but sum up at this point. Hinduism ailds one more
attribute to its connotation in this period, viz., that of being a believer
in the truths of one or othi-r of these Darsanas, or of one or other of
the three anti-Hrahmanical schisms. And with this we must take
lea\e of the great Darsana sages and come to the period of the
Puranas.

4. The subtleties of the Darsanas were certainly too hard i"or
ordinary minds, and some popular exposition of the basic ideas of
philosophy and religion was indeed very urgentlx- rci[uired. i\iul this ivri.>dofthe
necessity began to be felt the more keenl\- as .Sanskrit began to die Pnruuus.
out as a speaking language and the people to decline in intelligence,
in consequence of frequent inroads from abroatl. No idea mure happy
could have been conceived at this stage than that of devising certain
tales and fables calculated at once to catch the imagination and enlist
the faith of even the most ignorant, and at the .same time to suggest to
the initiated a clear outline of the secret doctrine of old. It is exactly
because Orientalists don't understand this double aspect of Pauranika

Si lis

J 1

cleB.

,„ya,H llKd they f^^^ ,, -"^'^"'i"",,!.'; "v fobcar in mind

of the basic ideas of pmi 1 > ^^^^^^^ ,^^.^^^j^

them. , ,h.- Furanas are nothin- nvm^ "? J ^or exam-

^•^ "^^^^^ ^y:;± m the mcicnt teaching o^^-:^;^^^ jor^ot that
clear commentanes on iii .^^^^j^^^ of tUe i u ^ ^^ .

pic, it is not because \ > j -i. ^,^^ Veda that ^^ ^a Uea ^^^^^^^^

^Vi^hnu was the nan.e - ^^^^^^r^mranas, endownv^ : " ,, et tion would
nue ,od of tU;;t n- e u tlie^.^^^^^^ ^'ve'^ te " "mSdence in the
. ttributes. ^>^Xn. nie Hindus ^^^^ as he knew per^

dispose f - ,\\\^^ 'l';,,a could at once ^^^ .^ ' VoUition, maintenance and
insi-ht ot Vyasa a HI ^^^^^ lays in the e o uta ^^^.^^^^^^ ^ I

f.-ctlv well what paiL Lii , V .),-escntecl nun »y' ^. ■,,,,,{ the life
^sslilution of the worU^ t^,ii^^:aUsmi. a l--^;\:f^n.t with the
Vishnu, the all-P^ \^'' J:' ite from the sun foi '\'"^ ^;' ,,., tUe endless
Iild prosperitv -^^^ ; J^l^^^^^ j that name, but -;; --;^ >esentin, the
anauta-populaily t e mi, ^^^^^^ ^^ '^^"n this one symbol sufh-

circle of -•t^.'-"'^> 77, , 1 is vehicle. Tbcre is n this o , ^^^^^^^^^^^

^^I^Vedas a- not mere poau^^::^^^ ^,^ '^^^ of aSe?" aspect oi

con.domeration -^^;^^^ to put me >- " ' - ;;,,f' ,, ^alpas, Man-

The cycles 3^'^\ "-' ..k^ theory of cycles '^'^ ^^j appears to

Puranika ^Y^r^''^^ . }r::^Lctiov^ ^^' V'r/ The Kalpa of the
vantanisand \u^as ;clc|Ul> ^^^^^ ^^^^. credulity. J^^^^.^tinues in

n-Kc ---•^^' "t o r 20.oOO.ooo years -';;;. ^,,Xtion and remains
Puranas is a c ^'^ "^J f ' Jft^r which it goe. ^f '][^,^^^ ^^ a fresh period
activity for one ^^ J 'nother Kalpa, to be o''^^'.^ , ;ubcycles called
in that condition ^.wKH^thu^ ^^^l^^^^^^ ^^^^1" c^ o^pc^iods called

of activity. l^acU ^'1 ^ ^ ;, ^..ain made ^'P > ' ^hc: Manus, and
Manvantaras, ^^^ \^'L^, ^antanv m^^^ns tune ^ \'; 'the whole su--
^^'^=^^- ^': •"! h o^ nund,- that is to sa> .^um-^> • j^,.,,,ity and
Manu means ^^i^^ ^^^t.,,,^ is the period l>^\^ ^^\^.^, ,vhy the piescnt
.rcstini,^ that a Main amai -^ ,,.,u a so be c cai j ^^ .^ ^^^^j

Another on th^^ J- ^.J^^^., .eloign, oU^ of man on

Manvantara is caiieu . depends the Uic

established, on that luminary 1 corroborated by

this earth. . ^,,d subcycles f^^'^^considerable light

This theory of ^ '^/''-..^.i.omical researches, aiul con ^^^ ^^.^

modern geological ancl-s^--^, ^^ ,, ^^^^'f'smian descent is con-

may be th^o^vn o« the c^o ^^^^ ti^.^r "f ^^^^^^jth reason and

t:^:^t:ri^ -th a theory .ore n.

v»

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

357

experience. But 1 have no time to <^o into the details of each and
every Puranika myth. I can only assure you, ^fcntlemen, that all that is
tauf^ht in the I'uranas is capable of beint^ explained consistently in
accord with the nuiin body of ancient theosophy expounded in the
Vedas, the Sutras and the Darsanas. We must only free ourselves
from what Herbert Spencer calls the relitfious bias and learn t(j k)ok
facts honestly in the face,

1 must say a word here about idol worship, for it is exactl)' in or
after the I'auranika period that idols came to be used in India. It may
be said without the least fear of contradiction that no Indian idolater I''<>1 Worshiii.
as such believes the piece of stone, metal or wood before his eyes to
be his God in any sense of the word. He takes it only as a symbol of
the all-pervadin,Lr and uses it as a convenient object for purpcjses of
concentration, which, beint^ acct)mplished, he does not hesitate to
throw it away. The relit^ion of the Tantras, which i)lays an important
part in this period, has considerable influence on this question, and
the symbolo^y they tauijht as typical of several important processes
of evolution has been made the basic idea in the formation of idols.
Idols, too, have, therefore, a double pur[)ose — that of perpetuatin<f a
teachinj^ as old as the world and that of servin<( as convenient aids to
concentration.

These interpretations of Puranika myths find ample corroboration
in the myths th;it are met with in all ancient relijjfions of the world;
and these explanations of idol worshiii have an exact parallel applica-
tion to the worship of the Tau in l\i4\pt, of the cross in Christendom,
of fire in Zoroastrianism, and of the Kaba in ^Mohammedanism.

With these necessarily brief explanations we may try to see what
influence the Puranas have had on Hiniluism in tjeneral. It is true the
Puranas have added no new C(jnnotati(Mi to the name, l)ut the one \ ery
important lesson they have taut^ht the Hindu is the princi|)Ie of uni-
versal toleration. The Puranas have distinctly tauijjht the 'tiity of the
All, and satisfactorily demonstrated that every creed and worship is
but one of the many ways to the realization of the y\ll. i\ Hindu
would not cor .lemn any man for his relitjion, for he has well laid to
heart the celebrated couplet of the Bha.ujavate: "Worship, in whatever
form, rendered to whatever God, reaches the Supreme, as rivers, rising
from whatever source, all flow into the ocean."

5. And thus, gentlemen, we come to the fifth period, the Sam-
pradayas. The word sampradaya means tradition, the teaching handeti
down from teacher to pupil. The whole Hintlu religion considered
from the beginning to the present time is one vast field of thought,
capable of nourishing every intellectual plant of whatever degree of
vigor and luxuriance. The one old teaching was the idea of the All,
usually known as the Advaita or the Veilanta. In the ethical aspect
of this philosophy stress has been laid on knowledge (gnosis) and free
action. Under the debasing influence of a foreign yoke these sober
paths of knowledge and action had to make room for devotion and
grace. On devotion and grace rest their principal ethical tenets.

i I

ThpSainprail-
ayns Period.

358

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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Three important schools of philosophy arose in the period after the
Puranas. Besides the ancient Advaita we have the Dvaita, the Visud-
dhadvaita and the V'isishthadvaita" schools of philosophy in this
period. The first is purely dualistic postulation, the separate yet co-
ordinate existence of mind and matter. The second and third profess
to be Unitarian, but in a considerably modified sense of the word.

Tiic X'isuddhadvaita teaches the unity of the cosmos, but it insists
on the All havinj^ certain attributes which endow it with the desire to
maniJVst itself as the cosmos. The third .system is purely dualistic,
thout,d\ it 5;()0s by the name of modified Unitarianism. It maintains
the unit)' of chit (soul), achet (matter) and Isvara (God), each in its
own sphere, the third number of this trinity governinj:^ all and pervad-
inij the whole, thou<;h not apart from the cosmos. Thus widely differ-
ing;^ in their jjhilosophy from the Advaita, these three Sampradayas
teach a system of ethics entirely opposed to the one tauj^jht in that
ancient school called Dharma in the Advaita. They displaced Jnana
by Hhakti, and Karma by I'rasada; that is to say. in other words, they
jilaced the hitjhest happiness in obtaining the grace of God by entire
devotion, plusical, mental, moral and spiritual. The teachers of each
of these .Sampradayas are known as Acharyas, like .Sankara, the first
great Acharya of the ancient Advaita. The Acharyas of the new
.Sampradayas belong all to the eleventh and twelfth centuries of the
Christian era.

Every Acharya develops his school of thought from the Upani-
shads, the Vedanta .Sutras, and from that sub-sublime poem, "The
Hhagvadgita," the crest jewel of the Maha Hharata. The new Achar-
yas, following the example of Sankara, have commented upon these
works. And have thus applied each his own .system to the Veda,

In the .Sampradayas we see the last of the pure Hinduism, for the
sacretl Devanagari ceases henceforth to be the medium even of relig-
ious thought. The four principal .Sampradayas have found numerous
imitators, and we have the Saktas, the Saivas, the Pasupatas and many
others, all deriving their teaching from the Vcdas, the Darsanas, the
Puranas and the Tantras Hut beyond this we find quite a lot of
teachers: Ramananda, Kabira, Dadu, Nanaka, Chaitanya, Sahajananda
and many others holding influence over small tracts over all India.

None of these have a claim to the title of Acharya or the founders
of a new school of thought, for all that these noble souls did was to
explain one or another of the .Sampradayas in the current vernacular of
the people. The teachings of these men are called Panthas — mere
ways to religion as opposed to the traditional teachings of the Samp-
rada)-as.

The bearing of these Sampradayas and Panthas, the fifth edition,
as it were, of the ancient faith on Hinduism in general, is not worthy
of note except in the particular that henceforth every Hindu must
belong to one of the Sampradayas or Panthas.

6. This brings us face to face with the India of today and Hin-
duism as it stands at present. It is necessary at the outset to und?r-

■-.!•::

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

S59

stand the principal forces at work in bringing about the change we are
going to describe. In the ordinary course of events one would
naturally expect to stop at the religion of the Sampradayas and
Panthas. The advent of the English followed by the educational policy
they have maintained for half a century has, however, worked several
important changes in the midst of the people, not the least important
of which are those which affect religion. Before the establishment of
British rule and the peace and security that followed in its train,
people had forgotten the ancient religion, and Hinduism had dwindled
down into a mass of irrational superstition reared on ill understood
Pauranika myths. The spread of education set people to thinking,
and a spirit of " reformation" swayed the minds of all active-minded
men.

The chance work was, however, no reformation at all. Under the
auspices of materialistic science, and education guided by materialistic
principles, the mass of superstition then known as Hinduism was
scattered to the winds, and atheism and skepticism ruled supreme.
But this state of things was not destined to endure in religious India.
The revival of Sanskrit learning brought to light the immortal treasures
of things buried in the Vedas, Upanishads, Sutras, Darsanas and
Puranas, and the true work of reformation commenced with the revival
of Sanskrit. Several pledged their allegiance to their time-honored
philosophy.

But there remained many bright intellects given over to material-
istic thought and civilization. These could not help thinking that the
religion of those whose civilization they admired must be the only true
religion. Thus they began to read their own notions in texts of the
Upanishads and the Vedas. They set up an extra-cosmic, yet all-

fiervading and formless creature, whose grace every soul desirous of
iberation must attract by complete devotion. This sounds like the
teaching of the Visishthadvaita Sampradaya, but it may safely be said
that the idea of an extra-cosmic personal creation without form is an
un-Hindu idea. And so also is the belief of th'jse innovators in
regard to their negation of the princii)le of reincarnation. The body
of this teaching goes by the name of the Brahmo-Somaj, which has
drawn itself still further away from Hinduism by renouncing the
institutions of Varnas and the established law of marriage, etc.

The society which next calls our attention is the Arya-Samaja of
Swami Dayananda. This society subscribes to the teaching of the
Nyaya-Darsana and professes to revive the religion of the Sutras in
all social rites and observances. This .Somaj claims to have found out
the true religion of the Aryas, and it is of course within the pale of
Hinduism, though the merit of their claim yet remains to be seen.

The third influence at work is that of the Theosophical society.
It is pledged to a religion contained in the Upanishads of India, in
the book of the Dead of Egypt, in the teachings of Confucius and Lao
Tse in China, and of Buddha and Zoroaster in Thibet and Persia, in
the Kabala of the Jews and in the Sufism of the Mohammedans; and

TheTheophi-
h1 Society.

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860

Hindaism
Snramed Up.

Principles for
Consideration.

7W£ IVORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

it appears to be full of principles contained in the Advaita and Yoga
philosophies. It cannot be gainsaid that this society has created
much interest in religious studies all over India and has set earnest
students to studying their ancient iiooks with better lights and fresher
spirits than before. Time alone can test the outcome of this or any
other movement. The term Hinduism, then, has nothing to add to its
meaning from this period of the .Samajas. The Brahmo-Somaj widely
differs from Hinduism and the Aryasamaja, or Thcosophical society
does not profess anything new.

To sum up, then, Hinduism may in general be understood to
connote the following principal attributes: (i) Belief in the exist-
ence of a spiritual principle in nature and in the principle of reincar-
nation. (2) Observance of a comiilete tolerance and of the .Sams-
karas, being in one of the Varnas and Asramas, and being bound by
the Hindu law. This is the general meaning of the term, but in its
particular bearing it implies: (3) lielongiiigto one of the Darsanas,
Sampradayas or Panthas, or to one of the anti-Hrahmanical schisms.

Having ascertained the general and particular scope and meaning
of Hinduism, I would ask you, gentlemen of this august parliament,
whether there is not in Hinduism materi.i' efficient to allow of its
being brought in contact with the other gre.iL religions of the world by
subsuming them all under one common genus?

In other words, is it not possible to enunciate a few principles of
universal religion which every man who professes to be religious must
accept, apart from his being a Hindu or a Buddhist, a Mohammedan
or a Parsee, a Christian or a Jew?

If religion is not wholly that something which satisfies the crav-
ings of the emotional nature of man, but is that rational demonstration
of the cosmos, which shows at once the why and wherefore of exist-
ence, provides the eternal and all-embracing foundation of natural
ethics and by showing to humanity the highest ideal of happiness
realizable, excites and shows the means of satisfying the emotional
part of man; if, I say, religion is all this, all questions of particular
religious professions and their comparative value must resolve them-
selves into simple problems workable with the help of unprejudiced
reason and intelligence. In other words, religion, instead of being a
mere matter of faith, might well become the solid province of reason,
and a science of religion may not be so much a dream as is imagined
by persons pledged to certain conclusions. Holding, therefore, these
views on the nature of religion, and having at heart the great benefit
of a common basis of religion for all men, 1 would submit the follow-
ing simple principles for your consideration:

First. Belief in the existence of an ultramaterial principle in
nature and in the unity of the All.

.Second. Belief in reincarnation and salvation by action.

These two principles of a possible universal religion might stand
or fall on their merits apart from the consideration of any philosophy
or revelation that upholds them. I have every confidence no philos-

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

361

Ophy would reject thciii, no science would gainsay them, no system of
ethics would deny thcin, no rclifiion which professes to be philosophic,
scientific and ethical ought to shrink back from them. In them I see
the salvation of man and the possibility of that universal love, which
the world is so much in need ot at the present moment.

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Xhe Co^t^ct 0^ C^^^stian and H>"du

Xhought; Points of Likeness and

of Co^t^^st.

Paper by REV. R. A. HUME, of New Haven, Conn. ^ .

HI'^N Christian and Iliiulu thoujfht first
came into contact in India neither un-
derstood tlic other. This was tor two
reasons, one outward, the other in-
wartl. The outward reason was this.
The Christirii saw Hinduism at its
worst. Polytheism, id(jhitry, a mjthol-
o^y explained by the Hindus them-
selves as teachin^^ puerilities and sen-
sualities in its many deities, caste ram-
pant, ij^niorance widespread and pro-
found; these are what the Christian
first saw and supposed to be all of
Hinduism. Naturally he saw little
except evil in it.

The outward reason why the Hin-
du, at first contact with Chiistianity,
failed to understand it was this: Speak-
intj generally, every chikl of Hindu
parents is of course a Hindu in religion, whatever his imnost
thouj^hts or conduct. The Hindu had never conceived of such
an anomaly as an un-Hindu child of Hindu parents. Much less
had they conceived of an unchristian man from a country where
Christianity was the religion. Seeing the early comers from the
West killing the cow, eating beef, drinking wine, sometimes impure,
sometimes bullying the wild Indian, the Hindu easily supposed that
these men, from a country where Christianity was the religion, were
Christians. In consequence they despised what they supposed was
the Christian religion. They did not know that in truth it was the lack

863

Tliinee Seeiiu
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XiVJ? IVORLD'S COA'GRESS OF RELIGIONS.

truly Christian

religion of the

The
Mind.

of Christianity which then* were despis.nj.^. Kven in
men tliey saw things which seemed tu them unlovely.

Moreover, Christianit)' was to the Iliiulu the
conquerors of his country. For this outward reason at the first con-
tact of Christianity and Ilinilu thought neither understood the other.

]^ut there was an additional, an inward reason, why neither rader-
stood the other. It was the very diverse natures of the Hindu and
the western mind. The Hindu mind is supremely introspective. It is
I. ever active mind which has thought about most things in "the
.luce worlds," heaven, earth and the netherworld. But it has seen
them through the eye turned inwardly. The faculties of imagination
and of abstract thought, the faculties which d';pend least on external
tests of validity, are tlie strongest of the mental [)owers of the Hindu.

The Hindu mind has well been likened to the game of chess.
Hindn whcre there is the co'iibination of an active mind and a passive body.
A man may be strong at chess while not strong in meeting the prob-
lems of life. The Hindu mind cares little for facts, except inward
ideal ones. When other facts conflict with such conceptions the
Hindu disposes of them by calling them illusions.

A second characteristic of the Hindu mind is its intense longing
for comi)rehensivencss. " I"'kam eva ach'itiya," /. e., "There is but one
and no second," is the most carilinal doctrine of philosophical Hindu-
ism. .So controlling is the Hindu's longing for unity that he places
contradictory things side by side and serenely calls them alike or the
same. To it, spirit and matter are essentially the same. In short,
it satisfies its craving for unity by syncretism, /. c, by attempts to
unify irreconcilable matters.

In marked contrast the western mind is practical and logical.
First anil foremost it cares for external and historical facts. It needs
to cultivate the imagination. It naturalh' dwells on individuality and
dilferences which it knows. It has to work for comprehension and
unity. Above all, it recognizes that it should act as it thinks and
believes. This extreme unlikeness Ijetween the Hindu and the western
mind was the inward reason why, at the first contact of Christian and
Hindu thought, neither understood the other.

Hut in the providence of (iod, the Father of both Christian and
Hindu, these two diverse minds came into contact. Let us briefly
trace the result.

Apart from the disgust at the unchristian conduct of some men
from Christendom, when the Hindu thinker first looked at Christian
thought he viewed with lofty contempt its pretensions and proposals.

Similarly, in its first contact with Hinduism the western mind saw
only that which .-wakened contempt and pity. The Christian naturally
supposed the popular Hinduism which he saw to be the whole of
Hinduism, a system of many gods, of idols, of puerile and sometimes
immoral mythologies, of mechanical and endless rites, of thorough-
going caste, and often cruel caste. The Christian reported what he saw
and many Christians felt pity. In accordance with the genius of the

M ; i

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

865

western mind to act as it tliinks, and under tlu- inspiration of Christian
motive, Christians began efforts to give Christian thought and h'fe to
India.

Longer and fuller contact between Christian antl Hindu thought
has caused a modification of first im[)rcssions.

lV)th »„iiristian and Hindu thought recognize an infinite being with
whcii '■. bound up man's rational and spiritual life. Both magnifj- the
indwelling of this infinite being in ever)- part of the u!iiverse. Both
teach that this great being is ever revealing itself ; that the universe is
a unit, and that all things coniL- under the uni\'ersal laws of the infinite.

To Christianity God is the Hcaxenlj' Father, alwaws and infinitely
good ; God is love.

To |)hiloso[)hical Ilintluism, ni;Mi is in emanation from the infinite,
which, in ihe present stage t)f existence, is the exact result of this
emanation in [)revious stages of existence. His moral sense is an
illusion, for he cannot sin.

To popular Hinduism, man is partially what he is to philosophical
Hinduism, determinetl by fate ; ])artially he is thought of as a created
being more or less sinful, dependent on God for favor or ilisfavor.

To Christianitv', man is the child of his Heavenly Father, sinful
and often erring, yet longed for ami sought after by the h'ather.

To Christianity, caste, wliich teaches that a pure ami learned man
of humble origin is lower than an ignorant, })roud man of higher origin,
and tliat the shadow of the former could defile the latter, and that eat-
ing the same food together is a sin, is a tlisobedience to God.

To i)opular Hiiuluism, caste is ordained of God, and is the chief
thing in religion. Says Sir Monier Williams: "The distinction of
caste and the inherent su})eriority of one chiss over the three others
were thought to be as much a law of nature and a matter of divine
api)ointment as the creation of separate classes of animals with insur-
mountable differences of physical constitution, such as elephants, lions,
horses and dogs."

I're-emiuently does the contrast between Christian and Hindu
thought appear in God's relation to sin and the sinner.

y\ccording to philosophical Hinduism there is no sin or sinner, or
Saviour. According to popular Hinduism sin is mainly a matter of
fate. According to Christianity sin is the only evil in the universe.
Hut it is so evil that God grieves over it, suffers to put it away, and will
sui'fer till it is put away. The revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ
was pre-eminently of this character and to this end. To philosophical
Hinduism (mukti), salvation is passing from the ignorance and illusion
of conscious existence through unconsciousness into the infinite. To
popular Hinduism, salvation is getting out of trouble into some safe
place through merit somehow ac(|uired. To Christianit}-, salvation is
present deliverance from sin and moral union with (jod. begun hero
and to go on forever

Modification
of FirHt. Jm-
jiressions.

Kelation to
Sin and Sinner.

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j-Jinduism as a Religion.

Paper by SWAMI VIVEKANANDA, of India.

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l^HE WORLirS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

860

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.

1 lere it may be said, that the laws as laws may be without end,
but they must have had a beginning. The Vedas teach us that crea-
tion is without beginning or end. Science has proved to us that the
sum total of the cosmic energy is the same throughout all time. Then,
if there was a time when nothing existed, where was all this manifested
energy? Some say it was in a potential form in God. liut then God
is sometimes potential and sometimes kinetic, which would make him
mutable, and everything mutable is a compound, and everything com-
pound must undergo that change which is called destruction. There-
lore God would die. Therefore there never was a time when there was
no creation.

Here I stand, and if I shut my eyes and try to conceive my j
existence, " 1," " I,"" " I," what is the idea before me? The idea of a
body. Am I, then, nothing |jut a combination of matter and material
substances? The Vedas declare," No." 1 am a spirit living in a body.'
I am not the body. The body will die, but I will not die. Here am I
in this body, and when it will fail, still I will go on living. Also I had
a past. The soul was not created from nothing, for creation means a
combination, and that means a certain future dissolution. If, then,
the soul was created, it must die. Therefore, it was not created. Some
are born hapi)y, enjoying perfect health, beautiful body, mental vigor,
and with all wants supplied. Other's are born miserable. Some are
without hands or feet, some iiliots, and only drag out a miserable
existence. Why, if they are all created, why does a just and merciful
God create one haj)py and the other unhappy? Why is He so partial?
Nor would it mend matters in the least to hold that those who are mis-
erable in this life will be perfect in a future life. Why should a man
be miserable here in the reign of a just and merciful God?

In the second place, it does not give us any cause, but simply a
cruel act of an all-powerful being, and therefore it is unscientific.
There must have l)een causes, then, to make a man miserable or happy
before his birth, and those were his past actions. Why may not all
the tendencies of the mind and body be answered for by inheriteil
aptitude from parents? Here are the two parallel lines of existence-
one that of the mind, the other that of matter.

If matter and its transformation answer for all that we have, there
is no necessity of supposing the existence of a soul. Hut it cannot be
proved that thought has been evolved out of matter. We cannot deny
that bodies inherit certain tendencies, but those tendencies only mean
• le physical configuration through which a peculiar mind alone caii
act in a peculiar way. Those peculiar tendencies in that soul have
been caused by past actions. A soul with a certain tendencj- will take
birth in a body which is the fittest instrument of the display of that
tendency, by the laws of affinity. And this is in perfect accord with
science, for science wants to explain everything by habit, and habit is

VVithont B.<.
Ki n n i u R or
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Mind
.Miittci

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370

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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Rlpm4>ry

j^ot throuf^h repetitions. So these repetitions are also necessary to
explain the natural habits of a new-born soul. They were not got in
TheOrpnnof this present life; therefore, thej'' must have come clown from past lives.

Hut there is another suggestion, taking all these for granted.
Mow is it that I do not remember anything of my past life? This can
be easily explained. I am now speaking l^iiglish. It is not my mother
tongue; in fact, not a word of my mother tongue is present in my con-
sciousness; but, let uie try to bring such wortls up, they rush into my
consciousness. That shows that consciousness is the name only of the
surface of tlic mental ocean, and within its depths are stored up all our
experiences. Try and struggle and they will come up and you will be
conscious.

This is the direct and ilenioMstrative evidence. X'erification is the
periect proof of a theory, and here is the challenge thrown to the
world by Rishis. We have discovered precepts b\' which the very
depths of the ocean of memory can be stirreil up; follow them and
you will get a complete reminiscence of \'our i)ast life.

So then the Hindu bilieves tiiat he is a spirit, llim the sword
cannot pierce, him the the cannot burn, him the water cannot melt,
him the air cannot ilr\-. lie beliexes e\er\' soul is a circle whose cir-
cumference is nowiu're, I)ut wliosi- center is iocateil in a body, and
death means llie change of this ci-iiter from body to body. Nor is the
soul bound b\- the condition of matter. In its very essence it is free,
unbound, holy and pure and perfect. Hut somehow or other it has
got itself bound down b\- matter, and thinks of itself as matter.

Wily should the free, jjcrfect and pure being be under the thral-
dom of matter? lli>\v ean the [)erlect be deluded into the belief that
he is iniperlrct? We ha\e been toKi that the Hindus shirk the ques-
tion antl sa\' that no such <[uestion can be there, and some thinkers
want to answer it b}' the supi)osiug of one or more cpiasi perfect beings,
and u>e big scientific names to till u|) the gap. Hut naming, is not
e.vplaining. The ([uestioii remains the same. How can the perfect
beo'une the cjuasi periect; how can the jiuri', the absolute, change even
a microscopic particle of its nature? 1 he Hindu is sincere. He docs
not «ant to take slv'ter under sophistry. He is brave enough to face
the .:]ue■^ti<lu in a ntanly fashion. And his .uiswer is, "I do not know
I do not kiow 1m\v the perfect l)eing, the soul, came to think of itself
;is impertect, as joined and conditioned bv matter. Hut the fait is a
fact for .all that. It is a fact in everybod)'^ eonsciousness that he

We will not attenjpt to explain why

Thraldom ot
Matter.

l)0(l\

The
Hoal.

Haman

thinks ol' liiiii>elf as llu
1 am in this bod}-.

\\\'ll, then, the human -^ou
infinite, and death means onlv

is eternal and immortal, perfect and
I change of center from cMie botly to
another. The ])resent is determined b\' our past actions, and the future
will be by the present. The soul wUl gt) on < \olving u]> or reverting
back from birth to birth and de.ith to death like a tiny boat in a tem-
pest, raised one moment on the foaming crest of a billow and dashed
down into a vau iiing chasm the ne.vt. rolling to aiul fro at the mercy

? !i

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

371

of pfood and bad actions — a powerless, helpless wreck in an ever raging,
over rushing, uncompromising current of cause and effect. A little
moth placed under the wheel of causation 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, 3'Ct this is the law of nature. Is there
no hope? Is there no escape? 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 down and inspired a Vedic sage and he stood up
before the world and in trumpet 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 delusion, 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.

Ye are the children of God. The sharers of immortal bliss, holy
and perfect beings. Ye divinities on earth, sinners? It is a sin to call
a man so. It is a standing libel on human nature. Come up, live and
shake off the delusion that you are sheep — you are souls immortal,
spirits free and blest and eternal; ye arc not matter, ye are not bodies.
Matter is your servant, not you the servant of matter.

Thus it is the Vedas proclaim, not a dreadful combination of unfor-
giving 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 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 T^-iend, Thou art the source of all strength. Thou art
He that bearest the burdens of the universe; help me to bear the little
burden of this lite." Thus sang the Rishis 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 ne.xt 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 Hinilus
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 (jod for love's sake, and the prayer goes. "Lord,
1 do not want wealth, in)r children, nor learning. If it be Thy will I
will go l(» a hundred hells, l)ut grant me this, that I may love Thee
without the hope of reward unselfishly love for lo\e's sake." One of
the disciples 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

The Law
Nature.

M'A

llh'

r;,i

87a

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE EELHl/OXS.

ill

1 Iini;ila\;i.s w itli liis (luccn, ;ind there one diiy the queen was askinff him

hinv it was that he, tiie most virtuous of men, should suffer so nuich

^ miserj-, and \'uchistera answered, 'ikthold, my (jueen, the llimahuas,

< ^> how j^raiul and beautiful they are! I love them. They do not f^ive

\v' me an\•thint,^ but m\' nature is to love the ^rand, the beautiful; there-

^ fore, 1 lo\e them. .Simihirl)', 1 love the I-ord. He is the souree of all

beauty, of all sublimity, lie is the oidy object to bo lo\ed. My

nature is to lovi; llim, and therefore I love. 1 do not pray for any-

thin<j^. I ilo not ask for an\'lhin.ij. Let llim place me wherever lie

likes. I must love llim for lo\e's sake. I cannot trade in love."

The Vedas teach that the soul is divine, oidy lieUl under boiula^^e
of matter, aiul perfection will be reached when the bond shall burst,
and the wortl tlu;y use is, therefore, Mukto— freedom freedom from
the l)onds of imperfection; freedom from death and miser}'.

And they teach that this boiulaf^e can onl)' fall off throuL;h the
Tu it.\ tii^ mercy of Ciod, and this mercy comes to the pure. So piuMt)' is the
^"'vni'.v'"^ 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 onI\-. .All the crookctlness of the heart
is made straight. Then all doubt ceases. Man is no nutre the freak
of a terrible law of causation. So this is the very center, the very
vital conception of Hinduism. The Hindu does not want to live upon
words and theories; if there are existences beyond the ordinary sen-

V.cr

uial

existence, he wants to come face to face with them. If there is

a soul in him which is not matter, if there is an all-merciful uni\ersal
soul, he will go to llim direct. He must see llim. and that alone can
ilestroy 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 attem[)ts to believe a certain doctrine
or dogma, but in realizing; not in believing, but in being and becoming.

So the whole str

uggle in their system is a constant struggle to be-
e divine, to reach God and see (iod, andii

come perfect, to becom

this reaching (iod, seeing (jod, becoming perfect, even as the Father in

heaven is perfect, consists the religion of the Hindus.

Aiul what becomes of man when he becomes perfect? He lives a
life of bliss, infinite. He enjoys infinite and perfect bliss, having ob-
tained the onl)' thing in which man ought to have pleasure — (iod —
and enjoys the bliss with (iod.

.So far all the Hindus are agreed. This is the comnujn reli<:i

of all the sects of India, but then the c[uestion comes- perfection
is absolute, and the absolute cannot be two or three. It caimot have
any qualities. It caiuiot be an individual. And so when a soul be-
comes perfect and absolute, it must become one with the Urahman,
and he would onl\' realize the Lord as the perfection, the reality of
his own nature and existence -existence absolute; knowledge absolute,
and life absolute. We have often and often read about this being
called the losing of individuality as in becoming a stock or a stone.
"He jests at scars that never felt a wound,"

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RF.LIGTONS.

878

I tell you it is nothing of the kind. If it is happiness to enjoy
the consciousness of tliis small body, it must be more happiness to en-
joy the consciousness of two bodies, or three, four, five; and the ulti-
mate of liappiness would be reached when it would become a univer
sal consciousness.

Therefore, to ^ain this intlnite, universal individuality, this miser-
able little individuality must j;o. Then alone can death cease, when I
am one with life. Then alone can misery cease, when I am \vith hap-
piness itself. Then alone can all errors cease, when I am one with
knowledge itself. And this is the necessary scientific conclusion.
Science has proved to me that physical individuality is a delusion, that
really my both' is one little, continuously chan^in^ body in an un-
broken ocean of matter, and the Adwaitam is the necessary conclusion
with my other counterjjart, mind

Science is nothini^ but the finding of unit)', aiul as soon as any
science can reach the |)erfect unity it will stop from further prot^ress,
because it will then have reached the t^f)al. Thus, chemistr\' cannot
progress further, when it shall have tliscovered one element out of
which all others could be made. l'h\sics will stop when it shall be
able to discover one energy of which all others are but manifestations.
The science of reli,t,non w ill become ])erfect when it discovers Him
who is the one life in a universe of death, who is the constant basis of
an evcr-changins^ world, who is the only soul of which all souls are
but manifestations. Thus, throuj^li multiplicity aiul dualit)' the ulti-
mate unity is reached, and religion can go no further. This is the goal
of all— again and again, science after science, again and again.

And all science is bound to come to this conclusion in the long
run Manifestation and not creation is the word of science of today,
and the Hindu is only glad that what he has cherished in his bosom
for ages is going to be taught in more forcible language and with fur-
ther light by the latest conclusions of science.

Descend we now from the aspirations of philosophy to the relig-
ion of the ignorant. At the very outset, I ma\' tell you that there is
no polytheism in India. In every temjile, if one stands by and listens,
he will finil the worshipers ap])ly all the attributes of (iod, including
omnipresence, to these images. It is nitt i)ol\theism. "The rose
called by any other name would smell as sweet." .Names are not ex-
planations.

I remember, when a bo\', a Christian man was preaching to a crowd
in India. Among other sweet things, he was asking the people, if he
gave a blow to their idol with his stick, what couicl it do?" One of
his hearers sharply answered: "If I abuse your God what can lie do?"
"You would be punished," said the preacher, "when you die." "So
my idol will punish you when you die," said the villager.

The tree is known by its fruits, and when I have been amongst
them that are called idolatrous men, the like of whose morality and
spirituality and love I have never seen anywhere, I stop and ask my-
self, "Can sin beget holiness?"

IniliTidiiality

MllHt On.

KuliKioii (if
tlio I juoriiut.

' i;

i '

! i!

I . ■(

Sopenitition
and Bigotry.

Imaites and
Form.

374

'/'//£ ly UK ID'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Superstition 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 ihe 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 material image calls the
mental idea up and vice versa. Omnipresence, to almost the whole
world, means nothing. Has God superficial area? It not, when we
repeat the word we think of the extended earth, that is all.

As we find that somehow or other, by the laws of ourcon.stitution,
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 dif-
ferent images and forms. Hut 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 worship, material wor-
ship," says the Vedas, "is the lowest 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 cannot express, nor the moon
nor the stars, the lightning cannot express him, nor the fire; through
Him 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? .Nor is it compulsory in Hinduism.

If a man can realize his divine nature with the 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 traveling
from error to truth, but from truth to truth, from lower to higher truth.
To him all the religions, from the lowest fetichism to the highest abso-
lutism, mean so many attempts of the human soul to grasp and realize
the infinite, each determined by the conditions of its birth and associa-
tion, 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.

Unity and variety is the plan of nature, and the Hindu has recog-
nized it. Every other religion lays down certain fixed dogmas, and
tries to force society to adopt them. They lay down before society
one coat which must fit Jack and Job and Henry, all alike. If it does
not fit John or Henry he must go without a coat to cover his body.

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

The Hindus have discovered tliat the absolute can only be realized or
thought of or stated through the relative, and the images, cross or cres-
cent, are simply so many centers, so many pegs to hang the spiritual
ideas on. It is not that this help is necessary for every one, but for
many, and those that do not need it have no right to say that it is
wrong.

One thing I must tell you. Idolatry in India does not mean any-
thing horrible. It is not the mother of harlots. On the other hand, it
is the attempt of undeveloped minds to grasp high spiritual truths.
The Hindus have their faults; but mark tliis, they are always toward
punishing their own bodies and never toward cutting the throats of
their neighbors. If the Hindu fanatic burns himself on the pyre, he
never lights the tire of iiupiisition. And even this cannot be laid at
the door of religion any more than the burning of witches can be laid
at the door of Christianity.

To the Hindu, then, the whole worltl of religion is only a travel-
ing, a coming up, of different n>en and women, through various condi-
tions and circumstances, to the same goal. ICvery religion is only an
evolution out of the material man, a (iod -and the same God is the in-
spirer of all of them Wh\-, then, are there so many contradictions?
They are only apparent, says the Hindu. The contradictions come
from the same truth adapting itself to the different circumstances of
different natures.

It is the same light coming through different colors. And these
little variations are necessary for that adaptation. Hut in the heart of
everything the same truth reigns. The Lord has declared to the Hindu
in His incarnation as Krishna, " I am in every region as the thread
through a string of pearls. Anil wherever thou seest extraordinary
holiness and extraordinary power raising and purifying humanity,
know ye, that I am there." y\nd what was the result? Through the
whole order of .Sanskrit ])hilosophy, I challenge anybody to find any
such expression as that the Hindu only would be saved, not others.
Says Vyas, " We find perfect men even beyond the pale of our caste
and creed." How, then, can the Hindu, whose whole idea centers in
God, believe in the Buddhism which is agnostic, or the Jainism which
is atheist?

The whole force of Hindu religion is directed to the great central
truth in every religion, to evolve a God out of man. They have not
seen the Father, but they have seen the .Son. And he that hath seen
the Son hath seen the Father.

This, brethren, is a short sketch of the itleas of the Hindus. The
Hindu might have failed to carry out all his plans. Hut if there is
ever to be a universal religion, it must be one which will hold no loca
tion in plac; or time; which will be infinite, like the God it will preach;
whose .Son shines ijpon the followers of Krishna or Christ, saints or
sinners, alik; which will not be the Brahman or Hudtlhist, 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

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T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

infinite arms and find a place for every human being, from the lowest
groveling man, from the brute, to the 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.

Aseka's council was a council of the Buddhist faith. Akbar's,
though more to the purpose, was only a parlor meetingi 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 in 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.

The World^s Debt to Buddha,

Paper by H. DHARMAPALA, of India.

F I were asked under what sky the human mind
has most fully developed some of its choicest
gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest
problems of life, and has found solutions of
them which well deserve the attention of those
who have studied Plato and Kant, I should
point to India. If I were to ask myself from
what literature we here in Europe may draw
that corrective which is most wanted in order
to make our inner life more perfect, more com-
prehensive, more universal, and in fact more
truly human a life, not for this life only, but for
a transfigured and eternal life, again I should
point to India.
Ancient India twenty-five centuries ago was
; scene of a religious revolution the greatest the
world has ever seen. Indian society at that time had two large and
distinguished religious foundations— the Szmanas and the Brahmanas,
Famous teachers arose and, with their disciples, went among the peo-
ple preaching and converting them to their respective views. Chief
of them were Purana Kassapa, Makkhali, Ghosala. Ajita Kesahambala,
Pakudha Kacckagara, Sanjaya Belattiputta and Niganta Nathaputta.
Amidst the galaxy of these bright luminaries there appeared other
thinkers and philosophers who, though they abstained from a higher
claim of religious reformers, yet appeared as scholars of independent
thought. Such were Havari, Pissa Mettcyya, Mettagua, Uunnaka,
Dkotaka, Upasiva, Henaka, Todeyya, Sela Parukkha, Pokkharadsati,
Maggadessakes, Maggajivins These were all noted for their learning
in their sacred Scriptures, in grammar, history, philosophy, etc.

The air was full of a coming spiritual struggle. Hundreds of the
most scholarly young men of noble families (Kulaputta) were leaving
their homes in quest of truth; ascetics were undergoing the severest
mortifications to discover the panacea for the evils of suffering. Young
dialecticians were wandering from place to place engaged in disputa-
tions, some advocating skepticism as the h?st .veapon to fight against

377

RetigioaB
Rt>Tolution.

'^smsmssatm..

37S

T//E IVORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

When naddha
ippenrwl.

the realistic doctrines oi the day, some a sort of life which was the
nearest way to gettinjj rid of existence, some denying a future life. It
.vas a time deep and many sided in intellectual movements.

The sacrificial priest was powerful then as he is now. He was the
mediator between Ciod and man. Monotheism of the most crude type,
fctichism from anthropomorphic deism to transcendental dualism was
rampant. So was matcrialisni from sensual epicureanism to trans-
cendental nihilism. In the words of Dr. Oldenberg: "When the
dialectic skepticism began to attach moral ideas, when a painful long-
ing for deliverance from the burden of being was met by the first signs
of moral decay, Buddha appeared."

" The Saviour of tlie world,
Prince Siddhartha styled on earth.
In earth on heavens and hells inicomparable.
All honored, wisest, best, most pitiful,
The teacher of Nirvana and the law."

Oriental scholars, who had begun their researches in the domain
of Indian literature at the beginning of this century, were put to great
perplexity of thought at the discovery of the existence of a religion
called after Buddha in the' Indian philosophical books. Sir William
Jones, H. H. Wilson and Mr. Colbrooke were embarrassed in being
unable to identify hiin. Dr. Marshman, in 1824, said that Buddha was
the Egyptian Apis, and Sir William Jones solved the problem by say-
ing that he was no other than the .Scandinavian Woden. The barge
of the early orientals was drifting into the sand banks of Sanskrit
literature, when in June, 1837, the whale of the obscure history of
India and Buddhism was made clear by the deciphering of the rock-
cut edicts of Asoka the Great in Garnar, and Kapur-da-gini by that
lamented archaeologist, Jaines Pramsep, by the translation of the Pali
Ceylon history into English by Turner, and by the discovery of Bud-
dhist manuscripts in the temples of Mcpal Ceylon and other Buddhist
countries. In 1844 the first rational scientific and comprehensive
account of tlie Buddhist religion was published by the eminent
scholar, Eugene Puniouf. The key to the archives of this great relig-
ion was also presented to the thoughtful people of Europe by this
great scholar.

With due gratitude I mention the names of the .scholars to whose
labors the present increasing popularity of the Buddha religion is due:
Spence, Hardy, Gogerly, Turner, Professor Childers, Dr. Davids, Dr.
Oldenberg, Max Miiller, Professor JansboU and others. Pali scholar-
ship began with the labors of the late Dr. Childers, and the western
world is indebted to Dr. Davids, who is indefatigable in his labors in
bringing the rich stores of hidden wisdom from the minds of Pali lit-
erature. To two agencies the present popularity of Buddhism is due:
Sir Edwin Arnold's incomparable epic, "The Light of Asia," and the
theosophical .society.

"The irresistible charm which influences the thinking world to
.study Buddhism, is the unparalleled life of its glorified founder. His

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS

370

teaching has found favor with every one who has studied his history.
His doctrines are the embodiment of universal love. Not only our
philologists, but even those who are prepossessed against his faith,
have ever found but words of praise," says H. G. Blavatsky. "Noth-
ing can be higher and purer than his social and moral code." "That
moral code," says Max Miillcr, "taken by itself is one of the most per-
fect which the world has ever known." "The more I learn to know
Buddha," says Professor Jansboll, "the more I admire him." "We
must," says Professor Barth, "set clearly before us the admirable figure
which detaches itself from it, that finished model of calm and sweet
majesty, of infinite tenderness for all that breathes, and compassion
for all that suffers, of perfect moral freedom and exemption from
every prejudice. It was to save others that he who was one day to be
*Gautama disdained to tread sooner in the way of Nirvana, and that he
chose to become Buddha at the cost of countless numbers of supple-
mentary existences."

"The singular force," says Professor Bloomfield, "of the great
teacher's personality is unquestioned. The sweetness of his character
and the majesty of his personality stand forth upon the background
of India's religious history with a degree of vividness which is strongly
enhanced by the absence of other religions of any great importance."
And even Bartholemy St. Hilaire, misjudging Buddhism as he does,
.says: "I do not hesitate to say that there is not among the founders
of religions a figure either more pure or more touching than that of
Buddha. Ho is the perfect model of all the virtues he preaches; his
self-abnegation, his charity, his unalterable sweetness of disposition
do not fail him for one instant." That poet of Buddhism, the sweet
singer of the "Light of Asia," Sir Edwin Arnold, thus estimates the
place of Buddhism and Buddha in history: "In poi^it of age most
other creeds are youthful compared with this venerable religion, which
has in it the eternity of a universal hope, the immortality of a bound-
less love, an indestructible clement of faith in the final good and the
pro dest assertion ever made of human freedom."

"Infinite is the wisdom of the Buddha. Boundless is the love of
Buddha to all that live." So say the Buddhist scriptures. Buddha is
called the Mahamah Karumika, which means the all merciful Lord
who has compassion on all that live. To the human mind Buddha's
wisdom and mercy is incomprehensible. The foremost and greatest
of his disciples, the blessed Sariputta, even he has acknowledged that
he could not gauge the Buddha's wisdom and mercy.

Already the thinking minds of Europe and America have offered
their tribute of admiration to his divine memory. Professor Huxley
says: "Gautama got rid of even thut shade of a shadow of permanent
existence by a metaphysical tour de force of great interest to the stu-
dent of philosophy, seeing that it supplies the wanting half of Bishop
Berkeley's well-known idealist argument. It is a remarkable indication
of the subtlety of Indian speculation that Gautama should have seen
deeper than the greatest or modern ideali.sts,"

His Social and
Moral Code.

DonndlessLoTe

^mmim^

;

'5i

I :il

History Re-
peating Itself.

ContlictinK
Opiuions.

380

TJ/£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

The tendency of enlightened thought of the day, all the world
over, is not toward theology, but philosophy and psychology. The
bark of theological dualism is drifting into danger. The fundamental
principles of evolution and monism are being accepted by the thought-
ful. The crude conceptions of anthropomorphic deism are being rel-
egated into the limbo of oblivion Lip service of prayer is giving place
to a life of altruism. Personal self-sacrifice is gaining the place of a
vicarious sacrifice. History is repeating itself. Twenty-five centuries
ago India v, itnessed an intellectual and religious revolution which cul-
minated in the overthrow of monotheism and priestly selfishness, and
the establishment of a synthetic religion. This was accomplished
through Sakya Muni. Today the Christian world is going through the
same process.

It is difficult to properly comprehend the system of Buddha by a
spiritual study of its doctrines. ;\nd especially b\' those who have
been trained to think that there is no truth in other religions. When
the scholar Vachcha, approaching Buddha, demanded a complete
elucidation of his doctrines, he said: "This doctrine is hard to see,
hard to understand, solemn and sublime, not resting on dialectic, sub-
tle, and perceived only by the wise. It is hard for you to learn who
are of different views, different ideas of fitness, difterent choice,
trained and taught in another school."

A systematic study of Buddha's doctrine has not yet been made
by the western scholars, hence the conflicting opinions expressed by
them at various times. The notion once held by the scholars that it
is a system of materialism has been exploded. The positivists of
France found it a positivism. Buckner and his school of material-
ists thought it was a materialistic sjstem. Agnostics found in Buddha
an agnostic, and Dr Rhys Davids, the eminent Pali scholar, used to
call him the "agnostic philosopher of India.'' .Some scholars have
found an expressed monotheism therein. Arthur Liliie, another stu-
dent of Buddhism, thinks it a theistic system. Pessimists identify it
with .Schopenhaur's pessimism. The latq Mr. Buckle identified it with
the pantheism of India. .Some have found in it a monoism, and the
latest dictum is Professor Huxley's, that it is an idealism supplying
"the wanting half of Bishop Buckley's well-known idealist argument."
Dr. Eikl says that " Buddhism is a system of vast magnitude, for it
embraces all the various branches of science, which our western
nations have been long accustomed to divide for separate study. It
embodies, in one living structure, grand and peculiar views of physical
science, refined and subtle theories on abstract metaphysics, an edifice
of fanciful mysticism, a most elaborate and far reaching system of
practical morality, and, finally, a church organization as broad in its
principles and as finely wrought in its most intricate network as any in
the world. All this is, moreover, confined in such a manner that the
essence and substance of the whole may be compressed into a few
formulas and symbols plain and suggestive enough to be grasped by
the most simple-minded ascetic, and yet so full of philosophic depths

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

881

|pccl by
depths

as to provide rich food for years of meditation to the metaphysician,
the poet, tlie mystic, and pleasant pasturage for the most fiery imag-
ination of anj' poetical dreamer."

In the religion of Buddha is found a comprehensive system of
ethics, and a transcendental metaphysic embracing a sublime psychol-
ogy. To the simple minded it offers a code of morality, to the earnest
student a system of pure thought. But the basic doctrine is the self-
purification of man.

Spiritual progress is impossible for him who does not lead a life)
of purity and compassion. The sui)erstructure has to be built on thej
basis of a pure life. So long as one is fettered by selfishness, passion^'
prejudice, fear, so long the doors of his higher nature are closed against
ihe truth. The rays of the sunl-'ght of truth enter the mind of him
who is fearless to examine truth, who is free from prejudice, who is not
tied by the sensual passion, and who has reasoning faculties to think.
One has to be an atheist in the sense employed by Max Miiller:

"There is an atheism which is not death; there is another which is
the very life bloi id of all true faith. It is the power of giving up what,
in our best, our i ^st honest movements, we know to be no longer
true. It is the re;i 'incss to replace the less perfect, however dear,
however sacred it may have been to us, by the more perfect, however
much it may be detested as yet by the world. It is the true self-sur-
render, the true self-sacrifice, the truest trust in truth, the truest faith."

Without that atheism no new religion, no reform, no reformation,
no resuscitation would ever have been possible; without that athei'.m
no new life is possible for any one of us. The strongest emphasis has
been put by Buddha on the supreme importance of having an un-
prejudiced mind before we start on the road of investigation of truth.
The least attachment of the mind to preconceived ideas is a positive
hindrance to the acceptance of truth. Prejudice, [)assion, fear of ex-
pression of one's convictions and ignorance are the four biases that
have to be sacrificed at the threshold. To be born as a human being
is a glorious privilege. Man's digni'.y consists in his capability to
reason and think and to live up to the highest ideal of pure life, of
calm thought, of wisdom, without extraneous interventions. Buddha
says that man can enjoy in this life a glorious existence, a life of indi-
vidual freedom, of fearlessness and compassionatcncss. This dignified
ideal of manhood may be attained by the humblest, and this consum-
mation raises him above wealth and royalty "He that is compassion-
ate and observes the law is My disciple."

Human brotherhood forms the fundamental teaching of Buddha
— universal love and .sympathy with all mankind and with animal life.
Every one is enjoined to love all beings as a mother loves her only
child and takes care of it even at the risk of her life. The realization
of the ideal of brotherhood is obtained when the first stage of holi-
ness is realized. The idea of separation is destroyed and the oneness
of life is recognized. There is no pessimism in the teachings of
Buddha, for he strictly enjoins on his holy disciples not even to sug-

A Sublime
Psychology.

DiKnified
Ideal uf Man*
bood.

;{s^

THE WORLD'S COXGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

•ii

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-p, * ■ ■ 1 ■ ■

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'IVH<'MinK8 oil
Kvolutiiiu,

|][est to others that life is not worth living. On the contrary, the use-
fulness of life is cmphasi/cd for the sake of doinij good to self and
humanity.

From the fetich worshiping savage to the highest type of hu-
nianitj' man naturally yearns for something higher. And it is for this
reason that Buddha inculcated the necessity fur self-reliance and inde-
pendent thought. To guide humanity in the right path, a Tathagata
(Messiah) appears from time to time.

In the sense of a supreme Creator, Buddha says that there is nu
such being, accepting tin- doctrine of evolution as the only true one,
with corollary, the law of cause and effect. He condemns the idea of
a Creator, but the supreme God of the lirahmans and minor gods are
accepted. But they are suliject to the law of cause and effect. This
suprenie God is all love, all merciful, all gentle, and looks upon all
beings with equanimity, liuddha teaches men to practice these four
supreme virtues. But there is no difference between the perfect man
and this supreme God of the present world.

The teachingsof the liuddhacyu evolution are clear and expansive.
We are asked to look upon the cosmos " as a continuous process un-
folding itself in regular order in obetlience 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 \ast aggregate of
original elements perpetualh' working out their own fresh redistribu-
tion in accordance with their own inherent energies. He regards the
cosmos as an almost infinite collection of material, animated by an
almo.st infinite sum total of energy," which is calletl Akasa. 1 have
used the above definition of evolution, as given l)y (irant Allen in his
" Life of Darwin," as it beautifull\- expresses the generalized idea of
Buddhism. We do not postulate that man's evolution began from the
protoplasmic stage, but we are asked not to speculate on the origin t)f
life, on the origin of the law of cause and effect, etc. So far as this
great law is concerned we say that it controls the i)hei"omena of human
life as well as those of external nature, the whole l.nowabie uni\-erse
forms one undi\ ided whole.

Buddha promulgated his system of philosophy after having studied
all religions. And in the Brahma-jola sutta sixty-two crec.^l.-> .ire dis-
cussetl. In the Kalama, the sutta, Buddha says:

"Do not believe in what ye have heard. Do not believe in tradi-
tions, because they have been handed down for man)' generations. Do
not believe in anything because it is renowned and spoken of by man\'.
Uo not believe merely because the written statement of some olil sage
is produced. Do not believe in conjectures. Do not l)elie\'e in that
as truth to which you have become attached by habit. Do not be!ie\e
merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Often observa-
tion and analysis, when the result agrees with reason, is conducive to
the good and gain of one and all. Accept and live up to it."

To the ordinary householder, whose highest happiness consists in
being wealthy here and in heaven hereafter, Buddha inculcated a sim-

Buddhist Priest, Siam.

■Jr

!'1

;f:

M ;

i i

III

884

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

pie code of morality. The student of Buddha's religion from destroy-
ing life, lays aside the club and weapon. He is modest and full of
pity. He is compassionate to all creatures that have life, lie abstains
from theft, and he passes his life in honesty and purity of heart. He
lives a life of chastity antl purity. He abstains from falsehood and
injures not his fcllowman by deceit. Putting away slander he abstains
from calumny. He is a peacemaker, a speaker of words that make for
peace. Whatever word is humane, pleasant to the ear, lovely, reaching
to the heart, such arc the words he speaks. He abstains from harsh
language. He abstains from foolish talk, he abstains from intoxicants
and stupifying drugs.

The advance student of the religion of Buddha, when he has faith
in him, thinks " full of hindrances in household life is a path defiled
by passion. Pure as the air is the life of him who has renounced all
UprfRhtnesB Worldly things How difificult it is for the man who dwells at home
Mb Object. ^q ijyg ^.hc higher life in all its fullness, in all its purity, in all its
freedom. Let me then cut off my hair and beard, let me clothe
myself in orange-colored robes, let me go forth from a household life
into the homeless state." Then before long, forsaking his portion of
wealth, forsaking his circle of relatives, he cuts off his hair and beard,
he clothes himself in the orange-colored robes and he goes into the
homeless state, and tli'Mi he passes a life of self-restraint, according to
the rules of the c )f the blessed one. Uprightness is his object

and he sees dangc .e least of those things he should avoid. He

encompasses himseli 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.

The student of pure religion abstains from earning a livelihood
by the practice of low and lying arts, viz., all divination, interpreta-
tion of dreams, palmistry, astrology, crystal prophesying, charms of
all sorts. Buddha also says:

"Just as a mighty trumpeter makes himself heard in all the four
directions without difficulty, even so of all things that have life, there
is not one that the student passes by or leaves aside, but regards them
all with mind set free and deep-felt pity, sympathy and equanimity
He lets his mind pervade the whole world with thoughts of love."

To realize the unseen is the goal of the student of Buddha's teach
ings, 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
of heart which springs from within, let him not drive back the ecstasy
of contemplation, 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."

Thought transference, thought reading, clairvoyance, projection
the sub-conscious sel^and all the higher branches of psychical science
that just now engage the thoughtful attention of psychical researchers

TlIK WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

385

four

there

, them

limity

arc within the reach of him who fulfills all righteousness, who is de-
voted to solitude and to contemplation.

Charity, observance of moral rules, purifying the mind, making
others participate in the good work that one is doing, co-operating
with others in doing good, nursing the sick, giving gifts to the deserving
ones, hearing all that is good and beautiful, making others learn the
rules of morality, accepting the laws of cause "^nd effect are the com-
mon appanage of all good men.

Prohibited employments include slave dealing, sale of weapons of
warfare, sale of poisons, sale of intoxicants, sale of flesh- all deemed
the lowest of professions.

The five kinds of wealth are: Faith, pure life, receptivity of the
mind to all that is good and beautiful, liberality and wisdom. Those
who possess tliese fivo kinds of wealth in their past incarnations are
influenced by the teachings of Buddha.

Hesidcs these, Ikiddha says in his universal precepts: "He who is
faithful, and leads the life of a householder, and possesses the follow-
ing four (Dhammas) virtues, truth, justice, firmness and liberality —
such a one does not grieve when passing away. Pray ask other teachers
and philosophers far and wide, whether there is found anything greater
than jtruth, self-restraint, liberality and forbearance."

The pupil should minister to his teacher; he should rise up in his
presence, wait upon him, listen to all that he says with respectful
attention, perform the duties neces.sary for his personal comfort, and
carefully attend to his instruction. The teacher should show affection
for his pupil. Me trains him in virtue and good manners, carefully
instructs him, imparts to him a knowledge of the sciences and wisdom
of the ancients, speaks well of him to relatives and guards him from
danger.

The honorable man ministers to his friends and relatives by pre-
senting gifts, by courteous language, by promoting as his equals and
by sharing with them his prosperity. They should watch over him
when he has negligently exposed himself, guard his property when he
is careless, assist him in difinculties, stand by him and help to provide
for his family.

The master should minister to the wants of his servants, as depend-
ents; he assigns them labor suitable to their strength, provides for
their comfortable support; he attends them in sickness, causes them
to partake of any extraordinary delicacy he may obtain and makes
them occasional presents. The servants should manifest their attach-
ment to the master; they rise before him in the morning and retire
later to rest; they dt not purloin his property, do their work cheer-
fully and actively and are respectful in their behavior toward him.

The religious teachers should manifest their kind feelings toward
lawyers. They should dissuade them from vice, excite them to virtu-
ous acts— being desirous of promoting the welfare of all. They should
instruct them in the things they had not previously learned, confirm
them in the truths and point out to them the way to heaven. The

CniTenal Pi*
oepU.

886

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

A TathaffKt*
torn into Um
(Torld.

A Warnings

lawyers should minister to the teachers by respectful attention mani-
fested in their words, actions and thoughts, and by supplying them
their temporal wants and by allowing them constant access to them.

The wise, virtuous, prudent, intelligent, teachable, docile man will
become eminent. The persevering, diligent man, unshaken in adver-
sity and of inflexible determination will become eminent. The well-
informed, friendly-disposed, prudent-speaking, generous-minded, self-
controlled, self-possessed man will become eminent.

In this world generosity, mildness of speech, public spirit and
courteous behavior are worthy of respect under all circumstances and
will be valuable in all places. If these be not possessed the mother
will receive neither honor nor support from the son, neither will the
father receive respect nor honor. Buddha also says:

*' Know that from time to time a Tathagata is born into the world,
fully enlightened, blessed and worthy, abounding in wisdom and good-
ness, happy with knowledge of the v .Id, unsurpassed as a guide to
erring mortal, a teacher Oi gods and men, a blessed Buddha. He, by
himself, thoroughly understands and sees, as it were face to face, this
universe, the world below with all its spirits and the worlds above, and
all creatures, all religious teachers, gods and men, and he then makes
his knowledge known to others. The truth doth he proclaim, both in
its letter and its spirit, lovely in its origin, lovely in its progress, lovely
in its consummation; the higher life doth he proclaim in all its purity
and in all its perfectness.

First. He is absolutely free from all passions, cooimits no evil
even in secrecy and is the embodiment of perfection. He is above
doing anything wrong.

Second. Self-introspection — by this has he reached the state of
supreme enlightenment.

Third. By means of his divine eye he looks back to the remotest
past and future. Knows the way of emancipation, and is accomplished
m the three great branches of divine knowledge, and has gained per-
fect wisdom. He is in possession of all psychic powers, always will-
ing to listen, full of energy, wisdom and dhyana.

Fourth. He has realized eternal peace and walks in the perfect
path of virtue.

Fifth. He knows three states of existence.

Sixth. He is incomparable in purity and holiness.

Seventh. He is teacher of gods and men.

Eighth. He exhorts gods and men at the proper time, according
to their individual temperaments.

Ninth. He is the supremely enlightened teacher and the perfect
embodiment of all the virtues he teaches. The two characteristics of
Buddha are wisdom and compassion."

Buddha also gave a warning to his followers when he said:

"He who is not generous, who is fond of sensuality, who is disturbed
at heart, who is of uneven mind, who is not reflective, who is not of
calni mind, who is discontented at heart, who has no control over his
senses— such a disciple is far from me, though he is in body near me."

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

387

The attainment of salvation is by the perception of self through
charity, purity, self-sacrifice, self-knowledge, dauntless energy, pa-
tience, truth, resolution, love and equanimity. The last words of
Huddha were these:

" He ye lamps unto yourselves; be ye a refuge to yourselves; betake
yourself to an eternal voyage; hold fast to the truth as a lamp; hold
fast as a refuge to the truth; look not for refuge to any one besides
yourselves. Learn ye, then, that knowledge which I have attained
and have declared unto you and walk ye in it, practice and increase in
order that the path of holiness may last and long endure for the bless-
ing of many people, to the relief of the world, to the welfare, the
blessing, the joy of gods and men."

Attainment
of Halvation.

J''^,

;. y\'

M :fl

: 'i i.4

Xhe L^w of Qause and ^ffect, as X^^ght

by B^d<^ha.

Paper by SHAKU SOYEN, of Japan.

Natare of

CUUHO,

F we open our eyes and look at the universe
we observe the sun and moon and the stars on
the sky; mountains, rivers, plants, animals,
fishes and birds on the earth. Cold and warmth
come alternately; shine and rain chan<4c from
time to time without ever reachiiit,' an end.
Again let us close our eyes and canily rctlcct
upon ourselves. From morning to c\ oning we
are agitated by the feelings of pleasure and
pain, love and hate; sometimes full of ambition
and desire, sometimes called to the utmost ex-
citement of reason and will. Thus the action
of mind is like an endless issue of a spring of
water. As the phenomena of the external
world are various and marvelous, so is the internal
^V)' attitude of human mind. Shall we ask for the
explanatioaof these marvelous phenomena? Why is the unixerse in
a constant flux? Why do things ciiange? Why is the mind subjected
to a constant agitation? For these Huddhism offers only one explana-
tion, namely, the law of cause and effect.

Now let us proceed to understand the nature of this law, as taught
by Buddha himself:

First. The complex nature of cause.
Second. An endless progression of the causal law.
Third. The causal law in terms of the three worlds.
Fourth. Self-formation of cause and effect.
Fifth. Cause and effect as the law of nature.

First. The complex nature of cause. A certain phenomenon cannot
arise from a single cause, but it must have several conditions; in other
words, no effect can arise unless several causes combine together.
Take for example a case of fire. You may say its cause is oil or fuel;
but neither oil nor fuel alone can give rise to a flame. Atmosphere,

«.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

889

space and several other conditions, physical or mechanical, are neces-
sary for the rise of a flame. All these necessary conditions combined
toj^cther can be called the cause of a flame. This is only an example
for the explanation ot the complex nature of cause, but the rest may
be inferred.

Second. An endless progression of the causal law. A cause must
be preceded by another cause, and an effect must be followed by an-
other effect. Thus, if we investigate the cau=e of a cause, tiie past of
a past, by tracing back even to an eternity, we shall never reach the
first cause. The assertion that there is the first cause is contrary to the
fundamental principle of nature, since a certain cause must have an
origin in some preceding cause or causes, and there is no cause which
is not an effect. From the assumption that a cause is an effect of a
preceding cause, which is also preceded by another, thus, ad infinitum, ProgreBBion
we infer that there is no beginning in the universe. As there is no LawT* ^"
effect which is not a cause, .so there is no cause which is not an effect.
Huddhism considers the universe has no beginning, no end. Since, even
if we trace back to an eternity, absolute cause cannot be found, so we
come to the conclusion that there is no end in the universe. Like as
the waters of rivers evaporate and form clouds, and the latter changes
its form into rain, thus returning once more into the original form of
waters, the causal law is in a logical circle changing from cause to
effect, effect to cause.

Third. The causal law in terms of three worlds, namely, past,
present and future. y\ll the religions apply more or less the causal law
in the sphere of human conduct, and remark that the pleasure and
happiness of one's future life depend upon the purity of his present life,
liut what is peculiar to Ikiddhism is, it applies the law not only to the
relation of present and future life, but also past and present. As the
facial expressions of each individual are different from those of others,
men are graded by the different degrees of wisdom, talent, wealth and
birth. It is not education nor experience alone that can make a man
wise, intelligent and wealthy, but it depends upon one's pastlife. What
are the causes or conditions which produce such a difference? To
explain it in a few words, I say, it owes its origin to the different qual-
ity of actions which we have done in our j)ast life, namely, we are here
enjoying or suffering the effect of what we have done in our past life.
If you closely observe the conduct of your felh oeings, you will notice
that each individual acts different from the others. From this we can
infer that in future life each one will also enjoy or suffer the result of his
own actioi s done in this existence. As the pleasure and pain of one's
present actions, so the happiness or misery of our future world will be
the result of our present action.

Fourth. Self-formation of cause and effect. We enjoy happiness
and suffer mise:>', our own actions being causes; in other words, there
is no other cause than our own actions which make us happy or un- gelf I i
happy. Now let us observe the different attitudes of human life; one tion of o
is happy and others feel unhappy. Indeed, even among the members •""* ''*^*^*'

PaHt, Present
and Future.

8flO

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

■ ^ I !
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iJiili

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The Law
Nature.

erpr«if tlii'Ijuv.

of the same family, we often notice a pfreat diversity in wealth and fort-
une. Thus various attitudes of human life can be explained by the
self-formation of cause and effect. There is no one in the universe but
one's self who rewards or punishes him. The diversity in future stages
will be explained by the same doctrine. This is termed in Huddhism
the "sclf-dccd and self-gain," or "self-make and self-receive." Heaven
and hell are self-made. God did not provide you with a hell, but you
yourself. The glorious happiness of future life will be the effect of
present virtuous actions.

Fifth. Cause and effect as the law of nature. According to the
different sects of lUiddhism.more or less, different views are entertained
in regard to the law of causality, but so far they agree in regarding it
as the law of nature, independent of the will of lUiddlia, and much less
of the will of human beings. The law exists for an eternity, without
beginning, without end. Things grow and decay, and this is caused,
not by an external power, but by an internal force which is in things
themselves as an innate attribute. This internal law acts in accordance
with the law of cause and effect, and thus appear immense pheiH)mena
of the uni\erse. Just as the clock moves by itself without any inter-
vention of any external force, so is the progress of the universe.

We are born in the wt)rld of variety; some arc poor and unfortu-
nate, others are wealthy and happy. The state of variety will be
repeated again and again in our future lives. \\\\\ to whom slu 11 we
complain of our miserv? To none but oursehes. We reward our-
selves; so shall we do in our future life. If you ask me who deter-
mined the length of our life, I say, the law of causality. Who made
him happy and made me miserable? The law of causalit\-. Hodily
health, material wealth, wonderful g' nius, umiatural suffering are the
infallible expressions of the law of causality which governs every
])article of the universe, ever\' ])ortion of human conduct. Would you
ask me about the Buddhist moralit}? I reply, in Huddhism the
source of moral authority is the causal law. He kind, be just, be
humane, be honest, if j-ou desire to crown your future. Dishonesty,
criieit)', inhumanit)', will condemn you to a niiserable fall.

;\s I ha\e already explained to you, our sacred Huddlia is not the
creator of tins law of nature, but he is the first discoverer of the law
who led thus his followers to the height of moral perfection. Who
shall utter a word against him? Who iliscovered the first truth of the
universe? Who has saved and will save by his noble teaciungs the
millions and millions ( i" the falling human beings? Indeed, too much
approbation could not be uttered to honor his sacred name.

I 1 1

-!'!

i'xi

Brinnhia

BiidHihiirt

Faith.

Xhe {Religion of the \^orld.

Paper by ZENSHORI NOGUCHI, Interpreter for the Japanese Buddhist Priests.

TAKE much pleasure in addressing you, my
brothers, on the occasion of the first world's
religious congress, by your kind indulgence,
with what comes to my mind toda)' without
any preliminary preparation, for I have been
entirely occupied in interpreting for the four
Hijiris vvho came with me to attend this con-
gress.

As you remembered Columbus for his dis-
covery, and as you brought to completion the
wonderful enterprise of the world's fair, 1 also
have to remember one whose knocks at the
long-closed door of my country awakened us
from our long and undisturbed slumber and
led us to open our eyes to the condition of other
civilized countries, including that in which I now
am wondering at its greatness and beauty, especially as it is epito-
mized in the World's Fair. I refer to the famous Commodore Perry. I
must do for him what Americans have done and do for Columbus.
With him I have one, too, to remember, whose statue you have doubt-
less seen at the world's fair. His name was Naosuke jl, the Lord of
Hikone and the great Chancellor of Bakufu. He was unfortunately
assassinated by the hands of the conservative party, which proclaimed
him a traitor because he opened the door to the stranger without
waiting for the permission of his master the emperor.

Since we opened the door about thirty-six years have passed, dur-
ing which time wonderful changes and progress have taken place in
my country, so that now, in the midst of the White Citv and the World's
Fair, I do not find myself wondering so much as a barbarian would do.
Who made my country so civilized? He was the knocker, as 1 called
him. Commodore Perry. So my people owe a great deal to him and
to the America who gave him to us.

I must therefore make some return to him for his kindness, as you
u,re doing in the World's Fair to Columbus for his discovery Shall I
pffer to you, who represent him, Japanese teapots and teacups? No.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

893

Then what is to be done? These things that we have just laid aside
as inadequate are only materials, which fire and water can destroy.
In their stead I bring something that the elements cannot destroy, and
it is the best of all my possessions.

What is that? Buddhism! As you see, I am simply a layman,
and do not belong to any sect of Buddhism at all. So I present to
you four Buddhist sorios, who will give their addresses before you
and place in your hands many thousand copies of English translations
of Buddhist works, such as "Outlines of the Mahayana, as Taught by
Buddha;" "A Brief Account of the Shin-shu;" "A Shin-shu Catechism,"
and "The Sutra of Forty-two Sections and Two Other Short Sutras,"
etc. Besides these 400 volumes of the complete Buddha Shaka'a
"Sutra" are imported for the first time to this country as a present to
the chairman of this congress by the four Buddhist sorios. These
three Chinese translations, which, of course, Japanese can read, are
made from the original Sanskrit by many Chinese sorios in ancient
times. 1 liope they will be translated into English, which can be
understood by almost all the people of the world.

I regret to say that there is probably no Mahayana doctrine,
which is the highest order of Buddnist teaching, translated into En-
glish If you wish to know what the Mahayana doctrine is, you must
learn to road Chinese or Japanese, as you are doing in the Chatauqua
system of education, otherwise Chinese or Japanese must learn English
enough to translate them for English reading people. Whichever
way it be, wc religionists must do this, for the sake of the world. I
have devoted some years and am now devoting more years to learning
English, for the purpose of doing this in my private capacity. But the
work is too hard for me. For example, I have translate;' "^.ev Pro-
fessor Tokunaga's work, without any help from foreigners, on account
of the want of time. T am very .sorry that I have not enough copies of
that bfiok to distribute them to you all, for 1 almost used them up in
presents on my way to this city. Permi*- r..; to distribute the ten last
copies that still remain in my trunk to those who happened to take
the seats nearest me.

How many religions and their sects are there in the world?
Thousands. Is it to be hoped that the number of religions in the
world will be increased by thousands more? No. Why? If such
were our hope we ought to finally bring the number of religions to as
grnat ;i figure as that oi the population of the world, and the priests of
tiie \arious religions should not be allowed to preach for the purpose
of bringing the i)coplc into their respective sects. In that case they
snould liithcr siy: "Don't believe whatever we preach; get away
from the churtli and make your own sect as we do." Is it right for
the priest to say so? No.

Then, is there a hope of decreasing the number of religions?

Ves. How far? To one. Why? Because the truth is only one.

Each sect or religion, as its ultimate object, aims to attain truth.

Geometry teaches us that the shortest line between two points is lim«
26

Mahayi
Doctrine.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGION:

u\ '

Roiigion
the World.

ited to only one; so uc must find out that one way of attaining the
truth among the thousands of ways to \vhich the rival reli.;fions point
us, and if we cannot find out that one way among the alt jaU) estab-
lished religions we must seek it in a new one. .So lonj.' as \vc have
thousands of religions the religion of the world has not yet attained
of its full development in all respects. If the thousands of religions do
continue to develop and reach the state of full tlevelopmen\: there will
be no more any distinction between them, or any difference between
faith and reason, religion and science. This is the end at which we
aim and to which we iDelieve that we know the shortest wny.

I greet you, ladies and gentlemen of the World's Pijrliamcnt of
Religions, the gathering together of which is an impouant step in
that direction.

\Yhat 3^<^<^hism X^^ches of /V\an's Rela-
tion to Go^' ^^^ h^ Influence on
Xhose Who Y\awe f^eceived jt.

Paper by KINZA RIUGE HIRAI, of Japan.

HKRK arc very few countries in the world so
niisuiiderstood as Japan. Anion^ the innu-
merable unfair judgments, the religious
thought of my countrymen is especially mis-
represented, and the whole tation is con-
demned as heathen lie they heathen, pagan,
Aj^KU^'^^SSBi "'^ something else, it is a fact that from the
^'^'^BM^^masM beginning of our history Japan has received
"^ all teachings vvith open mind; and also that

the instructions which came from outside have
commingled with the native religion in entire
harmony, as is seen by so many temples built
in the name of truth w ith a mixed appellation
of Buddhism and Shintoism; as is seen by the
afifinity among the teachers of Confucianism
and Taoism, or other isms, and the liuddhists
and Shinto priests; as is seen by the individual Japanese, who pays
liis other respects to all teachings mentioned above; as is seen by the
pecidiar construction of the Japanese houses, which have generally
two rooms, one for a miniature Buddhist temple and the other for a
small Shinto shrine, before which the family study the respective
scriptures of the two religions; as is seen by the popular o'ls,

Wake noborii

Fumoto no iiiichi oa
Ooke redo,

Ona ji takane no
Tsuki wo niiru Kana,

which translated means: "Though there are many roads at the foot of
the mountains, yet if the top is reached the same moon is seen," and

3 8S)5

Unfiiir.ltulK-
niiMitMif,)u|iuu.

306

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Treaty

other similar odes and mottoes, which are put in the mouth of the
ignorant country old woman, when she decides the case of bigoted
religious contention among young girls. In reality Synthetic religion,
or Kntitism, is the Japanese specialty, and I will not hesitate to call it
Japanisni.

But you will protest and say: "Why, then, is Christianity not so
warmly accepted by your nation as other religions?" This is the
point which I wish especially to present before you. There are two
causes why Christianity is not so cordially received. This great relig-
ion was widely spread in my country, but in 1637 the Christian mis-
sionaries, combined with the converts, caused a tragic and bloody rebell-
ion against the country, and it is understood that those missionaries in-
tended to subjugate Japan to their own motljer country. This shocked
all Japan, and it took the government of the Shogun a year to suppress
this terrible and intrusive commotion. To those who accuse us that
our mother country prohibited Christianity, not now, but in a past age,
I will reply that it was not from religious or racial antij)alhy, but tv>
prevent such another insurrection; and to protect our independence we
were obliged to prohibit the promulgation of the Gospels.

If our history had had no such record of foreign devastation under
the disguise of religion, and if our people had had no hereditary horror
and prejudice against the name of Christianity, it might have been
eagerly embraced by the whole nation. Hut this incident has passed
and we may forget it Vet it is not entirely unreasonable that the
terrified suspicion, or )ou may say superstition, that Christanity is the
instrument of depredation should have been avoidably or una\ oiilably
aroused in the oriental mind, when it is an admitted fact that some of
the powerful nations of Christendom arc graduall>' encroaching upon
the orient and when the following circumstance is daily impressed
upon our minds, reviving a vivid memory of the past historical occur-
rence. The circumstances of which I am about to speak is the present
experience of ourselves, to which I especially call the attention of this
parliament, and not only this Parliament, but also the whole of Chris-
tendom.

.Since 1853, when Commodore Perry came to Japan as the ambas-
sador of the President of the United .States of America, our country
began to be better known by all western nations and the new ports
were widely opened and the prohibition of the Gospels was abolished,
as it was before the Christian rebellion. By the convention at Yedilo,
now Tokio, in 1858, the treaty was stipulated between America and
Japan, and also with the European powers. It was the time when our
country was yet under the feudal government; and on account of our
having been secluded for over two centuries since the Christian rebell-
ion of 1637, diplomacy was quite a new experience to the feudal offi-
cers, who put their full confidence upon western nations, and, without
any alteration, accepted every article of the treaty pre ented from the
foreign governments. According to the treaty we are in a very disad-
vantageous situation; and amongst the others there arc two prominent

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

307

articles, which deprive us of our rights and advantaf'cs. One is the
exterritoriality of western nations in Japan, by which all cases in regard
to rijrht, whether of property or person, arising between the subjects
of the western nations in my country as well as between them and the
Japanese, are subjected to the jurisdiction of the authorities of the
western nations. Another regards the tariff, which, with the excep-
tion ot five per cent ad valorum, we have no right to in'pose where it
might properly be done.

It is also stipulated that either of the contracting parties to this
treaty, on giving one year's previous notice to the other, may demand
a revision thereof on or after the 1st of July, 1872. Therefore, in 1871,
our government demanded a revision, and since then we have been
constantly re(iuesting it, but foreign governments have simply ignored
our re(|uests, making many excuses. One part of the treaty between
the United Stales of America and Japan concerning the tariff was
annulled, for which we thank with sincere gratitude the kind-hearted
y\merican nation; but I am sorry to say that, as no lunopean power
has followed in the wake of America, in this respect our tariff right
remains in the same ccmdition as it was before.

We have no judicial power over the foreigners in Japan, and as a
natural consetiuence we are receiving injuries, legal and moral, the
accounts of which are seen constantly in our nati\e newspapers. As
tiie western people li\e far from us they do not know the exact cir-
cumstances. l'robal)ly they hear now and then the reports from the
missionaries and their friends in Japan. I do not deny that their
reports are true; but if a person wants to obtain any unmistakable
inlormation in regaril to his friend he ought to hear the opinions about
him from many sides. If you closely examine with your unbiased
mind wliat injuries we receive you will be astonished. Among many
kinds ot wrongs there are some which were utterK' unknown before
;ind entirely new to us - heathen, none of whom would ilare to speak
ol them even in private conversation.

One of the excuses offered by foreign nations is that our country
is not yet civilized. Is it the principle of civilized law that the rights
and profits of the so-called uncivilized or the weaker should be sacri-
ficed? As 1 understand it, the spirit and the necessity of law is to
protect the rights and welfare of the weaker against the aggression of
the stronger; l)ut 1 have never learned in my shallow studies of law
that the weaker should be sacrificed for the stronger. y\nolher kind
of apology comes from the religious source, and the claim is made
that the Ja[)anese are idolaters and heathen. Whether our people are
idolaters or not you will know at once if you will investigate our relig-
ious views without prejudice from authentic Japanese sources.

Hut admitting, for the sake of argument, that we are idolaters and
heathen, is it Christian morality to trample upon the rights and advan-
tages of a non-Christian nation, coloring all their natural happines.s
with the dark stain of injustice? I read in the Bible, "Whosoever
shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the ether also;" but I

Foreignen in
Jui>an.

3f)S

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELTGIONS.

In Donht
\buut Advice.

Falge
tiiinity
t<Hilod,

Chris.

Ab-

cannot discover there any passage which says, "Whosoever shall
demand justice of thee smite his right cheek, and when he turns smite
the other also." Again, 1 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
cannot 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."

Vou 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 feudalism, when we were yet in our youth, is still clung to
by the powerful iiatit)ns 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 always decided by the foreign
authorities in japan unfavorably to us; when some years ago a Japanese
was not allowed to enter a university on the Pacific coast of America
because of his being of a different race; when a few months ago the
school board in .^an Francisco enacted a regulation that no Japanese
should be allowed to enter the public school there; when last year the
Japanese were driven out in wholesale from one of the territories of
the United .Slates of America; when our business men in I'an F'ran-
cisco were com|)elletl b\' some union not to employ the Japanese
assistants or laborers, but the Americans; when there are some in the
same city who speak on the platforms against those of us who are
alreaily here; when there are many men who go in processions hoist-
ing lanterns marked "Jap must go;" when the Japanese in the Hawaiian
islands are deprived of their suffrage; 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
arc in such a situation is it unreasonabler-notwithstanding the kind-
ness 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 Chris-
tianity? If such be the Christian ethics, well, we are perfectly .satis-
fied to be heathen.

If any person should claim that there are many people in Japan
who speak and write against Christianity, I am not a hypocrite and I
w-11 frankly state that I was the first in my country who ever publicly
attacked Christianit)'; no, not real Christianity, but false Christianity,
the wrongs done toward us by the people of Christendom. If any
reprove the Japanese because they have had strong anti-Christian soci-
eties, 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 fal.se Christianity and the injustice
which we receive from the people of Christendom. Do not think that

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

300

T took such a stand on account of my boin^,' a liuddhist, for this was
my position many years before I entered the Huddhist temple. Hut,
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 I. I say this to you because 1 do not wish to be under-
stood as a bigoted Huddhist 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
Huddhism is called Christianity or Christianity is named Huddhism,
whether we are called Confucianists or Shintoists, we arc not particu-
lar; but we are very particular about the truth taught and its consistent
application. Whether Christ saves us or drives us into hell, whether
Gautama Huddha was a real person or there never was such a man, it
is not a matter of consitleration to us; but the consistency of doctrine
ail'' conduct is the point on which we put the greater importance.
Tl'jrefore, unless the inconsistency which we observe is renounced, and
especially the unjust treaty by which we are entailed is revised upon
an ecpiitable basis, our people will never cast away their prejudice
about Christianity, in spite of the clocjuent orator who speaks its truth
from the pulpit. We are very often called barbarians, and 1 have heard
and read that Japanese are stubborn and cannot understand the truth
of the Hible. I will achuit that this is true in some sense, for, though
they admire the elocpience of the orator and wonder at his courage,
though they approve his logical argument, yet they are very stubborn
and will not join Christianity as long as they think it is a western
morality to preach one thing and practice another.

Hut I know this is not the morality of the civilized west, and I
have the firm belief in the highest humanity and noblest generosity of
the occiilental nations towaril us. Especially as to the American
nation, I know their sympathy and integrity. I know their sympathy
l)\- their emancipation of the colored people from slavery. I know
their integrity by the patriotic spirit which established the independ-
ence of the United States of America. y\nd 1 feel sure that the cir-
cumstances which made the American jjcoplc declare independence
are in some sense comparable to the present state of my countiy. I
cannot refrain my thrilling emotion and sympathetic tears whenever
I read the Declaration of I lulependencc. You, citizens of this glorious
free United .States, who struck wluii the right time came, struck for
"Uiberty or Death;" you. who waded through blood that \ou might fasten
to the mast your banner of the stripes and stars upon the land and sea;
you, who enjoy the fruition of your liberty through your struggle for it;
you, I say, may understand somewhat our position, and as you asked
for justice from your mother country, we, too, ask justice from these
foreign powers.

Admiration foi
Amerinans.

I'
I

fi'

r ii

Buddhist Temple, Bangkok, Siam.

\Yhat B^d^h^sm H^s £)one for Japan.

Paper by HORIN TOKI, of Japan.

HAVE had the pleasure of speakiiifj soini.'thiiit^
about Budclliism, and 1 now ai^ain take tlie
liberty of speaking somcthiiijf further about
liuddhisni.sothatyou niayuiulerslaiul lluit reli-
gion, aswell as its relation to our sunrise laml of
Japan, much better. In "chitlown." which
means, translated into Ivn^iisi), "det^recs of
wisdom," it is said that all Huckihas leach in
^ jp^HH^M^Ha^ two ways. One is to teach the truth of duc-
\ '^t^^^^^SKB^^ trine; the other is to guide the ^oodiuss and

righteousness of mankind. The former teaches
us that our body and spirit are alwajs in con-
stant connection with the outside world and
regulated by the absolute truth, which, having
no beginning or no end, fills the universe anil
yet performs the endless action of cause and
effect as in a circle. For instance, (iod in Chris-
tianity, the absolute extremity in Confucianism, Aineno Miiiak.i
nushi no mikoto in Shintoism, Borankamma in Brahmism, arc estab-
lished in order to show the truth of the universe.

The latter — that is to guide the goodness and rightcousnesss of
mankind — inspires us with purity and righteousness in our bodx' and
mind. In other words, it teaches us that absolute truth is constantly
acting to make a man on the surface of the earth complete his purity
and goodness. Therefore, sliould I speak from the side of goodness,
I should say that Buddhism teaches ten commandments, such as not
to kill, not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to tell a falsehood, not
to joke, not to speak evil of others, not to use double tongue, not to be
greedy, neither be stingy, not to be cruel. Such commanilnKiits guide
us into morality and goodness kindly and minutely by regulating our
everyday personal action. Such commandments, by pacii\ i;ig, puri-
fying and enlightening our passions, as well as our wisdom, shall in the
run of its course make the present society, which is full of \ ice. hatred
and struggles or race, just like hungry dogs or wolves, a h(>l\- paradise
of purity, peace and love- The regulating power of such cuiuuiand-

401

Ten roiii-
tiinuilm«nt>'.

402

THE IVORLUS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

i-i

iif

A I, i V i n K
S p i r i t _ a n il
Nationality.

incnts shall turn this troublesome world into the spiritual kinj^iloin of
fraternity and humanity.

This is only one illustration of Buddhist prcachin^t:;; therefore, you
see that Buddhism does not quarrel with other religions about the truth.
If there were a religion which teaches the truth in the same way Ikid-
dhism regards it as the truth of Buddhism disguised under the garment
of other religion. Buddhism never cares what the outside garment
might do. It only aims to promote the purity and morality of man-
kind. It never asks who discovered it? It only appreciates the good-
ness and righteousness. It helps the others in the purification of man-
kind. Buddha himself called Buddhism "a round, circulating relig-
ion," which means the truth common to ever}- religion, regardless of
the outside garment. The absolute truth must not be regarded as the
monopolization of one religion of another. The truth is the broadest
and widest. In short, Buddhism teaches us that the Buddhism is truth,
the goddess of truth who is common to every religion, but who showed
her true phase to us through the Buddhism.

And now let me tell you that this Buddhism has been a living
spirit and nationality of our beloved Japan for so many years and w ill
be forever. Consequently, the Japanese people, who have been con-
stantly guided by this beautiful star of truth of Buddha's, arc very hos-
pitable for other religions and countries, and are entirely diffiient from
some other obstinate nations. I say this witlu)ut the least boast. Nay,
I say this from simplicity and purity of mind. The Japanese of thirty
years since — that is since we opened our country for foreigners— will
prove to you that our country is quite uncc|ualed on the wa)' of pick-
ing up what is good and right, even done 1)\- others. We never say
who invented this? which country brought that? The things of good
nature have been most liearlily accepted by us, regardless of race and
nationality. Is this not the precious gift of the truth of Buddhism,
the spirit of our country?

But don't too hastily conclrde that we arc only bliutl in imitating
others. We have our own nationalit)' ; let me assure \'ou that we have
our own spirit. But we are not so obstinate to deny even what is good.
So we trust in the unity of truth, but do not believe in the Creator
fancied out by the imperfect brain of human beings. We also firmU-
reserve our own nationality as to manner, customs, arts, literature,
benevolence, architecture and language. We have a charming and
lovely nationality which characterizes all customs and relation between
the se.xes, between old and young and so on with peace and gentleness.
You may think me too boastful, but allow me to warrant )'ou that in
traveling into the interior of Japan you will never be receix-eil with the
salutation of " Hello, John." You will never be recei\ed with the
salutation, " Hello, Jack." Nay, our people are not so imi)olite--none
of them. Everywhere you go you will receive hearty welcome ami
kind hospitality.

Not only this, you are well aware of the fact that Japan has her
own originality in fine arts, sculpttire, painting, architecture, etc.

■m^U'

THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

. 403

Should you doubt me, please trouble yourself to come over to Japan,
where the beautiful mountains and clear streams will welcome you
with smiles and open heart. Japan, though small in area, with the
glorious rising as well as the setting sun, which shines over the
beautiful cherry tree flowers, will do her very best to please you. The
Japanese fine arts productions, which abound in all the cities of Japan,
will tell you their own history. Not only is there the beautiful
climate, which will tempt you to forget the departure from Japan, but
I say that you ladies and gentlemen are not so weak as to be tempted
by climate or the other things so far as to forget your country; but the
respect, courtesy, kindness and hospitality you will constantly receive
there might, perhaps, make it too hard for you to leave Japan without
shedding tears. You must not thi^*'' that this is spoken by one mortal^
Horin Toki, of Japan, but it is spoken to you by the truth, who
borrowed my tongue. Truly, it is.

And let me ask you, who do you think originated such beautiful
customs and the fine arts of worldwide reputation in Japan? Allow
mc to assure you that it was Buddhism. I have no time to ccunt, one
by one, what Buddhism has wrought out in Japan during the past
eleven hundred years. But one word is enough — Buddhism is the spirit
of Japan; her nationality is Buddhism. This is the true state of Japan.
But it is a pity that we see .some false and obstinate religionists, who,
comparing these promising Japanese with the South Islanders, have
been so carelessly trying to introduce some false religion into our
country. As I said before, we liuddhists welcome any who arc earnest
seekers after the truth, but can we keep silent to sec the falsehood
disturbing the peace and nationality of our country? The hateful
rumor of the collision taking place between the two parties is some-
times spread abroad. We, from the standpoint of love to our country,
cannot overlook this falsehood and violation of peace and fraternity.
Do you think it is right for one to urge upon a stranger to believe what
he does not li're and call that stranger foolish, barbarous, igno-
rant and obstm;»ie on account of the latter's denying the proposition
made by the former? Do you think it is right for the former to excite
the latter by calling so many names and producing social disorder?
1 should say that such a one as that is against peace, love and order,
fraternity and humanity. I should say that such a one as that is against
the truth. He who is against the truth had better die. Justice does
conquer injustice, and we are glad to see that the cloud of falsehood is
gradually disappearing before the light of truth. Also, you ladies and
gentlemen who are assembled now here are the friends of truth. Nay,
you are amidst the truth. Vou breathe the truth as you do the air.
And you surely indorse my opinion, because it is nothiuj^ but the
truth.

Originator of
Fine Artv,

i;i.

I i

■1 '

i ;

Eternal Evo-
lution.

Buddhism as jt ^xists in §iam.

Paper by H. R. H. PRINCE CHANDRADAT CHUDHADHARN, of Siam.

UDDHISM, as it exists in Siam, teaches tkit
all thiiif^s arc made up from the Dharma, a
Sanscrit term meaning the "essence of nat-
ure." The Dharma presents the three fol-
lowing phenomena, which generally exist in
every being: i. The acconiplishnient of eter-
nal evolution. 2. Sorrow and suffering, ac-
cording to human ideas. 3. A separate
power, uncontrollable by the desire of man,
and not belonging to man.

The Dharma is formed of two essences,
one known as matter, the other known as
spirit. These essences e.xist for eternity;
they are without beginning and without end;
the one represents the world and the corpo-
parts of man, and the other the mind ot man.
The three phenomena combined are the factors for
molding forms and creating sensations. The waves
of the ocean arc foriiietl but of water, and the various shapes they take
are dependent upon the degree of motion in the water; in similar man-
ner the Dharma represents the universe, and varies according to the
degree of evolution accomplished within it. Matter is called in the
Pali "Ru[)a," and spirit "Nania." Kverj'thing in the universe is made
up of Rupa and Xama, or matter and spirit, as already stated. The
difference between all material things, as seen outwardly, depends
upon the ilegree of evolution that is inherent to matter; and the dif-
ereiice between all spirits depends upon the degree of will, which is
the evolution of spirit. These differences, however, are only apparent;
in reality, all is one and the same essence, merely a modification oiF
the one great eternal tri'*-'5, Dharma.

Man, who is an aggregate of Dharma, is, however, unconscious of
the fact, because his will either receives impressions and 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 hut modified spirits and matter. Man becoir-'.

TT-jnr'Wia:'

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

405

therefore, conscious of separate existence. Hut all outward forms,
man hinisell included, are made to live or to last for a short space of
time only. They are soon to be destroyed and recreated a^ain 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, ard thereby is himself that
animal in spirit and soul. Yet outwardly he ap])ears 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 or changed intt)
other matter, be dead, as we say, that same spirit which has been
endowed with the cravings of lust and anger of a tiger, of exactly the
same nature antl feelings as those that have api)eare(l in the body of
the man before his death, may reappear now to find itself in tiie body
of a tiger suitable to its nature. Thus, so long as man is ignorant of
that nature of Dharma and fails to iilentify that nature, he continues
to receive different impressions from beings arouiul him in this uni-
verse, thereby sufferings, pains, sorrows, disappointments of all kinds,
death.

If, however, his spirit be impressed with tlie gtxxl qualities that
are fouml in a superior being, such as the deva, for instance, b\' adopt-
ing in his own life the acts and wills of that superior i)eing, man
becomes spiritually that sujjcrior being himsell', both in nature aiul
soul, even while in his i)resent form. When death puts an eiul to his
physical body, a spirit of the veiy same nature aiul (piality nia\' rea})-
pear in the new body of a deva to enjoy a life ol hap[)iness, not. to be
compared to anything that is known in this w<trli!.

However, to all beings alike, whether superior or inferior to our-
selves, death is a suffering. It is, therefore, untlesiraljle to be bt)rn
into any being that is a niotiification of Dharnui, to be sooner or later,
again and again, dissolved by the eternal phenomenon of exolution.
The only means by which we are able to free ourselves from sufferings
and death is therefore to possess a perfect knowledge of Dharma, aiul
to realize by will and acts that nature onl\' obtainable by adluring to
the precepts given by Lord Huddha in the four iU)l)le truths. I'he
consciousness of self-being is a delusion, so that, uiuil ue are con-
vinced that we ourselves and whatever lielongs to ourselves is a mere
nothingness, until we have lost the idea or impression that we are
men, until that idea be completely annihilateil aiul we have become
united to Dharma, we are unable to reach spiritually the state of
Nirvana, and that is only attained when the bodies dissolve b.jth
spiritually and physically So that one should cease all pett\- Ionis-
ing for personal happiness, and remember that one life is as hollow as
the other, that all is transitory and unreal.

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40(5

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIG/ONS.

The true Huddhi.st docs not mar the purity of his self-denial by
lustin<f after a i)ositive happiness which he himself shall enjoy here or
hereafter. It^norance of Dharma leads to sin, which leads to sorrow;
and under these conditions of existence each new birth leaves man
i<fnorant and finite still. What is to be hoped for is the absolute re-
pose 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 ])assingby cannot make out what it is. In his natural ignor-
ance the rope apj)ears to be a horrible snake and immcdi itely creates
in him alarm, fright and suffering. Soon light dwells upon him; he
now realizes that 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.

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 Merci-
ful 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 oirth, old age, ill-
ness, 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 perishable nature. If the lust
be for sensual objects it is called, in Fali, Kama Tanha. If it be for
supersensual objects, belonging to the mind but still possessing a form
in the mind, it is called Bhava Tanha. If the lust be pure for super-
sensual objects that belong to the mind but are devoid of all form
whatever, it is calletl 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 cessa-
tion of lusts and other evils. This noble truth is divided into the fol-
hncing eight paths: Right understanding, right resolutions, right
.speech, right acts, right way of earning a livelihood, right efforts,
right meditation, right state of mind. A few words of explanation on
these paths may not be found out of place.

Hy right understanding is meant proper comprehension, 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 sup-
press them. We arc 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

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS.

401

kiiully to t)ur fellow creatures. We arc to bear no malice a_Ljainst any-
boily and never to seek revent^e. W'e are to understand that in reality
we exist in tlesh and blood only for a short time and that happiness
and sufferin<^s arc transient or idealistic, and therelore we should try
to control our tlesires and cravinj^s and endeavor to be ^ood and kind
toward our fellow creatures.

By ri^ht speech is meant that we are always to speak the truth,
never to incite one's anger toward others, but always to speak of
thir.^s useful and never use harsh words destined to hurt the feelinsfs
of others.

\\y riijht acts is meant that we should nevc-r harm our fellow
creatures, neither steal, take life nor commit adultery. Temperance and
celibacy are also enjoined.

By rii^ht way of earninij a livelihood is meant that we are always
to be honest and never to use wront:;ful or guilty means to attain
an end.

liy right efforts is meant that we are to persevere in our endeavors
to do good and to mend our conduct should we ever have strayed from
the path of \ irtue.

\\y right meditation is meant that we shouUl always look upon
life as being temponir\-, consider our existence as a source of suffering,
and therefore endeaxor always to calm our minds that ma\' be excited
by the si-iise of pleasure or pain.

Right state of mind is mi'ant that we slu uld be firm in our belief
and be strictlj* intlifferetit, both to the sense or feeling of pleasure and
pain

It would be out of |)lace here to enter into further details on the
four noble truths; it would recpiire too much time. 1 will, therefore,
merely suminari/.e their meanings and say that sorrow and sufferings
.ire mainly i\uc to ignorance, w hich creates in our mintls lust, anger
aiul other evils The extermination of all sorrow and suffering and of
all happiness is attaineil by the eradication of ignorance and its evil
consecjuences, and by replacing it with cultivation, knowledge, con-
tentment 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 injuri-
ous to others is evil. ICvery act, si)eech or thought deriveil irom. truth
and that which is not injurious to others is good. lUuklhism 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, knowl-
edge produces progressive ideas. These arc called good because they
give pleasure.

The teachings of Buddhism on morals are numerous, and are di-
vided into three groups of advantages — the advantage to be obtained
in the present life, the advantage to be obtained in the future life, and
the acKantage to be obtained in all eternity. Ft)r each of these ad-
vantages there are recommended numerous paths to be followed by

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JdS 77//; WORLD'S CONGKESS OF K ELI G IONS.

tliosL- who uspirc to any one of theni. I will only quote a few exam-
ples;

To those wlio a.sj)irc to advantages in the present life liuddhism
reconiineiuls diliL^ence, economy, expenditure suitable to one's income,
and association w ith the good.

To those who aspire to the advantages of the future life are rec-
oninuMuled charity, kindness, knowledge of right and wrong.

To tliose who wish to enjoy the everlasting advantages in all
eternity are recommended purity of conduct, of mind and of knowl-
edge.

Allow me now to say a few words on the duties of man toward his
wile ami family as preached by the Lord Huddha himself to the lay
disciples in ditferent discourses, or suttas, as they are called in Pali.
They belong to the group of advantages of the present life.

A good man is characterized by seven qualities: He should not
be loailed 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 hushand siiould honor his wife, never insult her, never tlispleasc
her, make her niisLress of the house, and provide for her. On her part,
a wile ought to be cheerful toward him when he works, entertain his
friends and care for his dependents, to never do anything he does not
wis!), to lake good care of the wealth he has accumulated, not to be
idle but alwa\-s cheerful when at work herself.

I'aiiiUs in old age expect their children to take care of them, to
do all their work and business, to maintain the household, aiu'. ::fter
death, to do honor to their remains by being charitable. Parents help
tiieir children b>' preventing them from doing sinful acts, by guiding
til' 111 ill the path of virtue, by etliicating them, by providing them with
liusl)aiuls antl wives suitable to them, by leaving them legacies.

When po\erty, accident or misfortune befalls man, the Ikiddhist
is taugiit to bear it with patience, and if these are brought on by him-
self it is his duty to discover their causes and try, if possible, to rem-
edy them If the causes, however, are not to be found here in this life
he iiiiist account for them by the wrongs chjne in his former existence,

Teiiiperance is enjoined upon all liuddhists for the reason that the
jiabit of using iiitoxica^'-ig things tends to lower the mind to the level
of that of an idiot, a m, Ci man or an evil spirit.

Tluse are some of the doctrines and moralities taught by liud-
dhism, which I hope will give you an idea of the scope of the Lord
Ihiddhas teachings. In closing this brief paj)er, I earnestly wish )ou
all, iii\- brother religionists, the enjoyment of long life, happiness and
prosperity.

3uddhism.

Paper by BANRIEU YATSUBUCHI, of Japan.

HE radiating lijil't of the civilization of tlie
present century, to be seen in l{ui<)])c and
America, is reflected on all corners of the
earth. INIy country has already opened inter-
national intercourse and niaile rapid ])r()L;rcss,
owinjj to America, for which I return many
thanks. The present state of tiie world's
civilization, however, is limited al\va\s to the
near .material world, and it has not \ et set
forth the best, most beautiful and most truth-
ful spiritual world. It is because e\er\' relitf-
ion, stooping in each corner, neglects its duty,
of universal love and brotherhood, lint, at
last,.the day came fortunately that all religions
sent their members to attend the world's relig-
ious confjress in connection with the Columbian
exposition of 1893.
PucUlhisin is the doctrine taught by Buddha Shakyamuni. The
word Buddha is .Sanscrit and in Japanese it is Satorim, which means
understanding or comprehension. It has three meanings — self com-
|)rehension, to let others comprehend and perfect comprehension.
When wisdom and hvunanity are attained thorouj^jhly by one he may
be called Huddha, which means perfect comprehension. In Buddhism
we have Buddha as our saviour, the spirit incariuite of perfect self-sac-
rifice and divine compassion, and the embodiment of all that is |)ure
and jTood. Although Buddha was not a creator ami had ikj 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. H»' supi)ressed the craving and ])assi()ns 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 natmal reason.

The only difference between Buddha and all otiur brings is in
point of supreme enlightenment. Kegon Sutra teaches us that there
is no distinction between Mind, Buddha and Beings, and Nirvana Sq-

4U»

Riiddlia
fined.

no-

410

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Hmldliii.

tra also teaches us that all beinjr.s have the nature of Buddahood. If
one docs not neglect to purify his mind and to increase his power of
relijjion, he may take in the spiritual world or space and have cogni-
zance of the past, present and future in his mind. Kishinron tells us
that space has no limit, that the worlds are innumerable, that the beings
are countless, that liuddhas are numberless. Huddhism aims to turn
from the incomplete, superstitious world to the complete enlighten-
ment of the world of truth.

The complete doctrines of Huddha, who spent fifty years in elab-
orating them, were preached precisely and carefully, and their mean-
ings are so profound and deep that I caniu)t explain at this time an
infinitesimal part of tlicm. llis preaching was a compass to point
('..inpiHtg out the direction to the bewildering sijiritual world. He tau<rht his
disciples just as the tloctor cures lus patient, by giving several med-
icines according to the different cases. Twelve divisions of sutras and
cighty-fourthousand laws, made to meet the different cases of Huddha's
patients in the suffering world, are minute classifications of Huddha's
teaching. Why are there so many sects and preachings in Buddhism?
Simply because of the differences in human character. His teaching
may be divided under tour heads: Thinking about the general state ol
the world, thinking about the individual character simply, conquering
the passions, giving up the life to the sublime first principle

There is no rt)om for censure because Huddhism has many sects
which were founded on liuddha's teachings, because Huddha consid-
ered it best to preach according to the spiritual needs of his hearers,
and leave to them the choice of any particular sect. We are not
allowed to censure other sects, because the teaching ot each guides us
all to the same place at last. The necessity for separating the main-
sects arose from the fact that the people of different ctnnitries were
not alike in dispositions, and could not accept the same truths in the
same way as others One teaching of Huddha contains many ele-
ments which are to be distributed and separated. Hut as the object,
as taught by Huddha, is one, we teach the ignorant according to the
conditions that arise through our different sects. If you wish to know
about Huddhism thoroughly you must begin the study of it. Those
of you who would care to know the outline of Huddhism might read
Professor Nanjo's English translation of the " History of the Japanese
Huddhist Sects." This will also give you a general idea ot the Hud-
dhism of Japan.

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Buddhism and Christianity.

Paper by H. DHARMAPALA, of India.

AX .MiJLLKR says: "When a religion'
has ceased to piotUice champions, proph-
ets and martyrs it has ceased to live in
the true sense of the word, and the
decisive battle for the dominion of the
world would have to be fouj^ht out
amonj; the three missionary relijjions
which are alive: Huddhisin, Moham-
medanism and Christianity." .Sir Will-
iam W. JIunler, in his "Indian iMnjjire"
( 1893), •'^iiy^: "The secret of Ikiddha's
success was that he brought spiritual
deliverance to the people, lie preached
tiiat salvation was ecjually open to all
men, and that it nuis^ be earned, not by
propitiating imaginary deities, but by
our own conduct. His doctrines thus cut away
the religious basis of caste and had the effi-
ciency of the sacrificial ritual anil assailed the
supremacy of the Hrahmans ( i)riests) as the mediators between God
and man." Ikiddha taught that sin, sorrow aud tlcli\crance, the state
of man in this life, in all previous and in all future lives, are the inev-
itable results of his own acts ( Karma). 1 le thus a[)plied 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 deal without
reward, it follows that neither priest nor God can prevent each act
bearing its own consequences. Misery or happiness in this life is the
unavoidable result of our conduct in a past life, ami 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 exist-
ence, 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 men's estate in this world as the consequence of

413

Resnlts of IIi8
Own ActB.

■V'i
1 1 . i

III

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rractiRal Aim
of Huddliu'a
Teuchintf.

414

T//£ IVORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

acts in the past, while Christianity compensates those inequalities by
rewards in the future. A system in which our whole well-being, past,
presiMit and to come, depends on ourselves, theoretically leaves little
room for the interference, or even existence, of a personal God. IJut
the atheism of Huddha was a philosophical tenet, which, so far from
weakening the functions of right and wrong, gave them new strength
from the doctrine of Karma, or the metempsychosis of character. To
free ourselves from the thraldom of desire and from the fetters of sel-
fishness was to attain to the state of the perfect disciple, Arabat, 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 flesh and the cravings of self, and this could only be attained
by the practice of virtue. In place of rites and sacrifices Buddha pre-
scribed a code of practical morality as the means of salvation. The
four essential features of that code were: Reverence to spiritual teach-
ers and parents, control over self, kindness to other men, and reverence
for the life of all creatures. He urged on his disciples that they must
not only follow the true path themselves, but that they should teach
it to all mankind.

The life and teachings of Buddha are also beginning to exercise a
new influence on religious thought in Europe and America, liuddhism
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
example 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 si 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,takc 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 ?

The life is more than meat and the body more than raiment.
Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot
be My disciple.

He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful in much.

Whosoever shall save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall
lose his life shall preserve it.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF KELICJONS.

41 n

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but, in

For behold the kingdom of God is within you.

There is no man that hath left house or parents, or brethren, or
wife, or children, for the kingdom of (iod's sake who shall not receive
manifold more in this present tiim.-.

Take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be over-
charged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life. Watch
ye, therefore, and pray always.

Here are some Jiuddhist teachings for comparison:

Hatred docs not cease by hatretl at any time. Hatred ceases by CompiiruSnf"'
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, flics away,
taking the necuir, so let the wise man dwell upon the earth.

Like a beautiful flower, full of color and full of scent, the fine
"ords of him who acts accordingly are full of fruit.

Let him speak the truth, let him not yield to anger, let him give
when asked, even from the little he has. By these things he will enter
heaven.

The man who has transgressed one law and speaks lies and denies
a future workl, there is no sin he could not do.

The real treasure is that laid up through charity and piety, temper-
ance and self-control; the treasure thus hid is secured, and passes not
awa>'.

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. T hen
in the fullness of gladness he will make an end of grief.

He who is tnuuiuil and has compU'^r ' 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 cultivate 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 the bliss of
Nirvana. Hut 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 sel-
fishness anil realizes the oneness of all beings, is free from all preju-
dices and dualism, when he by patient investigation discovers truth,
the stage of holiness is reached.

Among Buddhist ideals arc self-sacrifice for the sake of others,
compassion based on wisdom, joy in the hope that there is final bli.ss
for the pure-minded, altruistic individual. The student of Buddha's

410

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

R u (1 (I li i H t

I(k>llll:>.

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rclijjfion takes the burden of life with sweet contentment; uprightness
is Ills dolij^lit; he encompasses 1 Imself with holiness in word and deed;
he sustains his life by means that are quite pure; fjood is his conduct,
guarded the door of liis senses, mindful and self possessed, he is alto-
gether liappy.

H. T. Buckle, the author of the "History of Civilization," says:
"A knowledge of Buddhism is necessary to the right understanding of
Chrislianity. Buddhism is, besides, a most philosophical creed. Theo-
logians should study it."

In his inaugural address delivered at the congress of orientals last
year Max Miillcr remarked: "As to the religion of Buddha being
intluenced by foreign thought, no true scholar now dreams of that.
Tiic religion of Buddha is the daughter of the old Brahman religion
ant! a daughter in many respects more beautiful than the mother. On
the contrary, it was through Buddhism that India, for the first time,
stepped forth from the isolated position and became an actor in the
historical draina of the world."

Dr. Hocy, in his preface to Dr. Oldberg's excellent work on
Bu(Kllia, says: "To thoughtful men who evince an interest in the com-
parative study of religious beliefs Buddhism, as the highest effort of
pure intellect to solve the problem of being, is attractive. It is not
less so to the metaphysician and the sociologist, who study the philos-
opli\- of the modern German pessimistic school and observe its social
tciulciicies."

Dr. Rliys David says that Buddhism is a field of inquiry, in which
the only fruit to be gathered is knowledge.

K. C. Dutt says: "The moral teachings and precepts of Buddhism
have so much in common with those of Christianity that some connec-
tion between the two systems of religion has long been suspected. Can-
did iiiipiirors who have paid attention to the history of India and of the
Greek world during the centuries immediately preceding the Christian
era, and noted the intrinsic relationship which existed between these
countries in scientific, religious and literary ideas, found no difficulty
inhrlievingthat Buddhist ideas and precepts penetrated into the Greek
work! licfore the birth of Christ. The discovery of th j A:)oka inscription
of Mirnar, which tells us that that enlightened emperor of India made
peace with five Greek kings and sent Buddhist missionaries to preach
his religion in Syria, explains to us the process by which the ideas
were coninuuiicated. Researches into doctrines of the Therapeuts in
Egypt, and oi the Essenes in Palestine, leave no doubt, even in the
minds of such devout Christian thinkers as Dean Mansel, that the
movement which those sects embodied was due to Buddhist mission-
aries wlio visited Egypt and Palestine within two generations of the
time of Alexander the Great. A few writers like Benson, Seydal and
Lillie maintain that the Christian religion has sprung directly from
IJuddhism."

•J'/

I ii ::

I' ';•!

I;:

lil

1(1

Buddhist Priest, Ceylon.

3uddha.

Paper by ZITSUZEN ASHITSU.

not, really, a remarkable cv^ent in human

story that such a large number of the dele-

es of different creeds are come together

rom every corner or tlie world, as m a cou-
rt, to discuss one problem ot humanity —
iversal brotherhood — without the least jeal-
sy? 1 am so hai)py in giving an address as
oken of my cordial acceptance of the mem-

bership of this congress of religions.

My subject is Buddha. This subject might
be treated in two ways, either absolutely or
relatively. Hut if I were to take an absolute
way I am afraid I should not be able to utter
even a single word, because, when Buddha is
observed at absolute perfection, there is no word
in human tongue which is powerful enough to
interpret the state of its grand enlightenment. So,
meanwhile. I stoop down to the lower stage, that is, to the manner of
I'elativity, in treating this subject, and will explain the highest human
enlightenment, which is calleil Ikuldha, according to the order of its
five attitudes; that is, denomination, personality, principle, function
an(i doctrine.

Denomination. Buddha i.s a Sanskrit word and is translated
K i^usha in Chinese language. The word Kaku means c.ilightcn, so
i.' who enlighteiieil his own mind and also enlightened those of
Diiitswas called Buddh;', Buddha has three personalities, namely,
{•<'-.-.Lin, Iloshin and VV'ojin. Now, in Hosshin, Ho means law and
Sii .1 leans personality, so it is the name given to the personality of
the constitution after the Buddha got the highest Buddhahood. This
personality is entirely colorless and formless, but, at the same time, it
has the nature of eternality, omnipresence, and unchangeableness.
Hosshin i^ called Birushana in Sanskrit and Ilen-i.ssai-sho in Chinese,
both meaning omnipresence.

Then, in Hoshin, Ho means effect, so this is the name given to
the personality of the result, which the Buddha attained by refining

419

Whut the
Word Hnddhu

UIUUDS.

I i

r.iii

iiiii

Til rpp Peraon-
alitii-H in Uae.

5 ii;!:

: .u I ( ■

I f

I ^ i
i'i

Pii!
fin

|.l

420

T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

his action. Its Sanskrit name is Rushana, and m Chinese it is Jonian,
in whidi Jo means clear and Man means fuUness, and when put
tofjether it means a state of the mind free from lust and evil desire,
but full of enlightened virtues instead.

This personality has another designation, which is called Jiyn-
shin, meaning an enjoying personality. And it is again subdivided
into two classes of Jijiyu and Vajiyo. Jijiyu means to enjoy the
I^uddha himself, the pleasure of attaining to the highest human virt-
ues; while Tajiyu, which is also called world enlightenment, desig-
nates the Huddha's benevolent action of imparting his holy pleasure
to his fellow beings with his supreme doctrine.

In short, the former is to enlighten one's own mind, while the lat-
ter is to enlighten those of others. These two make a whole as 1 loshin,
which is the name given to the personalitj' of the constitution, as 1
mentioned before, attainel by the Buddha b>' his self-culture. So this
personality has a beginni^ , ' i^ no end.

Lastly, Wojin is the na- 'en to a personality which spontane-

ously appears to all kinds of . gsin any state and condition in order
to preach and enlighten them equally. In Sanskrit it is called Sha-
kammi, and in Chinese, Noninjakumoku. Jakumoku means calmness
and Nonin means humanity. Me is perfectly calm; therefore he is en-
tirely free from life and dvath. lie is perfectly humane; consequently
is not content even in his state of Nirvana.

These three personalities which I have just briefly mentioned are
the attributes of the Budilha's intellectual activity, and at the same
time they are the attributes of his one supreme personality. Nay, in
the way of explanation, we can say that these three personalities are
not the monopoly of the Huddha, but we also are provided with the
same attributes. Our constitution is Hosshin, our intellect is Hoshin,
while our actions are Wojin. Then what is the difference between the
ordinary beings and Ikiddha, who is most enlightened of all? Noth-
ing but that he is developed, by his self-culture, to the highest .state,
while we ordinary beings are buried in the dust of passions. If we
cultivate our minds we can, of course, clear off the clouds of ignorance
and reach the same enlightened place with the Buddha.

So in my sect of Budd'"sm we, the Ordinary beings, arc also called
Risoku lUiddha, or beings with nature of Buddha. But, as our minds
are unfortunately full of lusts and superstition, we cannot be called
Kukyosoku Buddha, as Ahaka, or Gautama, is. lie is so entitled be-
cause he has sprung up to the highest state of mental achievement, and
there is no higher attainable. He says, in his sacred Sutra, "Bomino,"
"I am the Bucldha already enlightened hereafter."

Personality. The person of Buddha is perfectly free from life and
death. ( h\isho fumetsu.) We call it Nehan or Nirvana. Nehan is
divitled into four classes: I lonrai Jishoshojo Nehan, Uyo Nehan, Muyo
Nehan, Mujusho Nehan.

I lonrai Jishoshojo Nehan is the name given to the nature of
Buddha, which has neither beginning nor end, and is perfectly clear of

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

421

lust like a perfect mirror. But such an excellent nature as I just men-
tioned is not the peculiar property of Buddha, but every bcin^( in the
universe has just the same constitution as Buddha. So it is told in
Kcgon. .Sutra that "There is no sli!:Tht distinction between Mind,
Buddha and lacings."

Uyo Nehan is the name given to the state little advanced from the
above, when we perceive that our solicitude is fleeting, our lives are
inconstant, and even there is no such thing as ego. In this state our
mind is ijuite empty and clear, but there still remains one thing, that
is, the body. So it is called Nyo, or "something left."

Muyo Nehan is the state which has advanced one step higher than
Uyo. In this Nehan our body and intellect come to entire annihila-
tion and there nothing istraceal)le; therefore, this state is called Muyo,
or "nothing left."

Mujusho Nehan is the highest state of Nirvana. In this state we
get a perfect intellectual wisdom; we are no more subject to birth and
death. Also, we become j)erfcctly merciful; we are not content with
the self-indulging state of highest Nirvana, but we appear to the beings
of every class to save them from prevailing pains by imparting the
pleasure of Nirvana.

These being the principal g'and desires of Buddhahood, the four
merciful vows accompanj' them, namely:

I hope I can save all the beings in the universe from this igno-
rance!

I hope I can abstain from my inexhaustible desires of ignorance!

I hope I can comprehend the boundless meaning of the doctrine
of Buddha!

I hope I can attain the highest enlightenment of Buddhaship!

Out of these four classes of Nirvana the first anil last are called
the Nirvana of Mahayana, while the remaining are that of Ninayana.

Principle. The fundamental principle of Buddha is the mind,
which may be compared to a boundless sea into which the thousand
rivers of Buddha's doctrines flow; so it is Buddhism comprehends the
whole mind.

The mind is absolutely so grand and marvelous that even the
heaven can never be compared to its highness, while the earth is too
short for measuring its thickness. It has shape neither long nor short,
neither rouml nor square. Its existence is neither inside nor outside,
nor even in the middle part of bodily structure. It is purely colorless
and formless and appears freely and actively in every place through-
out the universe. But for the convenience of studying its nature we
call it, True Mind of Absolute Unity (Shinnyo).

It is told in Sutra that "all figures in the universe are stamped but
by the one form." What docs that one form mean? It is nothing but
another tlesignation of Absolute Unity and that stamps out figures,
means the innumerable phenomena before our eyes which are the
shadow or appearance of the Absolute Unity.

Thus the mind and the figure (or color) reflect each other; so the

Four Merci-
ful Vowe.

422

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

rir

W T\

i,:!i

Mn:)

EBsential
Fanctions,

') :

mind cannot be seen without the figure and the figure cannot be seen
without the mind. In other words, the figure and mind are standing
relatively, so the figure cannot exist without the mind and the mind
cannot exist without the figure. It is told in Sutra that "when we see
color we see mind." There is nothing but the absolute mind-unity
throughout the universe. Every form of figure such as heaven, earth,
mountains, rivers, trees, grasses, even a man, or what else it might be,
is nothing but the grand personality of absolute unity. And as this
absolute unity is the only object with which Buddha enlightens all
kinds of existing beings, so it is clear that the principle of Buddha is
the mind.

Function. Throe sacred virtues arc essential functions of Buddha,
which are the sacred wisdom, the graceful humanity, and the sublime
courage. Of these the sacred wisdom is also called absolute wisdom.
Wisdom in ordinary is a function of mind which has the power of judg-
ing. When it is acting relatively to the lusts of mind it is called, in
Buddhism, relative wisdom, and when standing alone, without relation
to ignorance or superstition, it is called absolute wisdom. The Buddha
with his absolute wisdom is called Monju Bosatsu, or Buddha of intel-
lectual light (Chiye Kivo utsu), or Myochi Mutorin (marvelous wis-
dom, nothing comparable).

The graceful humanity is a production of wisdom. When intel-
lectual light shines, penetrating the clouds of ignorant superstition of
all beings, they are free from suffering, misery, and endowed with an
enlightened pleasure. It is tolil in .Sutra: "The mind of Buddha is so
full of humanity that he waits upon every being with an absolutely equal
humanity."

The object of Buddha's own enlightenment is to endow with pleas-
ure and happiness all beings without making a slight distinction among
them. So it is told in Hokke Sutra that "Now all these three worlds
(which, as a whole, means the universe) are possessed of my hand, all
beings upon them are my loving children. These worlds arc full of
innumerable pains, from which I alone can save them."

The word "humanity" in Buddhism is interpreted in two ways.
One is to tender and bring something up, while the other to pity and
save. Again, the humanity of Buddha is divided into three classes,
namely, humanity relating to all kinds of beings, humanity relating to
the appearance, and humanity universally common to all things.

Now, firstly, humanity relating to all beings is the humanity with
which Buddha comprehends the relation of all beings and saves them
all alike, just as merciful parents would do their children. Secondly,
humanity relating to the appearance is the humanity with which Buddha
comprehends all phenomenal appearances which exist in relation to
conditions and preserves them on the field of perfect unity, where there
are no such distinctions as ego and non-ego, and no difference of
beings. Thirdly, humanity which is universally common to all beings,
is the humanity with which Buddha, appearing everywhere, saves all
the beings according to their different conditions, as naturally as a

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

423

een
ling
lincl

lodestone attracts iron. This is one of the four holy vows of Buddha,
that is: "I hope I can save all the beinj^s in the universe from their
ignorance."

Although the Buddha have these two virtues of wisdom and hu-
manity, he could never save a being if he had not another sacred
virtue, that is, courage. But he had such wonderful courage as to give
up his imperial priesthood, full of luxury and pleasure, simply for the
sake of fulfilling his desire of salvation. Not only this, he will not
spare any trouble or suffering, hardship or severit\', in order to crown
himself with spiritual success.

So Amita Buddha also said to himself that "firmness of mind will
never be daunted amid an extreme of pains and hardships." Truly,
nothing can be done without courage. Courage is the mother of
success. Courage is the foundation of all requisites for success. It is
the same in the saying of Confucius, "a man who has humanity in his
mind, lias, as a rule, certain courage."

Among the disciples of the Buddha, Kwan-on represents humanity,
Monju represents wisdom and Sei-shi represents courage; so it is
very manifest that these three sacred virtues are essential functions of
Buddha.

Doctrine. After .Shaku Buddha's departure from this world two Dootrimii
disciples, Kaslio and Suan, collected the dictations of his teachings. ToachinK.x.
This is the first appearance of Buddha's book, and it was entitled
"The Three Stores of llinayana ( Sanzo)," which means it contains
three different classes of doctrine, namely, K>'o, or principle; Kitsu,
or law, and Ron, or argument.

Now, firstly, Kyo (Sanskrit Sutra) is a Chinese word which means
permanent, so that it designates the principle which is permanent and
is taken as the origin of the law of the Buddhist. Second Ij-, Ritsu
(Sanskrit Vini) means a law or commandment, s(» that this portion of
the stores contains the commandments founded by the Buddha to
stop human evils. Thirdly, Ron (Sanskrit Abidarma) means argument or
discussion, so this part contains all the arguments or discussions written
by his disciples or followers.

These three stores being a part of Buddhist works, there is another
collection of three stores which is called that of Mahayana, compiled
by the disciples of the Buddha Monju Miroku, Anan, etc. Both the
Hinayana and Mahayana were prevailing together among the coun-
tries of India for a longtime after the Buddha's departure. But when
several hundred years were passed they were gradually divided into
three parts. One of them has been spread toward northern countries
such as Thibet, Mongolia, Manchuria, etc. One has been spread east-
ward through China, Corea and Japan. Another branch of Buddhism is
still remaining in the southern portion of Asiatic countries such as Cey-
lon, Siam, etc. These three branches are respectively called Northern
Mahayana, Eastern Mahayana and Southern Hinayana, and at present
Eastern Mahayana, in Japan, is the most powerful of all the Buddhist
branches.

, Jul

■.-II

Mi J

i H

Hasty Con-
cloaion.

! i;

■i|'i

i ;

111

!i;i

424

TW^" WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

The difference between Mahayana and Hinayana is this: The
former is to attain an enlightenment by getting hold of the intellectual
constitution of Buddha, while the latter teaches how to attain Nirvana
by obeying strictly the commandments given by Buddha. But if you
would ask which is the principal part of Buddhism, I should say it is,
of course, Mahayana, in which is taught how to become Buddha our-
selves instead of Hinayana,

There have been a great many Europeans and Americans who
studied Buddhism with interest, but unfortunately they have never
heard of Mahayana. They too hastily concluded that the true doc-
trine of Buddhism is Hinayana, and that so-called Mahayana is noth-
ing but a portion of Indian pure philosophy. They are wrong. They
have entirely misunderstood. They have only poorly gained, with
their scanty knowledge, a smattering of Buddhism. They are entirely
ignorant of the boundless sea of Buddha's doctrine rolling just beneath
their feet. His preaching is really so great that the famous Chisha-
daishi, of ancient China, divided it into five epochs of time and eight
teachings.

Right after Buddha attained his perfect enlightenment, he preached
that all beings have the same nature and wisdom with him. This epoch
is called Kegon.

Then he preached the Hinayana doctrine of fourAgons; that is,
Cho Agon, Chu Agon, Zo Agon, Zochi Agon. This doctrine is
divided into three classes, namely, Shomon, Engaku, and Bosaku.
Buddha preached and taught to the Shomon class of his followers the
principle of four glorious doctrines, according to which one can attain
Nirvana of Hinayana. Firsi, the world is full of sufferings and
miseries; second, superstitions and lusts come one after another and
induce us to misconceive birth and death; third, the way of attaining
Nirvana is to get rid of pains; fourth, cahiiness and emptiness is the
profound state of Nirvana.

Next he preached to his followers of the Engaku class about the
doctrine of twelve causes and conditions of human mind, which follow
each other continually just like links in a chain — sudden appearance
of idea, continuation of idea, intellect, uniting of intellect and body,
completion of six organs, feeling, retaining, loving, catching, having
birth, old age and death. In this class one is also able to attain Nir-
vana by closely pursuing the course of mental culture.

Then he taught six glorious behaviors to his followers of the
Bosaku class, by which men become Buddha, such as charity, good
behavior, forbearance, diligence, meditation, comprehension. These
three teachings of Agon are what are called the three fundamental
principles of Hinayana.

After he finished the teaching of Agon he began to preach the
principle of Yuima, Shiyaku, Eyoga, Ryogon, etc. This was the means
adopted by him to lead the disciples from Hinayana doctrine to
Mahayana, and the time is called the Ho-do Epoch.

Next comes the epoch of Mahayana, or the time when he tr.ught

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

425

The
ctual
•vana
you
it is,
our-

the personality of wisdom, that it is perfectly spiritual and entirely
colorless and formless. By this teaching he led his higher disciples to
comprehend the constitution of the spiritual world.

And he at last brought his disciples lo the highest summit of his
doctrine, where he taught the perfect principle of absolute unity, the
perfect enlightenment of true, grand Nirvana. This epoch is called
the time of Hokke and Nehan (or Nirvana).

The five epochs are so arranged according to the development of
the Shaka Buddha's preaching. His intention is simply to lead his
followers into the glorious stage of true Nirvana, so he, for the sake of
convenience, temporarily showed the truth at the first, and then pro-
ceeded step by step to the absolutely highest truth.

This is a brief explanation of the five epochs of Buddha's preach-
ing. Now let me speak a few words of the so-called eight teachings.

First comes Ton, tliat is, sudden, and it is a teaching for the
persons who have a quick perception. Second comes Zen, that is, by -give Epochs
degrees, and it is a teaching for the class of beings who can only of Preaching,
develope gradually, step by step. Third cofnes Himitsu, that is,
secret, and it is the teaching which docs not correspond to either of Ton
or Zen, but which each understand separately. Fourth comes Fujo, that
is, unfixed, and it is the teaching which corresponds to both Ton and
Zen ; it means that the teaching is not limited to any particular class
at all, but sometimes it is for the beings with quick perception, while
sometimes it is for the beings of gradual progress, or, in other words,
it preaches as the case might demand. Fifth comes Zo, that is, a store,
and it is the teaching of three collections of principles, law and
argument. .Si.xth comes Tsu, that is, correspondence, and it is the
preaching which corresponds with those three, the fifth, the seventh and
the eighth. Seventh comes Beku, that is, difference, and it is a teaching
quite different from those with which the last corresponds. Eighth
comes Kn, that is, perfection, and it is the teaching of perfect absoluteness.

Of these eight teachings, the first four are called the four kinds of
teaching manners, while the last four are called the four kinds of teach-
ing i)rinciple. These eight teachings are the doorway through which
the Buddhists enter the perfect enlightenment.

Daizokyo, or " complete work of .Shaku Buddha," is really a won-
derful store of truth. Most students in Buddhism lose their courage
and ambition at the first glance at this inexhaustible fountain of the
truth, so profound in meaning. But still the pleasure once felt in
digesting its meaning can never he forgotten, and will naturally lead
scholars into deeper and deeper parts of the sea of spiritual tranquillity
and calmness. They will at once understand that those deep problems
are nothing but symbols of grand unity which is perfectly absolute
from the human word. So, shortly before closing his eyes, Shaku
Buddha said: " I have never spoken a word until now, since I attained
to perfect enlightenment." If you understand what Shaku said you can
easily see the greatness of Buddha or his attainment.

I am not an orator, neither a great talker, myself, but I sincerely

42(5

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

! ■■ I i

Truth

1 ■

believe that your characteristic quick perception has made you under-
stand what I have said hitherto, and that the miscomprehension you
had about Buddha or Buddhism has been cleared off. But I hope you
will not stay there satisfied with what you have hitherto understood.
Go on, my dear brothers and sisters. Keep on, and you will at last
succeed in crowning your future with the perfect cnlijrhtenment. It is
for your own sake. Nay, not only for your own, but also for your
neighbors. You occidental nations, working in harmony, have wrought
out the civilization of the present century, but who will it be that
establishes the spiritual civilization of the twentieth century? It must
be you.

You know very well that our sun-rising Island of Japan is noted
for its beautiful cherry-tree flowers. But don't you know that our
Flowers of native country is also the kingdom where the flowers of truth are
blooming in great beauty and profusion at all seasons? Come to
Japan. Don't forget to take with you the truth of Buddhism. Ah,
hail the glorious spiritual spring day, when the song and odor of truth
invite you all out to our country for the search for holy paradise!

I do not believe it totally uninteresting to give here a short account
of our Indo Busseki Kofuku Society, of Japan.

The object of this society is to restore and re-establish the holy
places of Buddhism in India and to send out a certain number of
Japanese priests to perform devotional services in them, and promote
the convenience of pilgrims from Japan. These holy places are Buddha
Gaya, where Buddha attained to the perfect enlightenment; Kapila-
vastu, where Buddha was born; the Deer Park, where Buddha first
preached, and Kusinagara, where Buddha entered Nirvana.

Two thousand nine hundred and twenty years ago — that is, 1,026
years before Christ — the world became honored — Prince Siddhartha
was born in the palace of his father, King Suddhodana, in Kapilavastu,
the capital of the kingdom Magadha. When he was nineteen years old
he began to lament men's inevitable subjection to the various suffer-
ings of sickness, old age and death; and, discarding all his precious
possessions and the heirship of the kingdom, he went into a mount-
ain jungle to seek, by meditation and asceticism, the way of escape
from these sufferings. After spending six years there and finding that
the way he sought was not in asceticism, he went out from there and
retired under the Bodhi tree, of Buddha Gaya, where at last, by
profound meditation, he attained the supreme wisdom and. became
Buddha. The light of truth and mercy began to shine from him over
the whole world, and the way of perfect emancipation was opened for
all human beings, so that everyone can bathe in his blessings and walk
in the way of enligiitenmcnt.

When the ancient King Asoka, of Magadha, was converted to
Buddhism, he erected a large and magnificent temple over the spot to
show his gratitude to the founder of his new religion.

But, sad to say, since the fierce Mohammedans invaded and laid
waste the country, there being no Buddhist to guard the temple, its

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

42';

possession fell into the hand of a Brahmanist priest, who chanced to
come there and seized it.

It was early in the spring of 1891 that the Japanese priest, Rev.
Shaku Kionen, in company with H. Dharmapala, of Ceylon, visited
this holy ground. The great Buddha Gaya temple was carefully re-
paired and restored to its former state by the British government, but
they could not help being very much grieved to see it subjected to
much desecration in the hands of the Brahmanist, Mahant, and com-
municated to us their earnest desire to rescue it.

With warm sympathy for them and thinking, as Sir Edwin Arnold
said, that it is not right for Buddhists to leave the guardianship of the
holy center of a Buddhist's religion of grace to the hand of a Brah-
manist priest, we organized this Indo Busscki Kofuku Society, in Japan,
to accomplish the object above mentioned, in co-operation with the
Maha Bodhi Society, organized by Mr. H. Dharmapala and other
Buddhist brothers in India.

These are the outlines of the origin and object of our Indo Bus.scki
Kofuku Society; and I believe our Buddha Gaya movement will bring
people of all Buddhist countries into closer connection and be instru-
mental in promoting the brotherhood among the people of the whole
world.

Promotion <if
Urotberhood.

ilk : M:

I he Principles of the ^''^^^^^O'S^^^^J-

Paper by PROTAP CHUNDER MOZOOMOAR, of Calcutta, India.

i if 1

Mother of K*v
liKion.

R. rklCSIDKNT. Kcprcscntativcs of
Nations ami R<.'li;;ioiis: 1 toltl you
the other tlay that India is the inotlier
t)t relijjion, the huul of evolution.
I am ^oinij this morninj^ to ^iveyou an
example, or tlemonstrate the truth of
what I said. The Hrahmo-Somaj, of
India, which I have the honor to repre-
sent, is that example. Our society is a
new society; our relij^ion is a new re-
ligion; but it comes from far, far antiq-
uity, from the very roots t)f our nation-
al life, hundreds of centuries a^o.

Sixty-three years a^o the whole
land of India the whole country of
al -was full of a mighty clamor. The
jarring noise of a heterogeneous polytheism
tlie stillness of the sky. The cry of widows;
nay, far more lamentable, the cry of those
miserable women who had to be burned on the funeral pyre of their
dead husbands, desecrated the holiness of Cjod's earth.

We had the liuildhist, j^oddess of the country, the mother of the
people, ten handed, holdinj^ in each hand the weapons for the defen.sc
of her children. We had the white jjoddess of learning, playing on
her Vena, a stringed instrument of music, the strings of wisdom, be-
cause, my friends, all wisdom is musical; where there is a discord there
is no decj) wisdom. [Applause. | The goddess of good fortune, hold-
ing in her arms, not the liorn, but the basket of plenty, blessing the
nations of India, was there, and the god with the head of an elephant,
and the god who rides on a peacock — martial men are always fashion-
able, you know, and the 33,0OO,ckdo of gods and goddes.ses besides. I
have my theory about the mythology of Hinduism, but this is not
the time to take it up.

Amid the din and clash of this polytheism and so-called evil,
amid all the darkness of the times, there aro.se a man, a Brahman, pure
bred and pure born, whose name was Raja Ram Dohan Roy. In his

428

m. 1 1

THE WORLD'S CONCRESS OE REUG/ONS.

4ao

hoyhooti lu- had studied the Arabic and I'crsiau; he had studied San-
skrit, and his own niotlicr was a Hf n^alcc. Hclorc he was out cif his
teens he made a journey to Tliihet and learned tlie wisdom of the
l.amas.

Before he became a man he wrote a book proviiifj the falsehood
of all pol>theism and the truth of the existence of the li\ inj^ (iod.
This brought upon his head persecution, nay, even such serious dis-
pleasure of his own parents that he had to leave his home for awhile
and live the life of a wanderer. In 1S30 this man founded a society
known as the Hrahmo-Somaj; Hrahma, as >'ou know, means (iod.
Hrahmo means the worshiper of (Iod, and Soma] means societ\; there-
fore Hrahmo-Somaj means the societ\- of the worshipers of the one
living (iod. While, on the one hand he established the Hrahmo-Somaj,
on the other hand he co-operateil with tlu; l?ritish government to
abolish the barbarous custom of suttee, or the burnin^^ of willows with
their deail husbands. In 1S3J he traveled to ICntjIand, the ver\- first
Hindu who ever went to ICurope, and in iS^^ he died, and his sacred
bones are interred in Hrisco, the place where every Hindu pilfjrim
jjoes to pa)" his trii)ute of honor and reverence.

This monotheism, the one true li\ inj^ (iod — this .society in the
name of ihis <^reat God- what were the underljin^ principles upon
which it was established? The principles were those of the old Hin-
du .Scrii)tures. Tiie Hrahmo-.Somaj foundetl this nu)notheism upon
the inspiration of the V'edas and the Upanishails. When Rajar Ram
Dohaii Roy died his followers for awhile found it nearly impossible to
maintain the infant association. Hut tiie spirit of (iotl was there. The
movement sprant; up in the fullness of time. The seeds of eternal
truth were st)wn in it; how couUl it die? Hence in the course of time
other men sprang uj) to preserve it and contribute toward its ;4rowth.
Did 1 say the spirit of (iod was there? Did I say the seed of eternal
truth was there? There! Where?

All societies, all churches, all religious movement have their
fouiulation, not without, but within the depths of the human soul.
I Applause. | Where the basis of a church is outside the floods shall
rise, the rain shall beat, and the storm shall blow, and like a heap of
sand it will melt into the sea. Where the basis is within the heart,
within the soul, the storm shall rise, and the rain shall beat, and the
flood shall come, but like a rock it neither wavers nor falls. .So that
movement of the Hrahmo-Somaj shall never fall. [Applause.] Think
for yourselves, my brothers and sisters, upon what fountlation your
house is laid.

In the course of time, as the movement ^rew the members began
to doubt whether the Hindu Scriptures were reall>' infallible. In
their souls, in the depth of their intelligence, they thought the\' heard
a voice which here and there, at first in feeble accents, contradicted
the deliverances of the Vedas and the Upanishads. What shall be our
theological principles? Upon what principles shall our religion stand?
The small accents in which the question first was asked became louder

Old Hindu
Scriptures.

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430

TJ/E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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Kztract frum
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and louder and were more and more echoed in the rising religious
society until it became t.'.c most practical of all problems — upon what
book shall true religion stand?

Briefly, they found that it was impossible that the Hindu Scriot-
ures should be the only records of true religion. They found that tne
spirit was the great source of confirmation, the voice of (jod was the
, great judge, the soul of the indweller was the revealcr of truth, and,
although there were truths in the Hindu Scriptures, they could not
recognize them as the only infallible standard of spiritual reality. So
twenty-one years after the foundation of the Hralimo-Somaj the doc-
trine of the infallibility of the Hindu Scriptures was given up.

Then a further question came. The Hindu Scriptures only not
infallible! Are there not other Scriptures also? Did I not tell you the
other day that on the imperial throne of India Christianity now sat
with the Gospel of Peace '.a one hand and the scepter of civilization
in the other? [Applause.] The Hible had penetrated into India; its
pages were unfolded, its truths were read and taught. The Bible is
the book which mankind shall not ignore. [Applause.] Recognizing,
therefore, on the one hand, the great inspiration of tlie Hindu Script-
ures, we could not but on the other hand recognize the ins])iration
and the authorit\' of the Bible. [^Applause.] And in l86l we pub-
lished a book in which extracts from all scriptures were given as the
book which was to be read in the course of our devotions.

Our monotheism, therefore, stands upon all Scriptures. That is
our theological principle, and that principle did not emanate from the
depths of our own consciousness, as the donkey was delivered out of
the depths of the German consciousness; it came out as the natural
result of the indwelling of God spirit within our fellowbelievers. No,
it wcis not the Christian missionary that drew our attention to the
Bible; it was not the Mohammedan priests who showed us the excel-
lent jjassages in the Koran; it was no Zoroastrian who preached to us
the greatness of his Zend-Avesta; but there was in our hearts the God
of infinite reality, the source of inspiration of all the books, of the
Bible, of the Koran, of the Zend-Avesta, who drew our attention to
His excellencies as revealed in the record of holy experience every-
where. By His leading and by His light it was thut we recognized
these facts, and upon the rock of everlasting and eternal reality our
theological l)asiswas laid. [Loud applause.]

What is theology without morality? What is the inspiration of
I this book or the authority of that prophet without personal holiness —
i the cleanliness of this God-made temple and the cleanliness of the
\ deeper temple within? Soon after we had got through our theology
the question stared us in the face that we were not good men, pure
! minded, holy men, and that there were innumerable evils arounil us, in
' our houses, in our national usages, in the organization of our societ)'.
Reformation ^ '^^' Brahmo-Souiaj, theretore, ne.xt laid its hand upon the reformation
of Society. of society. In 185 1 the first intermarriage was celebrated. Intermar-
riage in India means the marriage of persons belonging to different

Pi ^

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS.

431

Irelig-ious
pon what

Scrjot-

tliat tne

was tlic

|Lith, and,

mlci not

lity. So

|thc doc-

castes. Caste is a sort of Chinese wall that surrt unds every household
and c-zcry little community, and beyond the limii^s of which no auda-
cious man or woman shall stray. In the lirahmo-.Somaj wc asked,
"Shall this Chinese wall disj^raee the freedom of God's children for-
ever?" Break it down; down with it, and away. [C'heers.J

Next, my honored leader and frieiitl, Keshub Cluinder Sen, so ar-
ranged that marriage between different castes should take place. The
Brahmans were offended. Wiseacres shook their heads; e\en leaders
of the Hrahmo-Somaj shrugged up their shoulders and put their hands
into their pockets. "These young firebramls," they said, "are going to
set fire to the whole of society." Hut intermarriage took place, and
widow marriage took place.

Do you know what the widows of India are? A little girl of ten
or twelve years happens to lose her husband before she knows hi.s widows of int
features very well, and fri):n that tender age to her dyiiig day she shall '^"' "''*'■
go through penances and austerities and miseries and loneliness and
disgrace which you tremble to hear of. I do not approve of or under-
stand the conduct of a woman who marries a first time and then a
second time and then a third time and a fourth time who marries as
many times as there are seasons in the year. [Laughter and ap-
plause.] I do not understand the conduct of such men and women.
But I do think that when a little child of eleven loses what men call
her husband, and who has never been a wife for a single day of her
life, to put her to the wretchedness of a lifelong widowhood, and in-
flict upon her miseries which would disgrace a criminal, is a piece of
inhumanity which cannot too soon be done away with. [Applause.]
Hence intermarriages and widow marriages. Our hands were thus
laid I pon the problem of st)cial and cU)mestic imi)rovcment, and the
result of that was that very soon a rupture took place in the Brahmo-
Somaj. VVe young men had to go we, with all our social reform —
and shift for ourselves as we best might. When these social reforms
were partially completeil there came another cpiestion.

We had married the widow; we hail prevented the burning of
widows; what about her personal purity, the sanctitication of our own
consciences, the regeneration of our own souls? Wiiat about our
acceptance before the awful tribun.d of tlie (loil of infinite justice?
Social reform and the tloing of public good is itself only legitimate
when it develojjs into the all-embracing principli- of i)ersonal purity
and the holiness of the soul.

My friends, I am often afraid, I coi.fess, when I contemplate the
condition of I^ur«)pean and American society, when xour activities are
so manifold, your work is so extensive that \'0) are drowned in it and
you have little time to consider the great ([uest.vuis of regeneration, of
personal sanctification. of trial ami juilgment did of accc'[)taiue before
God. That, is the ([uestion of all ([uestions, [Applause.] Aright
theological basis may lead to social reform, but a right line of public
activity and tlie doing of good is bound to had to the salvation of the
doer's soul ami the regeneration of i)ublic men.

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432

Secret of Per-
sonal Holinees.

i •

Making Con-
teosions.

Divine
fection.

Per-

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

After the end of the work of our social reform we were therefore
led into this great subject, How shall this unregenerate nature be re-
generated; this defiled temple, what waters shall wash it into a new
and pure condition? All these motives and desires and evil impulses,
the animal inspirations, what will put an end to them all, and make
man what he was, the immaculate child of God, as Christ was, as all
regenerated men were? [Applause.] Theological principle first, moral
principle next, and in the third place the spiritual of the Brahaao-
Somaj.

Devotions, repentance, prayer, praise, faith; throwing ourselves
entirely and absolutely upon the spirit of God and upon His saving
love. Moral aspirations do not mean holiness; a desire of being good
does not mean to be good. The bullock that carries on his back
hundred-weights of sugar does not taste a grain of sweetness because
of its unbearable load. And all our aspirations, and all our fine wishes,
and all our fine dreams and fine sermons, either hearing or speaking
them — going to sleep over them or listening to them intently — these
will never make a life perfect. Devotion only, prayer, direct percep-
tion of God's spirit, communion with Him, absolute self-abasement
before His majesty; devotional fervor, devotional excitement, spiritual
absorption, living and moving in God — that is the secret, of personal
holiness [Loud applause.]

And in the third stage of our career, therefore, spiritual excite-
ment, long devotions, intense fervor, contemplation, endless self-
abasement, not merely before God but before man, became the rule of
our lives. God is unseen; it does not harm anybody or make him
appear less respectable if he says to God: "I am a sinner; forgive
me." But to make your confessions before man, to abase yourselves
before your brothers and sisters, to take the dust off the feet of holy
men, to feel that you are a miserable, wretched object in God's holy
congregation — that requires a little self-humiliation, a little moral
courage. Our devotional life, therefore, is two-fold, bearing reverence
and trust for God and reverence and trust for man, and in our infant
and apostolical church we have, therefore, often immersed ourselves
into spiritual practices which would seem absurd to you if I were to
relate them in your hearing.

The last principle I have to take up is the progressiveness of the
Brahmo-Somaj. Theology is good, mora! resolutions are good; de-
votional fervor is good. The problem is, How shall we go on ever and
ever in an onward way, in the upper path of progress and approach
toward divine perfection? Grd is infinite; what limit is there in His
goodness or liis wisdom or His righteousness? All the Scriptures
sing His glory; all the prophets in the heaven declare His majesty;
all the martyrs have reddened the world with their blood in order
that His holiness might be known. God is the one infinite good;
and, after we had made our three attempts of theological, moral and
spiritual principle, the question came that God is the one eternal and
infinite, the inspirer of all human kind. The part of our progress then

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

433

Precepts
Httiiuomzed-

lay toward allying ourselves, toward affiliatinfj ourselves with the
faith and the righteousness and wisdom of all religions and all man-
kind.

Christianity declares the glory of ("iod; Hinduism speaks about
His infinite and eternal excellence; Mohammedanism, with fire and
sword, proves the almightiness of His will; Buddhism says how joy-
ful and peaceful He is. He is the God of all religions, of all denom-
inations, of all lands, of ail Scriptures, and our progress lay in har-
monizing these various systems, these various prophecies and devel- ood of
opments into one great system. Hence the new system of religion in Reii«»onB-
the Brahmo-Somaj is called the New Dispensation. The Christian
speaks in terms of admiration of Christianity; so does the Hebrew of
Judaism; so does the Mohammedan of the Koran; so does the Zoroas-
tr-an of the Zend-Avesta. The Christian admires his principles of
spiritual culture; the Hindu does the same; the Mohammedan does
the same.

liut the Brahmo-.Somaj accepts and harmonizes all these precepts,
systems, principles, teachings and disciplines and makes them into one
system, and that is his religion. For a whole decade, my friend,
Keshub Chundler Sen, myself and other apostles of the Brahmo-Somaj
have traveled from village to village, from province to province, fron\
continent to continent, declaring this new dispensation and the har-
mony of all religious prophecies and systems unto the glory of the one
true, living God But we are a subject race; we arc uneducated; we
are incapable; we have not the resources of money to get men to listen
to our message. In the fullness of time you have called this august
parliament of religions, and the message that we could not propagate
you have taken into your haiuls to propagate. We have made that
the gospel of our very lives, the ideal of our very being.

I do not come to the sessions of this parliament as a mere student,
not as one who has to justify his own systc- 1 come as a disciple, as
a follower, as a brother. May your labors la: blessed with prosperity,
and not only shall your Christianity and your America be exalted, but Broti.er
the Brahmo-Somaj will feel most exalted; and this pfu^ man who has
come such along distance to crave your sympathy and your kindnes•^
shall feel himself amply rewarded.

Maj/- Mie spread of the New Dispensation rest with j'ou antl make
you our brothers and sisters. Representatives of all religions, may all
your religions merge into the l''atiierhooil of Ciod and in the brother-
hood of man, that Christ's prophecy may be fulfilled, the world'- hope
may be fulfilled, and mankind may beconie one kingdom with God, our
Father. [Loud cheers. J

Com PS us

Xhe Spiritual Ideas of the Br^hmo-Somaj.

Paper by B. NAGARKAR, of Bombay.

HE last few days various faiths have been press-
ing; their claims upon your attention. And it
must be a great puzzle and perplexity for you
to accept any of these or all of these. But
during all these discussions and debates I
would earnestly ask you all to keep in mind
one prominent fact — that the essence o* all
these faiths is one and the same. The truth
that lies at the root of them all is unchanged
and unchanging, liut it requires an impartial
and dispassionate consideration to understand
and appreciate this truth. One of the poets
of our country has said:

"When Scriptures differ, and faiths dis-
agree, a man should see truth reflected in his
own spirit."
This truth cannot be observed unless we are prepared to forget
the accident of our nationality. We are all too apt to be carried away
for or against a system of religion by our false patriotism, insular
nationality and scholarly egotism. This state of the heart is detri-
mental to spiritual culture and spiritual development. Self-annihila-
tion and self-effacement are the only means of realizing the verities of
the spiritual world. The mind of man is like a lake; and just as the
clear and crystal image of the evening moon cannot he faithfully
reflected on the surface of the lake so long as the waters are disturbed
by storms and waves, so in the same way spiritual truths cannot be
imaged in the heart of man so long as his mind is disturbed by the
storms of false pride and partial prejudice.

I stand before you as an humble member of the Brahmo-Somaj,
and if the followers of other religions will commend to your attention
their own respective creeds, my humble attempt will be to place before
you the liberal and cosmopolitan principles of my beloved church.

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

435

Detriment to
SpirituHl (^ul-
tare.

430

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

:1 ii

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Livos by SiKht.

Unity of Truth.

i >

God, but to us of the Hiahmo-Soinaj 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 fore-
most ideal of the theistic faith.

You, in the western countries, arc too apt to forget 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 per-
sonal presence of God. You are too apt to be satisfied with a mere
belief; perhaps at the best, a notional belief in God. The eastern does
not live on such a belief, and such a belief can never form the life of a
lifegiving 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 stom-
ach. 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 spiritual 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 tlie instrumentality of a nation or a people, but that is no
reason why that nation or tnat 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 [)roclaim 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 appears to me that it is the duty of us all to put together the
grand and glorious truths believed in 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

■ij

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

487

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 man-
kind 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 teachings 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 tliat they taught, each 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 Divinity. 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. Moham-
med, on the other hand, most emphatically teaches the idea of
the Unity of Ciod. He rebelled against tlic 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 Mohammedanism, 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 nudahism
most sublime strains the doctrine of Nirvana, or self-denial and self- deuiai!*"* ^'''
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 supreme above
them all. The brotherhood of man is a mere corollary, or a conclu-
sion, 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
different prophets of the world, we can find out the central truth of
each faith. Having done this, itshould be our highest aim to harmon-
ize 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

■Hi

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YearninK for
UniTttrsal
Religiou.

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TJ/£ IVORLD'S CONliRJCSS OF KEUCIOiXS.

truths in religion. For the last several years there has been a cease-
less yearning, a deep longing after such a universal religion. The
present parliament of religions, which we have been for the last few
days celebrating with so much edification and ennoblement, is the
clearest indication of this universal longing, and whatever the prophets
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 fellowship that we have enjoyed for the last several
days, within the precincts of this noble hall, cannot but be productive
of much that leads toward the establishment of universal peace and
good will among men and nations of the world.

To us of the Brahmo-Somaj this happy consummation, however par-
tial and imperfect it may be for the time being, is nothing short of
a sure foretaste of the realization of the principle of the harmony of
prophets. In politics and in national government it is now an estab-
lished fact that in future countries and continents on the surface of the
earth will be governed, not by mighty monarchies or aristocratic autoc-
racies, but by the system of universal federation. The history of po-
litical 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 brotiier
pov.er or sister kingdom. What is true in politics will also be true in
'•eligion; and nations will recognize and realize the 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 mes.sage of unity and har-
mony; of universal amity and unification, proclaimed from above. We
do not believe in the revelation of books and m.cn, of histories and his-
torical records. We believe in the infallible revelation of the Spirit —
in the message that comes to man, by the touch of human spirit with
the supreme spirit. And can we even for a moment ever imagine that
the spirit of God has ceased to work in our midst? No, we cannot.
Even today God communicates His will to mankind as truly and as
really as he did in the days of Christ or Moses, Mohammed or
Buddha.

The dispensations of the world arc not isolated units of truth; but
viewed at as a whole, and followed out from the earliest to the latest
in their hi.storical sequence, they 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 dispensation in the light that comes from
above, and not according to the dead letter that might have been re-
corded 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 killeth. Therefore, brethren, let us
seek the guidance of the Spirit and interpret the message of the Su-
preme Spirit by the help of His Holy Spirit.

Thus the Brahmo-Somaj seeks to Hinduize Hinduism, Moham-

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

43»

danize Mohammedism, and Christianize Christianity. And whatever
the champions of 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 wc shall receive these from the life and teachings of
Christ Himself, and not through the medium of any church or the so-
called missionary of Christ. If Christian missionaries have in them
the meekness and humility, and the earnestness 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 Christendom reiterated
from Sunday to Sunday, from hundreds of pulpits in India, and evan-
gelists and revivalists, of the type of Dr. Pentecost, who go to our
country to sing to the same tunc 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 sec any good, or
having seen it do not recognize it, in any of the ancient or modern re-
ligious systems of India. Mere rhetoric is not 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 who have no
truth on their side. For these our only feeling is a feeling of pity —
unqualified, unmodified, earnest pity, and we are ready to ask God to
forgive them, for they know not what they say.

The first 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 Pro-
tector, the Saviour and the Judge of the human race; as the Supreme
Heing, vivifying and enlivening the whole of the sentient and insen-
tient nature.

We humbly believe that the world has yet to understand and rea.
ize, as it never has in the past, the tender and loving relationship that
exists between mankind and their Supreme, Universal, Divine Mother.
Oh, what a world of thought and feeling is centered in that one mono-
syllabic word ma, which in my language is indicative of the P2nglish
word mother. Words cannot describe, hearts cannot conceive of the
tender and self sacrificing love of a human mother. Of all human re-
lations the relation of mother to her children is the most sacred and
elevating relation. And yet our frail and fickle human mother is noth-
ing 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

ceiv« Trutlis.

(

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T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELICIONS.

mankind, irrespective of the country or the clime in which men and
women may be born. The deeper the rcaUzation of the Motherhood
Ocxl onr Mo- "f ^od the greater will be the stren|j[th a»i J intensity of our itlcas of
**•*•■• the brotherhood of man and the sisterhood of woman. Once we see

and feel that God is our Mother all the intricate problems of theology,
all the puzzlinj^ quibbles of ciiurch government, all the (juurrels and
wranglings of the so-called religious world will be solved and settled.
We, of the Hrahmo-Somaj family, hold that a vivid realization of the
Motherhood of God is the only solution (>f the intricate problems and
differences in the religious world.

May the Universal Mother grant us all Her blessings to understand
and appreciate Her sweet relationship to the vast family of mankind.
Let us approach 1 ler footstool in the spirit of 1 ler humble and obedient
children.

Shintoism.

Paper by RT, REV. REUCHI SHIBATA, President of the Thikko Sect of Shinto-
ism in Japan.

FICI""J^ very li.ippy to be able to attend this
Congress of kclii^nons as a member of tlie ad-
visory council and to hear the hi^h reasonings
aiul profound opinions of the p^cntlemen who
come from \arious countries oi; the work!. As
for me it will be my proper task to explain the
character of Shintoism, anil especially of my
Jikko sect. .

The word Shinto or Kanii-no-michi, comes'
from the two words "Shin" or "Kami," each of,
which means Deity, ami "to" or "michi" (way),i
and tlesii^Miates the way transmitted to us from'
oiu' di\ ine ancestors and in which every Jap-;
anese is bound to walk. Havintr its foundation ^.^ts Fonnda*

, , , . ^ ,- . . " . , tion in Anciant

our old lustory, conlormini^ to our ^eofrrapical History.

positions and the disposition of our people, this

way, as old as japan itself, came down to us with its ori^nnal form and

will last forever, inseparable from the Internal Imperial Mouse and

the Japanese nationalit}'.

Accordintj to our ancient scriptures there were a ^feneration of
Kami or deities in the beLjinnini; who created the heavens and the
earth tof^ether with all thinj^s, including" human beings, and became
the ancestors of the Japanese.

Jimmu-tenno, the {grandson of Nini<^i-no-Mikoto, was the first of
the human emperors. Ilavini^ brou<^ht the whole land under one rule
he ])erformed great services to the divine ancestcjrs, cherished his sub-
jects and thus discharj^ed his ^reat filial duty, as did all the emperors
after him. .So also all the subjects were deep in their respect and
adoration toward the divine ancestors and the emperors, their descend-
ants. Thouf^h in the course of time various doctrines and creeds were
introduced into the country, Confucianism in the reign of the fifteenth
emperor, Ojin, Buddhism in the reign of the twenty-ninth emperor,
Kimmei, and Christianity in moilern times, the emperors and the sub-
jects never neglected the great duty of Shinto. The present forms of

441

f ', Ml

fli

; ^ !

I :M

. ,1

iii

•f:

NatnreandOrl

f;in of KoliK'
0U8 Fonns,

:? i

442

TVZE WORLD'S CONGRF.SS OF EELiaiONS.

ceremony are come down to us from time immemorial in our history.
Of the three divine treasures transmitted from the divine ancestors, the
divine j^eni is still held sacred in the imperial palace, the divine mirror
in the ^'reat temple of Iso, and the divine sword in the temple of
Atsuta, in the province of Owari. To this day his majesty, the
emperor, performs himself the ceremony of worship to the divine
ancestors, and all the subjects perform the same to the deities of
temples, which are called, accordinjf to the local extent of the
festivity, the national, the provincial, the local ami the birth-place
temple. When the festival day of temples, especially of the birth-
place, etc., comes, all people who, li\injf in the |)lace, are, considered
specially protected by the deity ctf the temple have a holiday and
unite in performinj^ the ancient ritual of worship and prayinj^ for the
perpetuity of the imperial line and for profound peace over the land
and families. The deities dedicated to the temple are divine imperial
ancestors, illustrious loyalists, benefactors to the plarc, etc. Indeed,
the Shinto is a beautiful cultus peculiar to our native land and is con-
sidered the foundation of the perpetuity of the imperial house, the
loyalty of the subjects, and the stability of the Japanese state.

Thus far I have {jiven a short description of Shinto, which is the
way in which every Japanese, no matter to what creed — even Hud-
dhism, Christianity, etc. — he belonj^s, must walk. Let me explain
briefly the nature and oritjin of a religious force of Shinto, /. c, of the
Jikko sect, whose tenets I profess to believe.

The Thikko (practical) sect, as the name indicates, does not lay
so much stress upon mere show and speculation as upon the realiza-
tion of the teachings. Its doctrines are plain and simijle and teach
man to do man's proper work. Heinjf a new sect, it is free innw the
old dogmas and prejudices, and is regarded as a reformed sect. The
scriptures on which the principal teachings of the sect are founded are
. l*"urukotobumi, Yamatobumi, and many others. They teach us that
1 before heaven and earth came into existence there was one Absolute
t Deity called Amcnominakanushi-no-kami. lie has great virtue, and
jpower to create to reign overall things; He includes everything within
Himself, and He will last forever without end. In the beginning the
iOne Deity, self-originated, took the embodiments of two Deities— one
iwith the male nature and the other female. The male Deity is called
Takai-musibi-no-kami, and the female Kami-musubi-no-kami. These
two Deities are nothing but forms of the one substance and unite again
in the Absolute Deity. These three are called the "Three Deities of
Creation." They caused a generation of Deities to appear, who, in
their turn, gave birth to the islands of the Japanese Archipelago, the
sun and moon, the mountains and streams, the divine ancestors, etc.,
etc. .So their virtue and power are esteemed wondrous and boundless.

According to the teachings of our sect we ought to reverence the
famous mountain Fuji, assuming it to be the sacred abode of the
Divine Lord, and as the brain of the whole globe. And as every child
of the Heavenly Deity came into the world with a soul separated from

arc

lat

ute

and

thin

the

one

led

cse

ain

sof

the

tc,

ess.

the

lild

oni

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

448

the one original soul of Deity, he ought to be just as the Deity ordered
(in sacred Japanese "kanngara") anil make Fuji the example and
emblem ot his thought and action, {'"or instance, he must be plain and
simple as the form of the mountain, make his body and mind pure
as the serenity of the same, etc. We wouUl resi)ect the i)resent world,
with all its practical works, more than the future world; pray for the
long life of the emperor and the peace of the country; and by leading
a life of temperance and diligence, co-operating with one another in
doing public good, we should be responsible for the blessings of the
country.

The founder of iiiis sect is Masegawa Kakugyo, who was born in
Nagasaki, of the Hi/en province, in 1541. In tlie eighteenth year of
his age, il.isegawa, full of grief at the gloomy state of things over the
countr)', set out on a pilgrimage to various sanctuaries of famous
mountains and lakes, ShiiUoistic and Buddhistic temples. While he
was offering fervent prayers on sacred I*'uji, sometimes its summit and
sometimes within its cave, he received inspiration through the mirac-
ulous power of the mountain; and becoming convinced that this place
is the holyaboile of Aineno-mina-kanu-shi-no-kima, he founded a new
sect and propagated the creed all over the empire.

After his death in the cave, in his loCth year, the light of the
doctrines was handed down by a series of teachers. The tenth of them
was my father, .Shibata Ilanamori, l)orn at ( )gi, of the Hi/en province,
in iS0(j. lie was also in the eighteenth >-ear of his age when he
ado|)ted the doctrine of this sect. Ainiil the revolutionar)' war of
Meiji, which followed immediately, he e.xerted all his power to prop-
agate his faith by writing religious works and preaching about the
provinces.

Now I have given a short sketch of the doctrines of our religion
and of its histor)'. In the next place, let me express the humble views
that I have had for some years on religion.

As our doctrines teach us, all animate and inanimate things were
born from One Heavenlj- Deity, and every one of them has its partic-
ular mission; so we ought to love them all, and also to respect the
various forms of religions in the world. They are all based, I believe,
on the fundamental truth of religion. The difference between them is
only in the outward form, influenced by variety of history, the dispo-
sition of the i)eople and the physical conditions of the places where
they originated.

Lastly, there is one more thought that I wish to offer here. While
it is the will of Deity and the aim of all religionists that all I lis beloved
children on the earth should enjoy peace anil comfort in one accord,
many countries look still with envy and hatred toward one another,
and appear to seek opportunities of making war under the slightest
pretext, with no other aim than of wringing out ransoms or robbing a
nation of its lands. Thus, regardless of the abht^rrence of the I leavenly
Deity, they only inflict pain and calamity on innocent people. Now
find here my earnest wish is this, that the time should come soon when

'IVarliitiKH lit
tlut.likkii HHut.

RoHpect
ReliKioni*.

444

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF .^ELIGIOxWS.

i';

Univesral
Peac e and
Tranquility.

all nations on the earth will join their armies and navies with one
accord, jjuarding the world as a whole, and thus prevent preposterous
wars with each other. They should also establish a supreme court, in
order to decide the case when a difference arises between them In
that state no nation will receive unjust treatment from another, and
every nation and eve:y individual will he able to maintain their own
right and enjoy the blessings of Providence.

There will thus ensue, at last, the universal peace and tranquility
w'hich seem to be the final object of the benevolent Deity.

]*'or many years such has been my wish and hope. In order to
facilitate and realize this in the future, I earnestly plead that every
religionist of the world may try to edify the nearest jieople to devo-
tion, to root out enmity between nations, and to promote our common
objcel.

. -I

\ \\'-\\'^

Xhe Ethics and H 'story of the Jains.

Paper by VIRCHAND A. GANDLHI, of Bombay.

WISH that the duty of addressing you on the
history and tenets of the Jain faith world had
fallen on an abler person than myself. The in-
clemency of the climate and the distant voyage
which one has to undertake before he can come
here have prevented abler Jains than myself
from attendinjj this grand assembly and pre-
senting their religious convictions to you in
person. You will, therefore, look upon me as
simply the mouthpiece of Muni Almarimji.thc
learned high priest of the Jain community in
India, who has devoted his whole life to the
study of that ancient faith. I am truly sorry
that iVIuni Almarimji is not among us to take
charge of the duty of addressing you.

Without further preface I shall at once
go to the subject of the day. It will be convenient to divide this paper Two Ways of
into two parts; First, "The Philosophy and Mthics of the Jains;" sec- iji"^"''''*'' "'
ond, "The History of the Jains." ""*"'

First. Jainism has two ways of looking at things — one called
Dravyarthekaraya and the other Paryayarthcka Noya. 1 shall illus-
trate them. The production of a law is the production of something
not previously existing, if we think of it from the latter point of view,
/. e., as a I'aryaya, or modification; while it is not the production of
something not previously existing if we look at it from the former
point of view, t. e., as a Dravya or substance. According to the
Dravyarthekaraya view the universe is without beginning and end, but
according to the Paryayarthcka view we have creation and destruction
at ever>' moment.

The Jain canon may be divided into two parts: First, Shrute
Dharma, /. c, philosophy; and second, Chatra Dharma, /. r., ethics.

The .Shrute Dharma inquiries into the nature of nine principles,
six substances, si.x kinds of living beings and four states of existence
— Jiva (sentient beings), Ajiva (non-sentient things), Punya (merit),
Papa (demerit). Of the nine principles, the first is pua (soul). Ac-

445

fere

-.1

: i* !

!U.,„«aJ,Jaljil!ilHHBnH

IP
I

Ii((

TJ/J-J nVALVS CONGA'ESS OF /i£L/070A/'6\

rordiuj;' to the );iin view, soul is that olritu'iit which knows, thinks ami
tccls. It is, in tact, the divine element in the living; heinj;'. The Jain
thinks that the phenomena ol" knowle(l«;e, feelinf,^ thinking;- and will-
inj;', arc conditit>ncil on something, and that that somclhinL; must l)c as
real .is an\thint; can he. This "si>\il" is in a certain sense ililTeient
from knowlcili;e, and in another sense iilentical with it. So far as
one's knowlcdi;e is concerncil the soul is identical with it, l)ut so far as
knowled{4"e is concerncil it is ditferent from it. The
true nature of soul is rii;ht knowleili^e, rij4ht faith and ri^ht conduct.
The soul, so lon^ as it is subject to transmij^ration, is untler^oin^' evo-
lution ami involution.

The second principle is non-soul. It is not simpl)' what we under-

Noii-SouV''' *'' ^taiul 1>>' matter, but it is more than that. Matter is a term contrary

to soul. Rut ni>n-soul is its ci>ntradictt>rv. Whatever is not .soul is

some one else s

non-sou

The rest of the nine principles an- but the different states pro-
iluced by I'le combination ami separation of soul and non-soul. The
thiril principle is Tnnya (merit), that, on account of which a bcini;'
is happ>-, is ruiu'a. The fourth principle is Papa (demerit), that on
account of which a beini;" suiters from misery. The fifth is Ashrana,
the st.ite which brini;s in merit ami demerit. The seventh is Nirjara,
ilestruction of actions. The oij^hth is Jiardha, l)ondai;e of soul with
Karwa, actions. The ninth is ^loksha, total and permanent freedom
of soul from all Karwas (actions).

Substance is divideil into the sentient, or conscious, matter, stabil-
ity, space and time. .Six kinds of livinii' beings are divideil into si.\
classes, earth boily bein;j,s, water Ixuly beinj^s, tire boily beiiiLjs, wind
body beings, vegetables, ami all i>f them ha\ in^' one or^^an of sense,
that of tt>uch. These are ai;ain ilividetl into four classes of beings
ha\ini'" two oruans of sense, those of touih and «)f taste, such as

t.ipeworms, leeches, etc.; beings having three o
those of touch, taste ami smell, such as ants, 1

ree origans ot

ice, etc,

sense,
bein>'s

javiiiiT

four

origans o

"Mse, those i>f touch, taste, smell ami

^iL;ht, such as bees, scorpions, etc.; beinj^s havinij live organs of

sense,

lose of touch, t;iste, smel

SI!

rht

ami

earmi:.

lere are

human beiuiis, animals,

birll^

>en and t^ods. All these livintj

beiui^s have four, five or six of the followimj capacities: Cap;icity
of t.ikinj;' flH^ll, capacitv i^f coustructinij^ body, capacity of constructiut;
origans, ciip.icity of rcspiratii)n, capiicity of speak iiii; ;uul the capacity
of thinkin«;. Heinj;s havini:^ t>nc ori;an of sense, that is, of touch, have
the first fi>ur capacities. Heiiiijs havim; two, three and four organs of
sense, have the first five capacities, while those having; fi\e origans ha\e

all th

e si.x capacities.

Fhe Jain canonical book tuMts very cl;iboratel\' of the minute
divisii>ns of the livinj; bciiii^s, and their prophets have lonj; before the
discovery o( the micri>sc».>pi' been able to tell how many origans of
sense the minutest animalcule has. I would refer those who are ilesir-
ous of studying Jain biology, zoology, botany, anatomy and physiology
to the many books published by our society.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF HELIGIONS.

I shall now refer to the four states of existeiici-. Tliey are iiaraka,
tiryarch, iiiaiuishyra and diiva. Naraka is tlie hnvest state of exist-
ence, that of l)eint^ a denizen of hell; tiryarch is the next, that of hav- Ht^um of k«-
in^jan earth body, wati-r hody, fire body, wind body, vej^etable, of hav- •»'^""'''-
injr two, three or four orj^ans, animal and birds. The third is nianii-
shyra, of bein^f a man, and the fointh is deva, that of bein^f a deni/en
of the celestial world. The hi<^hest state of existence is the Jain
Moksha, the apotlurosis in the sense that the mortal bein^ by the
destruction of all Karnian attains the highest spiritualism, and the soul
beinj^ severed from all connection with matter re^^ains its purest state
and becomes divine.

Ilavinff briefly stated the principal articles of Jain belief, I c:ome
to the jriand (piestions the answers to whit:h are the objects of all
religious iiupiiry and the substance of all creeds.

First. What is the orij^in of tlu; universe?

This involves the ([uestion of (Jod. (iautama, tlu; Hu<l(llia, forbids
intpiiry into the be^fiiiniii}^ of thiiiLjs. In the Hralimanical literature
bearing cjn the constitution of cosmos freipieiit relereiice is made to
the days and nights of Ibahma, the periods of Manuantara and the
periods of I'eroloya. Hut the Jains, leavin^f all symbolical expression
aside, distinct 1)' reafrirm tlu: view previously promul^Mled by the previ-
ous hierophaiits, that matter and soul are eternal and cannot be
created. \'ou can afl'irm ixistence of a tiling from one point of view,
deny it from anotlur, and atfirm both existence and non-existence
with reference to it at different times. If you should third< of afHrm-
iiif^ both existence and non-existence at the same time from the same
l)()int ol vi».'W, you must say that the thiiiif cannot be spoken of simi-
larly. Under certain circumstances tlu; afhrmation of existence is not
possible ; of non-existence aiul also of both.

What is meant by these seven moiles is that a tliiiij^ should not be
considered as existin;.; everywi'ere at all times in all ways and in the
form of everything;. It may exist in one place and not in another at
one time. It is not nu,-ant by these modes that there is no certainty,
or that we have to deal with probabilities only as some scholars have
tau{fht. I'-ven the ^reat Vedanlist .Sankaracharya has possibly erred
when lie says that the Jains are agnostics. All that is implied is that
every assertion which is true is true only under certain conditions of
substance, space, time, etc.

This is the j^reat merit of the Jain philosophy, that while other
philosophies make absolute assertions, the Jain looks at things from
all staiulpoints and adapts itself like a mi;;hty ocean in which the '
sectarian rivers meri^^c' themselves. What is (ioil, then? (jod, in the
sense of an e.xtra ^osmic personal creator, has no ])lace in the Jain
philosophy. It ilistinctly denies such creator as illot^ical and irrelevant
in the general scheme of the universe. lUit it lays down that there is
a subtle essence underlying' all substances, conscious as well as uncon-
scious, which becomvs an eternal cause of all modifications and is
termed God. IJut then the advocate of theism, holding that even

riini

448

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

fli:

I-' I

m- -^

lit

! I : <

ill

andClianKt-nblo
Element in Ni^
ture.

primordial matter had its first cause — the God — argues that "every-
thing that we know had a cause. How, then, can it be but that the
elements had a cause to which they are indebted for their existence?"
That great philosopher, John Stuart Mill, replies:

"The fact of experience, however, when correctly expressed, turns
out to be, not that everything which we know derives its existence
from the cause, but only every event or change. There is in nature a
\ Permanent permanent element and also a chantrcablc; the changes are always the
effects of previous changes; the permanent existences, so far as we
know, are not effects at all. It is true wc are accustomed to say, not
only of events, but of objects, that they are produced by causes, as water
by the union of hydrogen and oxygen. But by this we only mean
that when they begin to exist their beginning is the effect of a cause,
liut their beginning to exist is not an t)bjcct, it is an event. If it be
objected that the cause of a thing's beginning to exist may be said with
propriety to be the cause of the thing itself I shall not quarrel with
the expression. Hut that which in an object begins to exist is that in
it which belongs to the changeable element in nature, the outward
form and the properties depending upon mechanical or chemical com-
binations of its component parts. There is in every object another
and a permanent element, viz., the specific elementary substance or
substances of which it consists and their inherent properties. These
are not known to us as beginning to exist; within the range of human
knowledge they have no beginning, consequently no cause; though
they themselves are causes or con-causes of everything that takes
place. I'lxperience, therefore, affords no evidences, not even analo-
gies, to justify our extending to the apparently immutable a general-
ization grounded only on our observation of thechangeable.

As a fact of experience, then, causation cannot legitimately be ex-
tended to the material universe itself, but only to its changeable phe-
nomena; of- these, indeed, causes may be affirmed without any excep-
tion. But what causes? The cause of every change is a prior change,
and such it cannot but be, for if there were no new antecedent there
would not be a new consequent. If the state of facts which brings
the phenomenon into existence had existed always, or for any indef-
inite duration, the effect also would have existed always or been pro-
duced in indefinite time ago. It is thus a necessary part of the fact of
causation, within the sphere of our experience, that the causes, as well
as the effects, had a beginning in time and were tliemselves caused.
It would seem, therefore, tliat our experience, instead of furnishing an
argument for the first cause, is repugnant to it, and that the very es-
sential of causation as it exists within the limits of our knowledge is
incompatible with a first cause."

The doctrine of the transmigration of soul or the reincarnation, is
another grand idea of the Jain philosophy. Once the whole civilized
world embraced this doctrine. Many philosophers have upheld it. Scien-
tists like Flammarion, P^iguier and Brev/ster have advocated it. The-
ologians like Miiller, Dorner and Edward Beecher have maintained it.

mmffr-

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

449

at "every-
t that the
xistence?"

ssed, turns
existence
n nature a
ilways the
) far as we
to say, not
;s, as water
only mean
of a cause.
, If it be
e said with
larrel with
t is that in
le outward
;nical com-
ict another
bstance or
cs. These
; of human
se; thou[Th
that takes
;ven analo-
a general-

itely be cx-
jeablc phe-
any excep-
ior chanfje, ■
,'dcnt there
liich brink's

any indef-
r been pro-

thc fact of
ses, as well
ves caused,
rnishin^ an
he very cs-
lowlcdgc is

arnation, is
lie civilized
Id it. Scien-
;d it. The-
lintained it.

The Bible and sacred literature of the East arc full of it, and it is today
accepted by the majority of the world's inhabitants.

People are talkinj^ of desij^n in nature. But what docs the idea of
design lead to? Desij^n means contrivance, adaptation of means to an
end. But the necessity of contrivance, the need of employing means,
is a consequence of thc^limitation of power. Who would have recourse
to means if to attain this end his mere word was sufficient?

But how shall we reconcile God's infinite benevolence and justice
with His infinite power, when we look around and see that some of His
creatures arc born happ)' and others miserable ? Why is He so partial ?
Where is the moral responsibility of a person having no incentive to
lead a virtuous life? The problem of injustice and misery which broods
over our world can only be explained by the doctrine of reincarnation
and Karma, to which I am presently coming.

That the soul is inuiiortal is doubted by very few. It is an old
declaration that whatever begins in time must end in time. You can- Pftssagpot
not say that soul is eternal on one side of its earthly period without thcSoui.
being so in the other. If the soul si)rang into existence specially for this
life, why should it continue afterward? The ordinary idea of cre-
ation at birth involves the correlative of annihilation at death. More-
over, it does not stand to reason that from an infinite history the soul
enters this world for its first and all physical existence, and then merges
into an endless spiritual eternity. The more reasonable deduction is
that it has passed through many lives and will have to pass through
many more before it reaches its ultimate goal. But it is objected that
we have no memory of past lives. Can anyone recall his childhood?
Has anyone a memory of that wonderful epoch— infancy?

The companion doctrine of transmigration is the doctrine of Karma.
The .Sanskrit of the word Karma means action. "With what measure
ye mete, it shall be measured to you again," and "Whatsoever a man
soweth, that shall he also reap" are but the corralaries of that most
intricate law of Karman. It solves the problem of the inequality and
app.Mcnt injustice of the world.

The Karman in the Jain philosophy is divided into eight classes:
Those which act as an impediment to the knowledge of truth; those
which act as an impediment to the right insight of various sorts; those
which give one pleasure or pain, and those which produce bewilder-
ment. The other four are again divided into other classes, so minutely,
that a student of Jain Karman philosophy can trace any effect to a
particular Karma. No other Indian philosophy reads so beautifully
and so clearly the doctrine of Karmas. Persons who by right faith,
right knowledge and right cbnduct destroy all Karman and tluis fully
develop the nature of their soul, reach the highest perfection,
become divine and are called Jinas. Those Jinas who, in every age,
j)reach the law and establish the order, arc called Tirtharkaras.

I now come to the Jain ethics. Different philosophers have given
different bases for the guidance of conduct. The Jain ethics direct con-
iluctto be so adapted as to insure the fullest development of the soul —
29

'^b^'^

1 '

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Iii;;li0bt

the hij^hcst hiii)pincss, that is, thr i,foal of human (.•omliict, which is
llnp- tlic ultiniatc end of huiiuiii action. Jainisin tcaclics to look upon all
living beings as upon oneself. What then is the mode of attaining
the highest happiness? The sacred Ijooks of the Ihalimans prescribe
Upasona (devotion) and Karma. The X'edanta iiulicates the path of
knowledge as the means to the highest, but jainisin goes a step
farther and says that the highest happiness is to be obtained i)\- knowl-
edge and religious observances. The the Maharatas or great for Jain
ascetics arc:

Not to kill, /. <•., to protect all life. Not to lie. Not to take that
which is not given. To abstain from se.\ual intercourse. To reiU)unce
all interest in wordly things, especiall)- to call nothing one's own.

h IS
I all

:iibc

step

u)\vl-

lain

that
uncc

Mohammedan Mother and Children at the Door of the Mosque.

l\'\ '

S 3

iti:

:*,li,;

:^if:

;!/!

I*'

i ■

'I?

■I

/! |1

•i h

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m ! I

•1

Oolden Trnth
from a Paniee
Standpoint.

Belief and Qeremonies of the pollowers

of 'Z.oToaster.

Paper by JINANJI JAMSHEDJI MODI, of India.

r^e/'

I 1

HE greatest good that a Parliament of Relig-
ions, like the present can do is to establish
what Professor Max Miiller calls "that great
golden dawn of truth ' that there is a religion
i)ehiiid all religions '" The learned professor
very rightly says that " Happy is the man who
knows that truth in these days of materialism
and atheism." If this Parliament of Religions
does nothing else but spread the knowledge
of this golden truth, and thus make a large
number of men happy, it will immortalize its
name. The object of my paper is to take a
little part in the noble efforts of this great
gathering, to spread the knowledge of that
golden truth from a Parsee point of view. The
Parsees of India arc the followers of Zoro-
astrianism, of the religion of Zoroaster, a religion which was for
centuries both the state religion and the national religion of ancient
Persia. As Professor Max Miiller says:

"There were periods in the history of the world when the worship
of Ormuzd threatened to rise triumphant on the ruins of the temples
of all other gods. If the battles of Marathon and Salamis had been
lost and Greece had succumbed to Persia, the state religion of the
empire of Cyrus, which was the worship of Ormuzd, might have
become the religion of the whole civilized world. Persia had absorbed
the Assyrian and Babylonian empires; Jews were either in Persian
captivity or under Persian sway at home; the sacred monuments of
Egypt had been mutilated by the hands of Persian soldiers. The
edicts of the king — the king of kings— were sent to India, to Greece,
to Scythia and to Egypt, and if 'by the grace of Ahura Mazda' Darius
had crushed the liberty of Greece, the purer faith of Zoroaster might
easily have superseded the Olympian fables."

452

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

453

)wers

of Relig-
establish
hat great
a religion
professor
J man who
aterialism
Religions
:no\vledge
c a large
jrtalize its

to take a
this great
re of that
view. The

of Zoro-
was for
of ancient

le worship
le temples
s had been
Tion of the
riight have
d absorbed

in Persian
numents of
iiers. The

to Greece,
zda' Darius
aster might

With the overthrow of the Persian monarchy under its last
Sassanian king. Yazdagard, at the battle of Nchavand, in A. I). 642,
the religion received a check at the hands of the Arabs, who, with
sword in one hand and Koran in the other, made the religion of Islam
both the state religion ^.vx\ national religion of the country. Hut
many of those who adhered to the faith of their fathers quitted their
ancient fatherland tor the hospitable shores of India. The modern
I'arsees of India are the descendants- of those early settlers. As a for-
mer governor of liombay said, "Their position is unique— a handful
of persons among the teeming millions of India, and yet who not only
have preserved their ancient race with the utmost purity, but also their
religion absolutely unimpaired by contact with others."

In the words of Rt. Rev. Dr. Meurin, the learned bishop (vicar.'
apostolic) of Hombay, in 18S5, the Parsees are "a people who havei
chosen to relinquish their venerable ancestors' homesteads ratlier than
abandon their ancient religion, the founder of which lived no less than
3,000 years ago, a people who for a thousand years have formed in the
midst of the great Hindu people, not unlike an island in the sea, a
(juite separate and distinct nation, peculiar and remarkable as for its
race, so for its religious and social life and customs." Prof. Ma.\
Miiller says of the religion of the Parsees:

"Though every religion is of real and vital interest in its earliest
state only, yet its later development, too, with all its misunderstand-
ings, faults and corruptions, offers many an instructive lesson to the
thoughtful student of history. Here is a religion, one of the most
ancient of the world, once the state religion of the most powerful
empire, driven away from its native soil and deprived of political influ-
ence, without even the prestige of a powerful or enligliteiied priest-
hood, and yet professed by a handful of exiles— men of wealth, intelli-
gence and moral worth in western India -with unhesitating fervor such
as is seldom to be found in larger religious communities. It is well
worth the earnest endeavor of the philosopher and the divjne to dis-
cover, if possible, the spell by which this apparently effete religion
continues to command the attachment of the enlightened Parsees of
India and makes them turn a deaf ear to the allurements of the Brahm-
anic worship and the earnest appeals of Christian missionaries "

Zoroastrianism or Parseeism, by whatever nanie the system may
be called, is a monotheistic form of religion. It believes in the exist-
ence of one God, whom it knows under the names of Mazda, Ahura
and Ahura-Mazda, the last form being tlie one that is most commonly
met with in the latter writings of the Axesta. The first and the great-
est truth that dawns upon the mind of a Zoroastrian is that the great
and the infinite universe, of which he is an infinitesimally small part,
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 Omniscient Lord, and as such He is the
ruler of both the material and the immaterial worlil, the corjioreal and
the incorporeal world, the visible and the invisible world. The regu-

Unimpairi'd
by ( 'ontoct.

^!l ':

454

Ti/£ WOKLD'S CONOKESS Ot REUNIONS,

Hurmonyand
Order
•eived.

nyand
Pre-

lar 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 ra])ici movements of the winds and the regular suc-
cession of light and darkness, of day and night, with their accompani-
ments of sleep and wakefulness, all these grand and striking phenom-
ena 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 con-
trolling hand of a father, ])reserves 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 worltl. His distinguished attributes arc good
mind, rightt;ousness, desirable control, piety, perfection and immor-
tality. He is the lieneficent .Spirit from whom emanate all good and
all piety. He looks into the hearts of men and sees how nu- h 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 harmon)-, but then the jirescnt state is only a part, and
that a very small part, of His scheme of moral sMnernment. As the
ruler of the world, Ahura-Mazda hears the pra\ < ■; of the ruled. He
grants the prayers of those who are pious in thoughts, pious in words
and pious in deeds. "He not only rewards the good, but punishes the
wicked. All that is created, good or evil, fortune or misfortune, is His
work."

We have seen that Ahura-Mazda, or God, is, according to Farsee
Scriptures, the causer of all causes. He is the creator as well as the
destroyer, the increaser as well as the decreaser. He gives birth to
different creatures and it is He who brings about their end. How is
it, then, that He brings about these two contrary results? In the words
of Dr. Haug:

"Having arrived at the grand idea of the unity and indivisibility of
the Supreme Heing, he (Zoroaster) undertook to solve the great
problem which has engaged the attention of so many wise men of
lem^lv^"'*' antiquity and even of modern times, viz: How are the imperfections
discoverable in the world, the various kinds of evils, wickedness and
baseness, compatible with the goodness, holiness and justice of God?
This great thinker of remote antiquity solved this difficult question
philosophically by the supposition of two primeval causes, which,
though different, were united and produced the world of material
things, as well as that of the spirit."

These two primeval causes or principles are called in the Avesta
the two "Mainyus." This word comes from the ancient Aryan root
"man," to "think." It may be properly rendered into English by the
word "spirit," meanings "that which can only be conceived by the mind
but not felt by the senses." Of these two spirits or primeval causes or

THE WORLD'S COAiJRESS OF RLL/U/OJVS.

455

principles, one is creative and the other destructive. These two spirits
work uiuier tlic Alinij^dity tiay and nit^ht. Tlicy create and destroy,
and this they have lione c\cr since the world was created. Accordinj^
to Zoroaster's i)liil()S()phy, oiu" world is the work of these two hostile
principles — S[)enta-niain)'iish, the ^ood principle, and y\n{fro-nuiin-
yiish, the evil principle, both servinf,^ under one God. In the words of
that learned orieiitali t, I'rotessDr I ).uniesteter, "All that is ffood in
the world ci ues from the former; all that is bad in it comes from the
latter. The history of the world is the history ot their conflict; how
vViij^ra uiainyu invaded the world (d" y\luua-Ma/(! i and marred it, and
how he shall he ex[)elled from it at last. l\l,in is active in the conflict,
his duty in it bein^ laid before him in ihe law revealed by Ahura Mazda
to Zarathushtra. \\ hen the appointed time is come * * * An-
^ro-maiii\ u antl hell will be tlestroyed, men will rise from the dead, and
everlastiuL( hap[)iness will reij^n over the world.''

Tiiese philoso|)hieal notit)ns have led some learned men to mis-
understand Zoroastrian theolo^ry. Some author'- entertain an opinion
that Zoroaster preached dualism. Hut this is a serious misconcep-
tion. In the Parsee scriptures the names of God are Mazda, Ahura
and Ahura-Mazda, the last word beinj; a ct^nipound of the first two.
The first two words ar(> common in the <;arliest writings of the Gatha
and the third in the later scriptures. In later times the word Ahura- .
Mazda, instead of beiiis^ restricted, like Mazda, the name of God fjc^an M iKunder-
to be used in a wider sense, anil was applied to Spenta-mainyush, the **"*'**•
creative or the good princi|)le. This beinif the case, wherever the
word Ahura-Mazda was used in opposition to that of Anj^ra-mainyush,
later authors took it as the name of (Jiod, and not as the name of the
creative principle, wlucli it really was. Thus the very tact of Ahura-
Mazda's name beint^ eniplojed in ojiposition to that of Anijra-main-
yush or Ahrimanled to the notion that Zoroastrian scriptures preached
dualism.

Not only is the charLje of dualism as leveled against Zoroastrian-
ism, and as ordinaril)- understood, groundless, but there is a close
resemblance between the ideas of the devil among the Christians and
those of the Ahriman among the Zoroastrians. Dr. Haug says the
same thing in the following words:

'The Z(M()astrian idea of the devil and the infernal kingdom coin-
cides entirely with the Christian doctrine. The devil is a murderer
and fattier of lies, according to both the Jiible and the Zend Avesta."

Thus we see that, according to Zoroaster's philosophy, there are
two primeval princi[)les that produce our material world. Conse-
quently, though the Almighty is the creator of all, ;•. nart of the
creation is said to be created b)- the good principle and :>, 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
gootl principle, and serpents, ants, locusts, etc., are the creation of the
evil principle. In short, those things that ct)nduce to the greatest
good of the greatest number of mankind fall under the category of the

11 I,!

ir.(5

TIIL WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

! I

creations of the good principle, and those that lead to the cont»«ry
result, iiiulcr tluit oi the creations ot the evil principle. This bcin},'
the case, it is incumbent upon men to do actions that would support
the cause of the ^ood principle and destroy that of the evil one.
Therefore, the cultivation of the soil, the rearinj^ of ilomcstic animals,
etc., on the one hand and the destruction of wild animals and other
noxious creatures on the other, arc considereil meritorious actions by
the I'arsces.

As there arc 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 sunport that of the evil principle. The first is known by the
name of Vohumana or lichemana, i. <•., "good mind." The prefix
"vohu" or "bcl. ' is the same word as that of which our luiglish
"better" is the comparative. Mana is the same as the word "maniyu,"
and means mind or spirit. The secontl is known by the name of Aka-
mana, /. r., "bad mind." The prefix "aka" means "bad" and is the
same as our English word "ache" in "headache."

Now' the fifth chapter of the Vcndidad gives, as it were, a short
definition of what is morality or piety. Tliere, first of all, the writer
says: "Purity is the best thing for man after birth." This, you may say, is
the motto of the Zoroastrian religion Therefore, M. llarlez very
properly says that, according to Zoroastrian scriptures, the "notion of
the word virtue sums itself up in that of the'Asha." This word is the
same as the Sanskrit "rita," which word corresponds to our I'^nglish
"right." It means, therefore, righteousness, piety or purity. Then the
writer proceeds to give a short definition of piety. It says that, "the

f reservation of good thoughts, good words and good deeds is piety."
n these pithy words is summed up, so to say, the whole of the moral
philosophy of the Zoroastrian scriptures. It says that, if you want to lead
BafftWlotto a pious and moral life and thus to show a clean bill of spiritual health
iiwivJ"'^' "' to the angel, Meher Daver, who watches the gates of heaven at the
Chinvat bridge, practice these three: Tliink of nothing but the truth,
speak nothing but the truth, and do nothing but what is proper. In
short, what Zoroastrian moral philosophy teaches is this — that your
good thoughts, good deeds and good words alojie will be your inter-
cessors. Nothing more will be wanted. They alone will serve you as
a safe pilot to the harbor of heaven, as a safe guide to the gates of
paradise. The late Dr. llaug rightly observed that "the moral philos-
ophy of Zoroaster was moving in the triad of 'thought, word and
deed." These three words form, as it were, the pivot upon which the
moral structure of Zoroastrianism turns. It is the groundwork upon
which the whole edifice of Zoroastrian morality rests.

The following dialogue in the Pehelvi Padnameh of liuzurgc-Meher
shows in a succinct form what weight is attached to these three pithy
words in the moral code of the Zoroastrians:

Question. Who is the most fortunate man in the world?

THE WORLD'S COS'GRESS OF RELiaiONS.

4B7

Answer.
(Jucstion.
Answer,
devil.

Question.
Answer.
(Question.
Answer.

1 le who is the most innocent. N^ *^'

Who isthi; most innocent man in the world?
lie who walks in the path of God and shuns that of the

Which is the path of (lod, and which that of the devil?
\'irtiie is tiie path of Gt)d, and vice that of the devil.

What constitutes virtue, and what vice?
( llumata, hukhta and hvarshta) ^ooil tlioujjhts, ^food
words and j.jood deeds constitute virtue, and (dushmata, duzukhta and
duzvarshta) evil thoughts, evil words and evil deeds constitute vice.

Question. WHiat constitute (humata, hukhta and hvarshta) j^ood
thouf^hts, {food words and {jood deeds, and (dushmata, duzukhta and
duzvarshta) evil thou^jhts, evil words and evil deeds?

Answer. I lonesty, charity and truthfulness constitute the former,
and dishonesty, want of charity and falsehood constitute the latter.

Krom this dialo{,aie it will he seen that a man who acquires
(humata, hukhta and hvarshta) {food thou{jhts, {^ood words and {^ood
deeds, and thereby practices honesty, charity and truthfulness, is con-
sidered to walk in the path of God, and, therefore, to be the 'nof.t
innocent and fortunate man.

Herodotus also refers to the third cardinal virtue of truthfulness
mentioned above. He says that to speak the truth was one of the
three thin^js tau<;ht to a Zoroastrian of his time from his very
childhood,

Zoroastrianism believes in the immortality of the soul. The
Avesta writing's of Hadokht Nushk, and the nineteenth chapter of the
Vendidail, and of the I'ehelvi books of Minokherad and Viraf-nameh,
treat of the fate of the soul after death. Its notions about heaven and
hell correspond, to some extent, to the Christian notions about them.
A plant called the Homa-i-saphid, or white Homa, a name correspond-
injf to the Indian .Soma of the Hindus, is held to be the emblem of the
immortality of the soul. Accordinjjf to Dr. Windischmann and Prof.
Ala.x Miiller, this plant reminds us of the "Tree of Life" in the
{garden of lulen. As in the Christian scriptures the way to the tree of
life is strictly {guarded by the Cherubim, so in the Zoroastrian script-
ures the Iloma-i-saphid, or the plant which is the emblem of immor-
tality, is {guarded by innumerable Fravashis, that is, guardian spirits.
The number of these {^uardian spirits, as ti;iven in various books, is

99.999-

Ac][ain, Zoroastrianism believes in heaven and hell. Heaven is
called Vahishta-ahu in the Avesta books. It literally means the "best
life." This word is afterward contracted, with a slii^ht chanjrc, into
the Persian word "Behesht," which is the sui)erlative form of "Veh," 8*f.^^^
meaning "good," and corresponds exactly with our English word
"best." Hell is known by the name of "Achishta-ahu." Heaven is
represented as a place of radiance, splendor and glory, and hell as that
of gloom, darkness and stench. Between heaven and this world there
is supposed to be a briilge, named "Chinvat." This word — from the
30

Mtirnl ('<Mle,

Believes in
and

458

THE iroRLD'S COXGRESS OF KEL/U/OXS.

[1] i;

B.VIIi

' ! ■ ' ;'

I i\

What the
Books Say.

Aryan root "clii," iiifaiiinpf to pick ii|), to collect — iikmiis the phicc
where a man's soul lias to jjiescnt a collective account ot the actions
done in the past life.

According to the Parsec scriptures, for three days after a man's
death his soul remains within the limits of the world under the guidance
of the angel Srosh. If the deceased be a pious man, or a man who led
a virtuous life, his soul utters the words " Llshta-ahmai yahmai ushta-
kahmai-chit," i. c, "Well is he by whom that which is his benefit be-
comes the benefit of any one else." If he be a wicketl man, or one who
led an evil life, his soul utters these plaintive words: " Kam rcmoi zam?
Kuthra nemo ayeni? /. (•., "To which land shall 1 turn? Whither shall
I go?"

On the dawn of the third night the de-; arted souls appear at the
"Chinvat bridge." This bridge is guarded by the angel Meher Daver,
i. c, Meher, the judge. He presitles there as a judge, assisted by the
angels Rashne and .\stad, the former representing jrst ice and the latter
truth. At this bridge, and before this angel Meher, the scnil of every
man has to give an account of its tloings in the past life. IMeher Daver,
the jutlge, 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 alhnved
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 known as " hamast-gehan," corresjjonding to the Christian
" purgatory " and the Mohammedan " aeraf." His uieritorious (K-eds
done in the past life would prevent him from going to hell, and his
evil actions would not let him go to heaven.

y\gain, Zoroastrian books say that the meritoriousness of good
deeds and the sin of e\ il ones increase v. ith the growth of time. As
capital increases with interest, so good and bad actions done b)' 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 th it \ery
deed done in ad\anced age. A mafi must begin ])racticiiig \'irtue from
his very young age. y^s iu the case of good deeds and tlunr meritori-
ousness, 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 )'oung
man has a long time to repent of his evil deeds and to do good deeds
that could counteract the effett of his e\il deeds. If he does uot take
advantage <jf these opportunities the burden of those e\il deeds ii,-
crcases with time.

The I'arsee places of worship arc known as fire temples. The very
name fire temple would strike a non-Zonjastrian as an unusual form of
worship. The Parsees do not wtMship fire as (iod. Tluy merely re-
gard fire as an emblem of refulgence, glory and light as the most per-
fect symbol of God, and as the best atul noblest representati\e of I lis
divinity "In the eyes of a I'arsee his (fire's) brightness, activity,
purity and incorruptibility bear the most perfect resemblance to the

'IHE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELUilONS.

t.V.)

ic place
J action.s

r a man's
j^uidancc
I who led
i;u ushta-
onefit be-
r one who
moi zani?
ther shall

icar at the
ler IJavcr,
ted by the
1 the latter
.il of every
her Duver,
Kill's ^ood

is alloweil
:vil acti(jiis

allowed ti>
;ss of hell.
-, he is sent
le Christian
rious deeds
lell, and his

ss of t;ood
f time. As
lie by a niiin
ts. 'TIhis, a
n that very
.•irtuefrom
cir meritori-
c burden of
. y\ yonn;;-
<^ood deeds
oes not take
vil deeds i<.-

;. The very
sual form of
y merely rc-
;he most i)er-
tative of His
less, activity,
I, lance to the

nature and perfection of the Deity." A i'arsee loo!<s ujjon lire "as the
most perfect symbol of tlie Deity <tn account of its purit\-. i)ri!^litncss,
activity, subtilty, m rity and incorruptiJjilit}-."

y\<;ain, one 'nust remember tliat it is tiie scleral s\-nibolic cere-
monies that ado to the reverence entertained by a I'arsee for the tire
burning" in his fire temples. A new element of purity is adtled to the
fire burni'\''" ii the fire temples of the I'arsees by tile relii^ious ceremo-
nies accompanietl with prayers that ari' pcrlormed over it. ijefore it is
installed in its place on a vase on an e.\ahed stand in a chamber set
apart The sacred fire burnint;' there is not the ordinary lire burniiiLj in
our hearths. It has undertjone se\eral ceremonies, and it is these cer-
emonies, full of meanin<.j, that render '.';• fire more sacred in the eyes
of a i'arsee. We will iiriefl)' recount tii'' ])ro-es.s here:

In establi.'^hin^ a fire tem])le fires from \arious places of manu-
facture arc broui,dit and kei)t in diffi-riMit vases, (in-at efforts are also
made to obtain fire causeil by li^htnint;-. Over one of these fires a
perforated metallic fiat tra\' with a handle attacluul is held. On this pi„. Tfmples.
tra\' are placed small chips and tlnst of frai,nant sandalwood. These
chips and dust are ij^nited by the heat of the fire below, eare beinj^' ' /
taken that the perforated tray does not touch the fire. Thus a new ' '^'

fire is created out of the first fire. Then from this new fire another is
a^ain produced, and so on, until the proeess is repeated nine times.
The fire thus prepared after the ninth process is C(Misidered pure.
The fires brouffht from other places of manufacture are treated in a
similar manner. These purified fires are all collected toL;ether upon a
lari,fe vase, which is then put in its pvo|)er place in a sejjarate cham-
ber.

Now what does a fire so prepareil sii^nify to a I'arsee? I le thinks
to himself: 'AV'lien this fire on this vase before me, thoui^h pure in
itself, though the noblest of the creations of (iod. and tin ugh the best
symbol of the Divinity, had to undergo eertain processes of purifica-
tion, had to draw out, as it were, its essence na\', its tiuintessence —
of purity to enable itself to be worthy of occupjing this exalted posi-
tion, how much more ncccssar)', more essential and more important it
is for me a poor mortal who is liable to eonimit sins and crimes, and
who comes into contact with hundreds of e\ ils, both physical and
mentid -to undergo the process of purit\- and piety by making m\-
thougnts. words and actions pass, as it were, through a sie\e of piety
and jjurity, virtue and morality, and to separate by that means my
good thoughts, good words and good actions from bail thoughts, bail
words and bad actions, so that I ma\-, in my turn, be enabled to acquire
an exalted position in the next world."

Again., the fires put together as above are collected from the
houses of men of different grades in society. This reminds a I'arsee
that, as all these fires from tlie houses of men of different grades liave
all, by the process of purification, equall)- acquired the exalted place
in the vase, so before God, all men, no matter to what grades of
society they belong, are equal, provided tliey pass through the pro-

-'I lii

400

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

i i I ' . ■

•■«.;

i I

Dnst to Dust.

Pars«) Pray.

cess of purification, /". c, provided they preserve 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 priest pre-
sents before him the ashes of a part of the consumed fire. The Parsee
applies it to his forehead just as a Christian applies the consecrated
water in his church and think.s to himself: " Dust to dust. The fire,
all brilliant, shining and resplendent, has spread the fragrance of the
sweet-smelling santlal and frankincense round about, but is at last
reducci! to dust. So it is destined for me. After all I am to be re-
duced to ilust and ha\c to depart from this transient life. Let mc 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 jjcr-
petual monitor to a Parsee standing before it to preserve piety,
purit\', humility and brotherhood.

As we saiil above, evidence from nature is the surest evidence that
leads a Parsee to the belief in the existence of the Deity From
nature he is led to nature's God. h'rom this point of view, then, he is
not restricted to any particular place for the recital of his prayers.
For a visitor to Bombay, whicli is the headquarters of the Parsees, it is
therefore not unusual to see a number of Parsees saying their prayers,
morning and evening, in the open s]jace. turning their faces to the ris-
ing or the sotting sun, before the ghjwing moon or the foaming sea.
lurniiig to these grand objects, the best and sublimest of his creations,
they address their prayers to the Almighty.

;\11 Parsee prayers begin with an assurance to dc> acts that would
please the Almighty Ciod. The assurance is followed by an expression
of regret for past evil thoughts, words or dectls if any. Man is liable
to err, and so, if iluring the interval any errors of commission or omis-
sion are C(nnmittetl, a Parsee in the beginning of his prayers repents
for those errors, lie sa\s;

( ), Omniscient Lord! I repent of all my sins. 1 repent of all evil
thoughts that I might have entertained in m)' mintl, of all the evil
words that 1 might have s])oken, of all the evil actions that I might
have committed. (), Omniscient Lord! I repent of all the faults that
might have originated with me, whether they refer to thoughts, words or
deeds, whether the)- appertain to my body or soul, whether they be in
connecticjn with the material world or spiritual.

To educate their children is a spiritual duty of /oroastrian par-
ents. I'.ducation is necessar\-, not only for the material good of the
children anil the parents, but also for their spiritual good. Accortl-
ing to the Parste books, the parents participate in the meritorious-
ness of the gooii .icts performed by their children as the result of the
good education imparted to them. On the other hand, if the parents
neglect the education of their children, and if, as the result of this
neglect, they do wrongful acts or evil deeds, the parents have a spirit-

THE WORLD'S COXGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

461

iial responsibility for such acts. In proportion to the nialij^nity or
cvilness of these acts the parents are responsible to God for their
nejflect of the education of their children. It is, as it were, a spirit-
ual self-interest that must prompt a Parsce to look to the ^ood edu-
cation of his children at an early age. Thus, from a religious point of
view, education is a great question with the Parsees.

The proper age recommended by religious I'arsee books lor or-
dinary education is seven, liefore that age children should have home
education with their ]>arents, especially with the mother. At the
age of seven, after a little religiouseducation, a I'arsee child is invested
with Sudreh and Kusti, ?'. <•., the sacred shirt and thread. This cere-
mony of investiture corresponds to the conHrmation ceremony of the
Christians. A I'arsee may put on the dress of an\' nationalits' he likes,
I)ut under that dress he must always wear the sacred shirt and thread.
These are the symbols of his being a /oroastrian. These sNiubols are
full of meaning and act as perpetual nu)nitors advising the wearer to
lead a life of puritj' of phj'sical and spiritual purity. A I'arset- is
enjoined to remove, and put on again imnu'diately, the sacred lliread

several times during the da)\ saying a vers* s

hort

prater duiiiig I lie

process. He lias to do so early in the morning on rising from i)ed.

before meals and after ablutioi

IS.

Th(

putting on o

f tl

le sym

iboli

thread and the accompanying short praj'er remiiul him to i^e in a state
of repentance for misdeeds, if any, and to preserve good thougiUs,
good words and good deeds, the triad in which the moral ])hilosophy
of Zoroaster moved.

It is after this investiture with the sacred shirt and tliread liial the
general education of a child generally begins. The I'arsee books speak

When (icniT-

Ik'Kins.

of the necessity of educating all children, whether male or female. ''' .KducHtiou

■r-i r I 1 ■ 1 • 1 ■ I l> l«'i-'inR.

lluis lemale education claims as mueli attention aiiK)ng tlie 1 arsees as
male education. Physical educati(ni is as much spoken of in the
/oroastrian books as mental and moral education. The health of the
i)ody is considered as the first retiuisite for the health of the soul.
I'liat tile physical education of the ancient Persians, tlie ancestors of
tile modern Parsees, was a subject of admiration among the ancient

(ireeks and Romans, is t

oo we I

mown.

n a I

the 1

e hlessmgs iinoked

■ poll one in the religious i)rayers, the strength of boily occupies the

first

md the most prominent ])lace,

.Analyzing the I5omba\- census o

iSSi, Dr. Weir, the health officer, said:

'i<:

xainimng eilucation according to taith or class, we liiul

lliat

education is most extended among tlu> I'arsee people; female educa-

tion is more diffused among tiie I'arset- ])opulation tlian aiu- o

ther

Class.

Contrasting these results with education at an earl>- age
among Parsees, we find U, 2 per cent I'arsee male ami S.S4 per cent
female cliildreii under six \-ears of .ige, under mstruetion; between six
aiul fifteen the number of I'arsee male and female children under in-
struction IS much laig<M' than in any other class. ( )\ er fifteen years of
agi-,the smallest i)roportion of illiterate, either male or female, is found
in the Parsec population."

i:]!

m-y

162

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

I i ■ I ? !

a;J

The reli<^ious books of the Parsces say that the education of Zoro-
astriau youths shouhl teach them perfect discipline, obedience to their
teachers, obedience to their parents, obedience to their elders in soeiet\-,
aiul obedience lo the constitutional forms of i^^overnnient shoukl be
)ne of the jjractical results of their education. .So a Zoroastrian child

is asked to be affectionate toward and submissive to his teacher;

I'arsee mother pra>s for a S(jn that could take an intelliijent part in
the deli!)erations (jf the councils of his community aiul s^o^ernmciU ; so
a re.<,^ard for the rci^ular forms of tjovernment was necessary.

(^f all the ])ractical (|uestit>ns, the one most affecte*.! b\- the
relit.(ious precepts of Zoroastrianism is that of the observation o| san-
itary rules and principles. .Several chapters of the X'endidad /'orm, as
it were, the sanitary code of the I'arsees. Most of the in juii'. lions will
stand the test of sanitary science for aijes toj^^ether. ( )f tht.- different

Asiat

ic eommuiiiln-s mlial)itnu

oml)av. the

arsees iiaxi-

th(

\^^\\ est

death rate. ( )ne can sai'el\' s;i\- that that is, to a \^wa\ extent, due to
the Z(jroastrian ideas of sanitati(jn, segregation, puritieation an<l clean-
liness. A I'arsee is enjoined not to drink from tin; same cup or ^lass
from which anotii(;r man has drunk, lest he catch b\- eontauion the

disease from which the other ma\' be sufferiiu

e IS, u'uler no cir-

I r y

cumstances, to touch the body of a perstm a short time alter death,
lest he spread the disease, if contasjious, of the deceast'd.

cipl

leHBndl'riu- deiitaUx'or una\()idal)l\" does, he h.is to jjurily himsell b\- a certaii

ne acci-

)rocess

oi uashint

bet

ore in- im.ves witli others in societv

y, or e\en a olowini,' wuul, is ^upi)o>e(l to spri'ac

1 d

)assin''

iseaM..-

l)\- CO

iita-

^non. .So he is enjoined to periorm ablutions se\eral time-. duriiiL,^ tin-
(lay, as before sa\int;' his praxers, before meals, and after answering

e calls ot nature.

If his hand comes into contact with the --aliva of

his own mouth or with that of somebody else, he has to wash it. lie
has to keep himself aloof from corpse-bearers, lest he s|)iead any
disease throuLfh them. If accidentallv he comes into e(uUact witli

ese pi'o])le, he has to bathe him^e

If bel(

in- mi\ini,f in society.

breach ot these and \'arious other .^auitarx- rules is, as it were, Ik

)in'.

the cause o

f th(

e\ il 1

)riiicii)le

A,Ljain, Zoroastrianism asks its discipK-s to keep the earth pure, to

eep the air pure, and to keep tiie w.iter pui=e.

considers tlie sun

as the greatest purifier. In places wlu-ie tl.e ra)\s of the sun do not
enter, fire o\er which fragrant wood is burned is the next puril'ier. It is

a L,neat sin to pollute water by decomijosiip.^ matter.

Not

oiil\' IS the

Icommission of a fault of this kind a sin, but also the omission, when
V)ne sees such a pollution, of taking' proper means to remove it. A
Zoroastrian. when he happens tf) see, while passin-^- in his way, a nm-
ninf,f stream of drinking water polluted by some decomposing^ matter,
such as a corpse, is enjoined to wait aiul try his best to ijo into the
stream and to remove the putrifyini,^ matter, lest its continuation ma\-
spoil the water and affect the health of the people usiin,^ jt. An
omission to do this act is a sin from a Zoro.istrian point of \ ic

the bottom of a I'arsee's custom of dis[>osini4' of the dead, and at the

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

4h;^

bottom u£ nil the strict religious ceremonies enjoined therewith, lies
the one nuiin principle, viz., that, preserving all possible respect for
the (leatl, the body, after its se|)aration from the immortal soul, should
be disposeil of in a way the least harmful and the least injurious to the
living. The homely i)roverb of "cleanliness is godliness" is nowhere
more recommended than in the I'arsee religicnis books, which teach
that the cleanliness of boil\- w ill lead to and help the cleanliness of
mind.

We now come to llie (juestion of wealth, po\ert\" and labor. As
Herodotus saitl, a I'arsee, before ])ra>'ing for himself, prays for his
sovereign and for his communilx', for he is himself included in the
community. Ills religious precepts teach him to drown his individu- Woaiili, i'«v-
aiily in the common interests of his comnumity. lie is to consider crty ami LBbor,
himself as a part and ])arccl of the wliole community. The good of
the whole will be the good and that a solid gooil— of the parts. In
the twelfth chai)ter<)f the Vasna, which contains, as it were, /oroastrian
articles of faith, a Zoroastrian ])roinises to nreserve a perfect brother-
hootl. 1 le promises, e\ en at the risk of his life, to protect the life and
the i)ro|)erty of all the meinl)ers of his conununity and to help in the
cause that would bring about their prosperity and welfare. It is with
these good feelings of brotherhood and charity that the I'arsee com-
munity has endowed large iunils for benevolent and charitable ])ur-
poses. If the rich I'arsees of the future generations were to follow in
the footstips of tluir ancestors of the past and present generations in
the matter of giving lil)eral donations lor the good of the ileserving
poor of tlu'ir communit)', one can sa\' that there would be very little
cause for the socialists to complain from ;i |)oor man's point of view.
It is these notions of charit\- and brotherhood that ha\ e urged them
to start public funds lor the general gootl of the whole community.
Men of all grades in societ\' contribute to these funds on various
occasions. The rich contribute on occasions both of joj-'and grief.
On grand occasions, like those of weddings in their families, they con-
tribute large sums in charity to commemorate those events. Again,
on the death of their dear ones, the rich and the poor all pay various
sums, according to their means, in charit\'. These sums are announced
on the occasion of the ( )otliumna, or the ceremony on the third day
after death. The rich pay large sums on these occasions to com-
memorate the names of their dear ones. In the Vendidad three kiiuls
(■' charitable deeds are especiall\- mentioned as meritorious to hel])
tlu poor; to help a man to marr\', and thus to enable him to lead a
virtuous and honorable life, and to give education to those who are in
sear, h of it. If one were to look to the long list of i'arsee charities,
headed I)\' that of that prince of I'arsee charitj', the first I'arsee baronet,
he will find these three kintls of charity especially attended to. The
religious training of a I'arsee does not restrict his ideas of brotherhootl
.I'ul charity to his own C(nnmunit\' alone. He extends his charity to
uon-Zoroastrians as wi'll.

The ciualitications of a good liusbaml, from a Zoroastrian point

\v 1

i i:

;i ^1 1 t

Iflji

4(U

T//E IVOKLD'S CONGKEiiS OF RELIGIONS.

Vv*

Q u ii I i fi <■ a -
tiniis I if ii(Jood
IIu.xImiikI.

of view, arc that he must be (i) young and handsome; (2) strong,
brave and healthy; (3) diligent and industrious, so as to maintain his
wife and children; (4) truthful, as would prove true to herself, and
true to all others with whom he would come in contact, and is wise
and educated. i\ wise, intelligent and educated husband is compared
to a fertile piece of land which gives a plentiful crop, whatever kind
t)f seeds are scnvn in it. The cpialifications of a good wife are that she
be wise and educated, modest and courteous, obedient and chaste.
Obedience to her husband is the first duty of a Zoroasirian wife. It is
a great \irtue, deserving all praise and reward. Disobedience is a
great sin, punishable after death.

According to the Sad-dar, a wife that expressed a desire to her
iuisband three times a da)' in the morning, afternoon and evening — to
be one with him in thoughts, words and deeds, i.e., to sjinpalhize with
him in all his noble as|;)irations, jiursuits and desires, performeil as
meritorious an act as that of saying her prayers three times a ilay.
She must w ish to be of the same \iew with him in all his noble pur-
suits and ask him e\ery day: " W'h.it are your thoughts, so that I may
be one with you in those thoughts? What are your words, so th:it I
may be one with you in j'our sjjeech? What ;ire your deeds, so that I
may be oxw. with you in deeds?" ;\ Zoroastrian wife so affectionate
and obeilient to her husband was held in great respect, not only by
the husband and the household, but in society as well. As Dr. West
says, though a Zoroastrian wife was asked to be very obedient to her
husband, she held a more respectaljle position in societx' than that
enjoined by an\' other Oriental religion. As .Sir John Malcolm says,
the ordinance of Zoroaster secured for Zoroastrian women an e(|ual rank
with the male creation. The progress of the ancient Persians in ci\i!-
ization was ])artl)- due to this cause. "The gri'at respect in which the
female sex was held was, no doubt, the principal cause of the progress
they had made in civilization. These were at once the cause of gener-
ous enterprise and its reward." The advance of the modern Parsis, the
descendants of the ancient Persians, in the path of civilization is greatly
<lue to this cause. As Dr. I laug says, the religious books of the Parsis
hold udiMcn on a level with men. " T1k\' are always mentioned as ,1
necessary part of the religious communit). They have the s.ime re-
ligious rites as men; tl5c spirits of (ieceased women are invoked ,is
we" as those of men."' Parsee books attach as much importance to
fcnsiile education as to male education.

Marriage is an institution which is greatlv' encouraged b) the spirit
of tile Parsee religion. It is especially recommendetl in the Parsee
scriptrrcs on the ground that a married life is more likelvto be happy
than an unmarried one; that a marrird person is more likel)' to be able
to withstand physical and mental afHit tions than an umnarried person,
and that a married man is more likelv to lead a n-ligious ;ind \irtuous
life than an unmarrieil diie. The following verse 111 the Gatlia convevs
this meaning:

"I say (these) w >rds to j-ou marrying brides and to }t)u bride-

■i; •

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

4(5r)

ss
er-
ic
ly

s il

o-
;is

O.HXl

Impress them in your mind. May you two enjoy the life of
<f()ocl mind by following the laws of religion. Let each one of you
clothe the other with righteousness, because then assuredly there will
l)c a happy lite f(;r you."

An unmarried person is represented to feel as unhappy as a fertile
piece of ground that is carelessly allowed to lie uncultivated by its
owner (Vend, iii., 24). The fertile piece, when cultivated, not only
adds to the beauty of the spot, but lends nourishment and food to
many others round about. So a married couple not only add to their tl'm!
own beauty, grace and ha])piness, but by their righteousness and good
conduct arc in a positicjn to spread the bless'ings of help and happi-
ness anumg their neighbors. Marriage being thus considered a good
institution, and being recommended b)' the religious scriptures, it is
considered a very meritorious act for a Parsee to help his co-religion-
ists to lead a married life (Vend, iv, 44). .Several rich I'arsees liave,
with this charitable view, founded endowment funds, from which young
ileserving brides are given small sums on the occasion of their mar-
riage for the preliminary exi)enses of starting in married life.

I''ifteen is the minimum marriageable age spoken of by the Parsee
books. The parents.liave a voice of sanction or approval in the selec-
tion of wives and husbands. Mutual friends of parents or marrying
parties may bring about a good selection. Marriages with non-
/oroastrians are not recommended, as they are likely to bring about
([uarrels and dissensions owing to a difference of manners, customs
and habits.

We said above that the Parsee religion has made its disci[)les
tolerant about the faiths and beliefs of others. It has as well made
them sociable with the other sister communities of the country. They
mi.\ freely with members of other faiths and take a part in the rejoic-
ings of their holidays. They also sympathize with them in their griefs
and afrtictions, and in case of sudden calamities, such as fire, floods,
etc., they subscribe liberally to alleviate their misery. From a con-
sideration of all kinds of moral and charitable notions inculcated in
the Zoroastrian scriptures. P'rances Power Cobbe, in her ".Studies, New
ami Old, of Fthical and Social .Subjects," says of the founder of the
religion:

".ShuuKl we in a future world be permitted to hold high converse
with the great departed, it may chance that in the Hactrian sage, who
ii\ c;(l and taught almost before the ilawn of history, we may find the
s|)irilual i)atiiarch, to whose lessons we have owed such a jiortion of
our intellectual inheritance that we might hardly conceive what
human belief would be now, had Zoroaster never existed."

MiirriHKi! h
inbiitu-

({ad ZoroaRt.
«r Nevor Ex-
idtetl.

in \

dc-

^."S'>. -»«■ . < ;

Mohammedans of Damascus.

Spirit and ]\/\ission of the Apostolic Qhurch

of y\rmenia. .

Paper by OHANNES CHATSCHUMGAN, of Armenia.

}, '

CCJ()RI)l\(i to the l;l'Hli;i1 testimony <»f liislo-
liaiis, C'liristiaiiity was iiUrodiiccd into Arme-
nia ill the tirst ceiitiiry. lii tlic \car 34 A. I).
tin- Ajjostle Tliaddeus went to this coimtr\-,
and in thi- \ear 60 A. 1). Hartholomew fol-
lowed. They preached the (jospel and were
mart) red. lliese ai)(»stles were, tlieretore,
the founders of the Armenian cliureh. Mesides
them two otliers, .Simeon and jiuhdi, preached
in Arnnida. Hul C'Iiristianil\- (hd not become

1 rel

iijion imtil the vear ,02

his interval thousands of .\rme-
^ for (."hristianit\-. in that )-ear
linator enli<.;hteiied the entire
stianitx' became the religion of
• people. In the Armenian lan-
ns to " Christiauue." Whether. oiiIphi ct.i
f Christianitv- from the first cent- l!"."„V''JI.V''' '
the Armenian church remains

tliu World.

;ir place amon.L,M)lher churclies
While the church is tJuU' one element in the lives of other nations

element sometimes s

an
i^. sometimes less strontr in Armenia it

tron^

en.'braces the whole life of the nation. There are not two different
ide.ds, one for Christianit)', the other for nationality These two
ideals are united. The Armenians love their country because they
love Christianit)-. Church ami fatherland ha\ e been almost s\-n()n\-
mous in their tonj^aies.

The constructit)n of the Armenian churcli is simple and apos-
tolic. It is independent and national. The head is called the Patri-
arch Catholicos of all Armenians in whatever i)art of the wcirld they
may be. He is eleited by the representatives of tlie natii)n and clert^y

l'\

\ii

MIA

^;>+

Tlic Amit'iii-
AM ClerKj.

4(iH

7y/Z," UVKLD'S COXOKESS OF KELJU/ONS.

ill ICtclimiaclzin, at the foot of Mount Ararat. Any Armenian, even a
la)-man, can become licad of tlie cluircli if the ^'cneral assembly finds
iiim wortliy of tliis hi^li office. .Since Armenia has been divided
amonj^ the three powers Turkey, Russia and Persia -the election of
the Catholicos is confirmed by tlie Russian emperor. The bishops
are elected by the people of each province and are anointed by the
Catholicos. The ordinar)- clerjjy are elected by each parish. The
parish is free in its election, and neither bishop nor Catholicos can
assijrn a priest to a parish a^Minst its wish. ICach church bein^ frei- in
its home work, the)' are all bound with one another and so form a
unit)-.

The people share larf^^el)- in the work of tin- church. .All assiin-
blies which ha\ e to decide _t,H'neral (piestions, e\en dogmatic matters,
are gathered from both people and cler}4)\ The cleri;)- e.\ists for the
pet)i)le and not the people for the cleri;)'.

The Armenian clerj^y have always i)een pioneers in the educa-
tional ailvancement of the nation. They have been the brin^ers in of
I'.uropean civilization to their people. I''rom the fifth centur)- t«> this
\ery da))()un^ men intended for the priesthood are sent to the Occident
to study in order that Christianity and civilization may ^o hand in
hand. The countrv owes everythinij to its clertjy. Tliey have been
first in danger and first in civilization.

The spirit of the Armenian church is tolerant. .'\ characteristic
feature of /Xrmenians, even while they were heathen, was that they
were cosmop(jlitan in relifjious matters. Armenia, i'i earl)' a^'es, was
an America for the oppressed of other lands, i-'rom Ass\ria, as we
read in the Hible,inthe liook of Kin<is, Adramelech and Anamekch
escaped to Armenia. I'rom China, 1 lindustan and Palestine they went
thither, carrying; their relijfious thoughts and their idols, which the)'
worshiped side by side with the Armenian ^ods.

Christianity has entirel)' chanj^ed the political and nuMal liie of
Armenia, but the tolerant spirit has ever remained. l'"or more thati
fifteen hundred years she has been persecuted for her faith and for
conscience' sake, and yet she has ne\er been a relij^ious persecutor.
.She calls no church heterodox. The last Catholicos, Makar the I'irst,
said once to me: "M)' son, do not call an)' church heterodox. y\ll
churches arc e(|ual, and everybody is sa\ed by his own faith." ICvery
day in our churches jjraycrs are offered for all those who call on the
name of The Most Iliijh insincerity.

The y\rmenian church does not like relij^ious disputes. .She has
defended the ideals of Christianity more with the red blood of her
children than with h'\^ volumes of controversies. She has ahva)'s
insisted on the brotherhood of all Christians. Nerces, archbishop of
Zanbron, Cilicia, who was called the second Apostle Paul, in the twelfth
century defended and practiced the very ideals and ecjualit)' of all
churches and the brotherhood of all men which the most liberal clert^y-
mcn of this century believe in.

The Armenian church has a i^rcat literature, especiall)' in sacred

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

469

Women i n

lyrics, which has had a vast influence over the people. Hut the purify-
ing influence of our church appears chiefly in the family. In no land
is the family life purer. I''(»r an Armenian the family is sacred. Kth-
nologists ask with reason: "How can wee.xjjlain the continued exist-
ence of the Armenian nation throutfh the fire and sword of four
tlunisand years?" The solution of this riddle is in the pure family
life. This is the anchor by which the stt)rmbeaten has been held It
is a sinjjular fact that Armenia never had, even in her heathen time,
either polypjamy or slavery, although always surrounded by nations
who followed these evil jjractices.

Women in yVrmenia liave always had a distinguished place in the
church. The first Christian martyr among women in the whole world Armunfa"
was an Armenian girl, Sandooct, the beautiful daughter of the King
.Sanstreek. In the fifth century, as says the historian, Kquishe, the
songs of the Armenian women were the psalms and their daily read-
ings the Gospel.

(jeographically, Armenia is the bridge between Asia and Europe.
All the nations of Asia have traveled over this bridge. One cannot
show a single year in the long past through which she has enjoyed
peace. livery one of her stones has been baptized many times with
the sacred blood of martyrs. I ler rivers have flowed, not with water,
but with blood and tears of the Armenian nation. Surrounded by
non-Christian and anti-Chiristian peoples, she has kept her Christianity
and her independent national church. Through the darkness of the
ages she has been a bright torch in the Orient of Christianity and
civilization.

All her neighbors have passed away — the Assyrians, the Babylon-
ians, the I'arthians, and the rcrsian fire worshipers. Armenia, herself,
has lost everything; crown and scepter are gone; peace and happiness
have dei)arted; to her remains only the cross, the sign of martyrdom.
Vet the /Armenian church still lives. Why? To fulfill the work she
was called to do; to spread civilization among the peoples of this part
of Asia, and she has still vitality enough to fulfill this mission. For
this struggling and aspiring church we crave your sympathy. To help
the Aimenian church is to help huaianity.

i '

\ ■ ■

f 1".;

■•'■

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\'i

Bedouin Sheik (Mohammedan).

Prize ^ssay on Cp^ifucianism.

By KUNG HSIEN HO, of Shanghai, China.

HK most important thing in the superior man's
learning is to fear disobeying heaven's will.
Therefore in our Confucian religion the most
important thing is to follow the will of heaven.
The book of Yih King says, "In the changes of
the world there is a great Supreme which pro-
duces two principles, 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.

Kvcn all human affairs and all good are also

dependent on it; therefore, it is called the Supreme, just as we speak

of the extreme points of the earth as the north and south poles.

\iy Great Supreme is meant that there is nothing 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 Yang and Yin unite they
produce water, fire, wood, metal, e:\rth. When these five forces oper-
ate 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
powcts acton each other all things are produced and reproduced and
developed without end.

As to man, he is the best and most intelligent of all This is what
is meant in the book of Chung Yong when it says that what heaven
has given is the spiritual nature. This nature is law. All men are
thus born and have this law. Therefore it is Mencius .says that all
children love the parents, and when grown up all respect their elder
brethren. 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."

471

Spiritaal Nat-
nre is Law.

\ If

^''he Material
N .tare.

\ '

Stress on Hu-
man Affairs.

472

THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

\i di

The choicest product of Ying Yang and the five elements in the
world is man, the rest are refuse products. The choicest among the
choice ones are the sages and worthies, and the refuse among them are
the foolish anc^ the bad. And as man's body comes from the Yin and
man's soul from the Yang he cannot be perfect. This is what the Lung
j hilosophers called the material nature. Although all men have at
birth a nature for goodness, still, if there is nothing to fix it, then de-
sires arise and passions 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, benev-
olence and righteousness. Heaven appointed rulers and teachers, who
in turn established worship and music to improve men's disposition
and set up governments and penalties in order to check men's wicked-
ness. The best among the people are taken into schools where they
study wisdom, virtue, benevolence and righteousness, so that they may
know before hand how to conduct themselves as rulers or ruled.

And lest after many generations, there should be degeneration
and difficulty in finding the truth, 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
parent's 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, becau.se it regards heaven and earth as
the parents of all alike. And the commandment of the Confucian is
"F'ear greatly lest you offend against heaven."

But what Confucians lay great stress un is human affairs. What
are these? These arc the five relations and the five constants. What
are the five relations? They are those of sovereign and minister,
father and son, elder and younger brother, husband and wife, and that
between friend and friend. Now, the ruler is the .Son of heaven, to
be honored above all others; therefore, in serving Him there has to be
loyalty. The parents' goodness to their children is boundless; there-
fore, the parents should be served filialy Brothers are branches from
the same root; therefore, mutual respect is important. The marriage
relation is the origin of all human relations; therefore, mutual gentle-
ness is important. As to friends, though as if strangers to our homes,
it is important to be very affectionate.

When one desires to make progress in the practice of virtue as
ruler or minister, as parent or child, as elder or younger brother, or
as husband and wife; if anyone wishes to be perfect in any relation,
how can it be done without a friend to exhort one to good and check
one in evil? Therefore, one should .seek to increase his friends.
Among the five relations there arc also the three bands. The ruler is
the hand of the minister, the father is that of the son, and the husband
is that of the wife. And the book of the Ta Hsioh says; "From the

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

473

lufluence of
the Five Con-
Htants.

emperor down to the common people the fundamental thing for all
to do is to cultivate virtue." If this fundamental foundation is not
laid, then there cannot be order in the world. Therefore, great
responsibility lies on the leaders This is what Confucius means when
he says: "When a ruler is upright he is obeyed without com-
mands."

Now, to cause the doctrine of the five relations to be carried out
everywhere by all under heaven, the ruler must be intelligent and the
minister good, then the government will be just; the father must be
loving and the son filial, the elder brother friendly, the younger brother
respectful, the husband kind and the wife obedient, then the home will
be right; in our relation with our friends there must be confidence,
then customs will be reformed and order wi'.i not be difficult for the
whole world, simply because the rulers lay the foundation for it in
virtue.

What are the five constants? Benevolence, righteousness, wor-^
ship, wisdom, faithfulness. Benevolence is love, righteousness is fit-!
ness, worship is pr'nciple, wisdom is thorough knowledge, faithfulness!
is what one can depend on. He who is able to restore the original
good nature and to hold fast to it is called a worthy. He who has got
hold of the spiritual nature and is at peace and rest is called a sage.
He who sends forth unseen and infinite influences throughout all things
is called divine The influence of the five constants is very great and
all livmg things are subject to them.

Mencius says: "He who has no pity is not a man; he who has no
sense of shame for wrong is not a man; he who has no yielding dispo-
sition is not a man, and he who has not the sense of right and wrong is Q "^^'
not a man. The sense of pity is the beginning of benevolence, the
sense of shame for wrong is the beginning of righteousness, a yielding
disposition !:; the beginning of religion, the sense of right and wrong is
the begmning of wisdom. Faithfulness is not spoken of, as it is what
makes the other four real; like the earth element among the five
elements, without it the other four manifestly cannot be placed.

The Chung Yung says: "Sincerity or reality is the beginning and
the ond of things There is no such thing as supreme sincerity with-
out action This is the use of faithfulness "

As to benevolence, it also includes righteousness, religion and
wisdom, therefore, the sages consider that the most important thing
is to get benevolence. The idea of benevolence is gentleness and
liberal mindedness, that of righteousness is clear duty, that of religion
is showing forth, that of wisdom is to gather silently. When there is
gentleness, clear duty, showing forth and silent gathering constantly
going on, then everything naturally falls to its proper place, just like
the four seasons; e. g.'. the spring mfluences are gentle and liberal and
are life-giving ones; in summer life-giving things grow; in autumn
these show themselves in harvest and in winter they arc stored up. If
there were no spring the other three seasons would have nothing; so it
is said the benevolent man is the life. Extend and develop this

nwB

474

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

KewardB and
P]jIU8hmeiit«.

benevolence and all under heaven may be benefited thercbj-. This is
how to observe human relation.

As to the doctrine of future life. Confucianism speaks of it most
minutelj'. Chenj^ Tsze says the spirits are the forces or servants of
heaven and earth and si^ns of creatixe power. Chu Fu Tsze saj-s:
"Speaking of two powers, the demons are the intelligent ones of Yin,
the gods are the intelligent ones of Vang; speaking of one power, the
supreme and originating is called (iod, the reverse and the returning
is demon."

Confucius, re])lying to Tsai Wo, says: "When flesh and bones
die below the dust the material Yin becomes dust, but the immaterial
rises above the grave in great light, has odor and is very pitiable.
This is the immaterial essence." The Chung Yung, tjuoting Confu-
cius, .says: "The power of the spirits is very great! You look and
cannot see them, >ou listen and caniu)t hear them, but tliey are em-
bodied in all things without missing any, causing all men to revereice
them and be purified, and be well adorned in order to sacrifice unto
them." All things are alive, as if the gods were right above our heads
or on our right hand or t)n the left. Yili King makes much of divin-
ing to get decisions from the gods, knowing that the gods are the
forces of heaven ami earth in operation. Although unseen, still they
influence; if difficult to prove, yet easily known. The great sages
and great worthies, the loyal ministers, the righteous scholars, filial
sons, the pure women of the world having received the purest influ-
ences of the divinest forces of heaven and earth, when on earth were
heroes, when dead are the gods. Their influences continue for many
generations to affect the world for good, therefore many venerate and
sacrifice unto them.

As to evil men, they arise from the evil forces of nature; when
dead, they also influence for evil, and we must get holy influences to
destroy evil ones.

As to rewards and punishments the ancient sages also spoke of
them. The great Yu, B. C. 2255, said: "Follow what is right and you
will be fortunate; do not follow it and J'ou will be unfortunate; the
results are only shadows and echoes of our acts." Tang, B. C. 1766,
says: " Heaven's way is to bless the good and bring calamity on the
evil." His minister, Yi Yin, said: " It is only God who is perfectly
just; good actions are blessed with a hundred favors; evil actions are
cursed with a hundred evils." Confucius, speaking of the "Book of
Changes" (Yih King), said: " Those who multiply good deeds will have
joys to overflowing; those who multiply evil deeds will have calami-
ties running over."

But this is very different from Taoism, which says that there are
angels from heaven examining into men's good and evil deeds, and
from Buddhism, which says that there is a purgatory or hell according
to one's deeds. Regards and punishments arise from our different
actions just as water flows to the ocean and as fire seizes what is dry;
without expecting certain consequences they come inevitabl)-. When

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

475

these consequences do not appear they are like cold in summer or heat
in winter, or like both happeninjj the same day; but this we say is
unnatural. Therefore, it is said, sincerity is the way of heaven. If we
say that the gods serve heaven exactly as mandarins do on earth, bring-
ing quick retribution on every little thing, this is really to make them
appear very slow. At present men say, "Thunder killed the bad man."
But it is not so, either. The Han philosopher, Tung Chung Shu (sec-
ond century B. C), says: "Vapors, when they clash above, make rain;
when they clash below make fog; wind is nature's breathing. Thunder
is the sound of clouds clashmg against each other. Lightning is light
emitted by their collision, Fhus we see that when a man is killed it is
by the collision of these clouds."

As to becoming genii and transmigration of souls, these are still
more beside the mark. If we became like genii, then we would live on
without dying; how could the wond hold so many? If we transmi-
grate, then so many would transmigrate from the human life and ghosts
would be numerous. Besides when the lamp goes out and is lit again
it is not the former flame that is lit. When the cloud has a rainbow it
rains, but it is not the same rainbow as when the rainbow appeared
before. From thi we know also that these doctrines of transmigra-
tion should not be b lieved in. So much on the virtue of the unseen
and hereafter.

As to the great aim and broad basis of Confucianism, we say it
searches into things, it extends knowledge, it has a sincere aim, i.e., to
have a right heart, a virtuous life, .so as to regulate the home, to govern
the nation and to give peace to all under heaven. The book of "Great
Learning," Ja Hsigh, has already clearly spoken of these. The founda-
tion is laid in illustrating virtue, for our religion in discussing govern-
ment regards virtue as the foundation, and wealth as the superstructure.
Mencius says: "When the rulers and ministers are only seeking gain
the nation is in danger " He also says: "There is no benevolent man
who neglects his parents, there is no righteous man who helps himself
before his ruler." From this it is apparent what is most important.

Not that we do not speak of gain; the "Great Learning" says:
"There is a right way to get gain. Let the producers be many and the
consumers few. Let there be activity in production and economy in
the expenditure. Then the wealth will always be sufficient. But it is
important that the high and low should share it alike."

As to how to govern the country and give peace to all under
heaven the nine paths are most important. The nine paths are: Cul-
tivate a good character, honor the good, love your parents, respect
great offices, carry out the wishes of the ruler and ministers, regard
the common people as your children, invite all kinds of skillful work-
men, be kind to strangers, h..ve consideration for all the feudal chiefs.
These are the great principles.

Their origin and history may also be stated. Far up in mythical
ancient times, before literature was known, F"u Hi arose and drew the
eight diagrams in order to understand the superhuman powers and

Aim.

Sincere

476

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

When Confu-
cius Aruse.

the nature of all things. At the time of Tang Yao ( B. C. 2356) they
were abie to illustrate noble virtue. Nine generations lived together
in one home in love and i)eace, and the people were firm and intelli-
gent. Yao handed down to Shun a saying, "Sincerely hold fast to the
'mean'." Shun transmitted it to Yu, and said: "The mind of man is
restlc:.3, prone to err; its affinity for the right way is small. Be dis-
criminating; be undivided that you may sincerely hold fast to the
mean." Yu transmitted this to Tang, of the Siang dynasty ( B. C. 1766).
Tang transmitted it to Kings Wen and VVu, of the Chow dynasty (B.
C. n22). These transmitted it to Duke Kung. And these were all
able to observe this rule of the heart by which they held fast to the
*' mean."

The Chow dynasty later degenerated; then there arose Confucius,
who transmitted the doctrines of Yao and Shun as if they had been
his ancestors, elegantly displayed the doctrines of Wen and Wu, edited
the odes and the history, reformed religion, made notes on the "Book
of Changes," wrote the annals of spring and autumn, and spoke ot
governing the nation, saying: " Treat matters .seriously and be faith-
ful; be temperate and love men; employ men according to proper
times, and in teaching your pupils you must do so with love." He
said to Yen Tsze: "Self-sacrifice and truth is benevolence. If you
can for one whole day entirely sacrifice self and be true, then all under
heaven will become benevolent." Speaking of being able to put away
selfishness and attaining to the truth of heaven, everything is possible
to such a heart.

Alas! He was not able to get his virtues put into practice, but his
disciples recorded his words and deeds iiwd wrote the Confucian Ana-
lects. His disciple, Jseng Ts/e, composed the Great Learning, His
proud son, Tsze Sze, composed the Doctrine of the Mean (Chung
Yung). VVhen the contending states were quarreling, Mencius, with a
loving heart that could not endure wrong, arose to save the times.
The rulers of the time would not use him; so he composed a book in
seven chapters. After this, although the ages changed this, religion
flourished. In the Han dynasty. Tung Chung Shu (twentieth century
B. C); in the Sui dynasty, Wang Tung (A. D. 583-617); in the Tang
dynasty Han Yo (A. D, 768-824), each made some part of this doc-
trine better known In the Sung dynasty (960-1260) these were the
disciples of the philosophers Cheng, Chow and Chang, searching into
the spiritual nature of man, and Chu Fu-Tsze collected their works
and this religion shone with great brightness. Our present dynasty,
respecting scholarship and considering truth important, placed the
philosopher Cho in Confucian temples to be reverenced a.id sacrificed
to. Confucianists all follow Chu Fu-Tsze's comments From ancient
times till now those who followed the doctrines of Confucius were able
to govern the country; whenever these were not followed there w?s
disorder.

On looking at it down the ages there is also clear evidence of re-
sults in governing the country and its superiority to other religions.

We WORLD'S Congress of religions.

47?

Tbotv. is a prosperity of Tan^ Yis, of the dynasties Hsia Siang and
Chow (B. C, 2356, B. C. 255), when virtue and jirood government flour-
ished. It is needless to enlarge upon them. At the time of the con-
tending states there arose theorists, and all under heaven became dis-
ordered. The Tsin dynasty (of Tsin She-Hwang fame) burned the
books and buried the Confucianists and did many other heartless
things, and also went to seek the art of becoming immortal (Taoism),
and the empire was soon lost.

Then the Han dynasty arose (B, C. 206-A. D. 220). Although
it leaned toward Taoism, the people, after hiving suffered so long
from the cruelties of the Tsin, were easily governed. Although the
religious rites of the Shu Sun-tung do not command our confidence, the
elucidation of the ancient classics and books we owe mostly to the,
Confucianists of the Han period. Although the emperor, the emperor
Wu, of the western (early) Han dynasty, was fond of genii (Taoism),
he knew how to select worthy ministers. Although the emperor
Ming, of the eastern (later) Han dynasty, introduced Buddhism, he
was able to respect the Confucian doctrines. Since so many followed
Confucianism, good m^indarins were very abundant under the eastern
and western Han dynasties, and the dynasty lasted very long.

Passing on to the epoch of the three kingdoms and the Tsin
dynasty (A. D. 221-419) the people then leaned toward Taoism and
negl cted the country. Afterward the north and south quarreled and
Emperor Laing VVu reigned the longest, but lost all by believing in
Buddhism and going into the monastery at T'jing Tai, where he died of
starvation at Tai Ching. When Yuen Ti came to the throne (A D.
552) the soldiers of Wei arrived while the teaching of Taoism was still
going on, and the country was ruined. It is not worth while to speak
of the Sui dynasty. The first emperor of the Tang dynasty (618-907)
greatly sought out famous Confucianists and increased the demand for
scholars, so that the country was ruled almost equal to Cheng and
Kangof ancient times. Although there was the affair of Empress
Woo and Lu Shan, the dynasty flourished long Its fall was because
the emperor Huen Tsung was fond of Taoism and Buddhism, and was

Eut to death by taking wrong medicine. The emperor Mu Tsung also
elieved in Taoism, but got Hi by eating immortality pills. After this
the emperor Wu Tsung was fond of Taoism and reigned only a short
time. The emperor Tsung followed Buddhism and the dynasty fell
into a precarious condition.

Passing by the five dynasties (907-960) on to the first emperor of
the Sung dynasty (960-1360) who, cherishing the people and having
good government, step by step prospered — when Jen Tsung ruled he
reverenced heaven and cared for the people; he reformed the punish-
ment and lightened the taxes, and was assisted by such scholars as
Han Ki, Fan Chung Yen, Foo Pih, Ou Yang Sui, Wen Yen Poh and
Chas Pien. They established the government at the mountain Pas
Sang and raised the people to the state of peace which is .still in everv
home. Such government may be called benevolent.

UohiiUh
(ioverniDK
Country.

I u

the

Benevolent
Government.

47S

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RBUGlONS,

«t t

Wisely Reffa-
Ikti-ii.

Afterward there arose the troubles ot Kin, when the good minis*
tors wore destroyed by cliques ;^and the Sang dynasty moved to the
south of China.

When the Mongol dynasty (A. D. 1260-1368) arose, it believed in
and employed Confucian methods, and all under heaven was in order.
In the time of Jen Chung the names of the philosophers. Chow and
Cheng (of thcSun^ dynasty), were placed in the Confucian temples to
be sacrificed to. They carried out the system of examinations and
sent commissioners to travel throughout the land to inquire into the
sufferings of the people.

The empress served the emperor dowager with filial piety and
treated all his relations with honor, and he may be called one of our
noble rulers, but the death of Shunti was owing to his passion for pleas-
ure. He practiced the methods of western priests (Buddhists) to reg-
ulate the health and had no heart for matters of state.

When the first emperor of the jMing dynasty (A. D. 1368-1C44)
arose and reformed the religion and ritual of the empire, he called it
the great, peaceful dynasty. The pity was that he selected Buddhist
priests to attend on the princes of the empire, and the priest Tao Yen
corrupted the Pekin prince, and a rebellious spirit sprung up, which
was a great mistake. Then Yen Tsung, too, employed Yen Sung, who
only occupied himself in worship. Hi Tsung employed Ni Ngan,
who defamed the loyal and the good, and the dynasty failed. These
arc the evidences of the value of Confucianism in every age.

But in our pre. 'vnasty worship and religion have been wisely

regulated, and the rnment is in fine order; noble ministers and

able officers have t ..1, ed in succession down all these centuries.

That is what has caused Confucianism to be transmitted from the
oldest times till now, and wherein it constitutes its superiority to other
religions is that it does not encourage mysteries and strange things or
marvels. It is impartial and upright. It is a doctrine of great im-
partiality and strict uprightness, which one may body forth in one's
person and carry out with vigor in one's life; therefore, we say, when
the sun and moon come forth (as in Confucianism), then the light of
candles can be dispensed with.

i ! i!

, \

:\y

(Confucianism.

Paper by HON. PUNG KWANG YU, First Secretary of the Chinese i.egation.

Washington, D. C.

«•

LL Chinese reformers of ancient and modern
times have either exercised supreme authority
as political heads of the nation or filled high
posts as ministers of state. The only notable
exception j Confucius. "Man," says Con-
fucius in the Book of Rites, "is the product of
heaven and earth, the union of the active and
passive principles, the conjunction of the soul
and spirit, and the ethereal essence of the five
elements." Again he says: "Man is the heart
of heaven and earth, and the nucleus of the
five elements, formed by assimilating food, by
distinguishing sounds and by the action of light."
Now, the heaven and earth, the active and passive
principles, and the soul and spirit are dualisms resulting
from unities. The product of heaven and earth, the union
of the active and passive principles, the conjunction of the
soul and spirit, are unities resulting from dualisms. Man,
Mantheiieurt being the Connecting link between unities and dualisms, is, therefore,
«f Heaven nnd called the heart of heaven and earth. By reason of his being the heart
of heaven and earth humanity is his natural faculty and love his con-
trolling emotion. "Humanity," says Confucius, "is the characteristic
of man." On this account humanity stands at the head of the five fac-
ulties, or the innate qualities of the soul, namely, humanity, rectitude,
propriety, understanding and truthfulness. Humanity must have the
social relations for it;; sphere of action. Love must begin at home.

What are the social relations? They are the sovereign and sub-
ject, parent and child, husband and wife, elder and young brothers and
friends. These are called the five relations or natural relations. As
the relation of husband and wife must have been recognized before
that of sovereign or subject, or that of parent and child, the relation of
husband and wife is, therefore, the first of the social relations. The
relation of husband and wife bears a certain analogy to that of "kien"
and "kium." The word kien may be taken in the sense of heaven,

480

THl' WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

481

sovereign, parent or husuund. As the earth is subservient to heaven*
so is tlic subject subservient to the sovereign, the child to tlie parent
and the wife to the husband. These three mainstays of the social
structure have their origin in the law of nature, and do not owe their
existence to the invention of men.

The emotions are but the manifestations of the soul's faculties
when acted upon by external objects. There are seven emotions,
namely, joy, anger, grief, fear, love, hate and desire. The faculties
of the soul derive their origin from nature, and are, therefore, called
natural faculties; the emotions emanate from man, and are, therefore,
called human emotions.

Humanity sums up the virtues of the five natural faculties. Filial
duty lies at the foundation ot humanity. The sense of propriety serves
to regulate the emotions. The recognition of the relation of husband
and wife is the first step in the cultivation and dcvp'opment of
humdnity. The principles that direct human progress ar'> sincerity
and charity, and the principles that carry it forward are devotion and
honor. "Do not unto others," says Confucius, "'"hatsoc.er ye would
not that others should do unto you." Again, he says:

"A noble-minded man has four rules to regulate iiis conduct: To
serve one's parent i in such a manner as is required of a son; to serve
one's sovereign in such a manner as is required of a subject; to serve
one's cl''er brother in such a manner as is required of a younger
brother; to set an examj)le of dealing with one's friends in such a
manner as is required of friends."

This succinct statement puts in a nutshell all the requirements of
sincerity, charity, devotion and honor; in other words, of humanity
itself. Therefore, all natural virtues and established doctrines that
relate to the duties of man in his relations to society must have their
origin in humanity. On the other hand, the principle that regulates
the actions and conduct of men, from beginning to end, can be no
other than propriety.

What are the rules of propriety? The"Bookor Rites" treats of such
as relate to ceremonies on attaining majority, marriages, funerals, sac-
rifices, court receptions, banquets, the worship of heaven, the observ-
ance of stated feasts, the sphere of woman and the education of youth.
The rules of propriety are based on rectitude and should be carried out
with understanding, so as to show their truth, to the end that humanity
may appear in its full splendor. The aim is to enable the five innate
qualities of the soul to have full and free play, and yet to enable each
in its action to promote the action of the rest. If we were to go into
details on this subject and enlarge on the various lines of thought as
they present themselves we should find that myriads of words and
thousands of paragraphs would not suffice, for then we should have to
deal with such problems as relate to the observation of facts, the sys-
tcmatization of knowledge, the establishment of right principles, the
rectification of the heart, the disciplining of self, the regulation of the
family, the government of the nation and the pacification of the world.

All the
gjiiremtmts
Homanity.

Re.
of

482

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

OriKin of Re-
ligiouB Wor.
■hip.

NataraJ Im-
perfoctione.

,i: I .J •• ,1

Such are the elements of 'nstruction and self-education which Confu*
cianists consider as essential to make man what he ought to be.

Now, man is only a species of naked animal. He was naturally
stricken with fear and went so far as to worship animals against which
he was helpless. To this may be traced the origin of religious wor-
ship. It was only man, however, that ni;ture had endowed with intel-
ligence. On this account he could take advantage of the natural ele-
ments, and his primary object was to increase the comforts and remove
the dangers of life. As he passed from a savage to a civilized state he
initiated movements for the education of the rising generation by
defining the relations and duties of society and by laying special
emphasis on the disciplining of self. Therefore, man is called the
"nucleus of the five elements and the ethereal essence of the five ele-
ments formed by assimilating food, by distinguishing sounds and by
the action of light." Herein lies the dignity of human nature Herein
we recognize the chief characteristic that distinguishes man from ani-
mals.

The various tribes of feathered, haired, scaled, or shelled animals,
to be sure, are not entirely incapable of emotion. As emotions are
only phenomena of the soul's different faculties, animals may be said
to possess, to a limited degree, faculties similar to the faculties of man,
and are not therefore entirely devoid of the pure essence of nature.
From the beginning of the creation the intelligence of animals has
remained the same, and will doubtless remain the same until the end
of time. They are incapable of improvement or progress. This shows
that the substance of their organization must be derived from the im-
perfect and gross elements of the earth, so that when it unites with
the ethereal elements to form the faculties, the spiritual qualities can
not gam full play, as in the case of man. "In the evolution of the
animated creation," says Confucius, in connection with this subject,
"nature can only act upon the substance of each organized being, and
bring out its innate qualities. She, therefore, furnishes proper nour-
ishment to those individuals that stand erect and trample upon those
individuals that lie prostrate." The idea is that nature has no fixed
purpose.

As for man, he also has natural imperfections. This is what Con-
fucianists call essential imperfections in the constitution. The reason
is that the organizations which different individuals have received
from the earth are very diverse in character. It is but natural that the
faculties of different individuals should develop abilities and capabili-
ties which are equally diverse in degrees and kinds. It is not that
different individuals have received from nature different measures of
intelligence.

Man only can remove the imperfections inherent in the substance
of his organization by directing his mind to intellectual pursuits, by
abiding in virtue, by following the dictates of humanity, by subduing
anger, and by restraining the appetites. Lovers of mankind, who have
the regeneration of the world at heart, would doubtless consider it

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

483

desirable to have some moral panacea which could completely remove
all the imperfections from the organic substance of the human
species, so that the whole race might be reformed with ease and ex-
pedition. But such a method of procedure does not seem to be the
way in which nature works. She only brings out the innate qualities
of every substance. Still it is worth while to cherish such a desire on
account of its tendency to elevate human nature, though we know it
to be impossible of fulfillment, owing to the limitations of the human
organization.

Man is then endowed with the faculties of the highest dignity.
Vet there are those who so far degrade their manhood as to give
themselves up to the unlimited indulgence of those appetites which
they have .in common with birds, beasts and fishes, to the utter loss of
their moral sense without being sensible of their degradation, perhaps. Facnltiea ot
In case they have really become insensible then even heaven cannot **"''*'•
possibly do anything with them. But if they, at any time, become
sensible of their condition, they must be stricken with a sense of
shame, not unmingled, perhaps, with fear and trembling If, after
experiencing a sense of shame, mingled with fear and trembling, they
repent of their evil doings, then they become men again with their
humanity restored. This is a doctrine maintained by all the schools
of Confucianists.

" Reason," says Confucius in his notes to the " Book of Changes,"
"consists in the proper union of the active and passive principles of
nature" Again, he says: "What is called spirit is the inscrutable
state of 'yin' and 'y3"S>' or the passive and active principles of n?iture." .

Now, "yang" is heaven, or ether. Whenever ether, by condensation, paa^iilT
assumes a substantive form and remains suspended in the heavens, c>pie«'
there is an ailinixture of the active and passive principles of nature,
with the active principle predominating. "Yin," or the passive prin-
ciple of nature, is earth or substance. Whenever a substance which
has the property of absorbing ether is attracted to the earth there is
an admixture of the active and passive principles of nature, with the
passive principle predominating.

As the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, its going and
coming making one day, so the (juantity of ether which the earth
holds varies from time to time. Exhalation follows aJ^^^rption; sys-
tole succeeds diastole. It is these small changes thi... produce day
and night. As the sun travels also from north to south and makes a
complete revolution in one year, so the quantity of ether which the
earth holds varies .'rom time to time. Exhalation follows absorp-
tion; systole succeeds diastole. It is these great changes that produce
heat and cold. The movements of the active and passive principles
of the universe bear a certain resemblance to the movements of the
sun. There arc periods of rest, periods of activity, periods of expan-
sion, and periods of contraction. The two principles may sometimes
repel each other but can never go beyond each other's influences.
Tney may also attract each other, but do not by tnis means spend their

and
Prin.

484

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Nature an Ac-
''ive Element.

force. They seem to permeate all things from beginning to end.
They are invisible and inaudible, yet it cannot be said for this reason
they do not exist. This is what is meant by inscrutability, and this is
what Confucius calls spirit.

Still it is necessary to guard against confounding this conception
of spirit with that of nature. Nature is an entirely active element and
must needs have a passion element to operate upon in order to bring
out its energy. On the other hand, it is also an error to confound
spirit with matter. Matter is entirely passive and must needs have
some active clement to act upon it in order to concentrate its virtues.
It is to the action and reaction, as well as to the mutual sustentation of
the essences of the active and passive principles, that the spirit of any-
thing owes its being. In case there is no union of the active and pas-
sive principles, the ethereal and substantive elements lie separate, and
the influences of the heavens and the earth cannot come into conjunc-
tion. This being the case, whence can spirits derive their substance?
Thus the influences of the heavens and material objects must act and
react upon each other, and enter into the composition of each other,
in order to enable every material object to incorporate a due propor-
tion of energy with its virtues. PZach object is then able to assume its
proper form, whether large or small, and acquire the properties pecu-
liar to its constitution, to the end that it may fulfill its functions in the
economy of nature.

For example, the spirits of mountains, hills, rivers and marshes
are invisible; we see only the manifestations of their power in winds,
clouds, thunders and rains. The spirits of birds, quadrupeds, insects
and fishes are invisible; we see only the manifestations of their power
in flying, running, burrowing and swimming. The spirits of terrestrial
and aquatic plants are invisible; we see only the manifestations of
their power in flowers, fruits and the various tissues. The spirit of
man is invisible; yet when we consider that the eyes can sec, the ears
can hear, the mouth can distinguish flavors, the nose can smell and the
mind can grasp what is most minute as well as wliat is most remote,
how can we account for all this?

In the case of man, the spirit is in a more concentrated and better
disciplined state than the spirits of the rest of the created things. On
this account the spirit of man after death, though separated from
the body, is still able to retain its essential virtues and does not become
easily dissipated. This is the ghost or disembodied spirit.

The followers of Taoism and Buddhism often speak of immortality
and everlasting liic. Accordingly they subject themselves to a course
of discipline, in the hope that they may by this means attain to that
happy Huddhistic or Taoistic existence. They aim merely to free the
spirit from the limitations of the body. Taoist and Buddhist priests
often speak of the rolls of spirits and the records of souls, and make
frequent mention of heaven and hell. They seek to inculcate that the
good will receive their due reward and the wicked will suffer eternal
punishment. They mean to convey the idea, of course, that rewards

■p

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

485

and punishments will be dv ttlt out to the spirts of men after death
according to their deserts. Such beliefs doubtless had their origin in
attempts to influence the actions of men by appealing to their likes
and dislikes. The purpose of inducing men to do good and forsake
evil by presenting in striking contrast a hereafter to be striven for
and a hereafter to be avoided is laudable enough in so'.iic respects.
Hut it is the perpetuation of falsehood by slavishly clinging to errors
that deserve condemnation. For this reason Confucianists do not
accept such doctrines, though they make no attempt to suppress them.

"We cannot as yet," says Confucius, "perform our duties to men;
how can we perform our duties to spirits?" Again, he says: "We
know not as yet about life; how can we know about death?" "From
this time on," says Tsang-tze,"I know that I am saved." "Let my
consistent actions remain," says Chang-tze/'and I shall die in peace."
It will be seen that the wise and good men of China have never
thought it advisable to give up teaching the duties of life and turn to
speculations on the conditions of souls and spirits after death. But
from various passages, in the "Book of Changes," it may be inferred that
the souls of men after death are in the same state as they were before
birth. .

Why is it that Confucianists apply the word "ti" to heaven and
not to spirits? The reason is that there is but one "ti," or .Supreme
Ruler, the governor of all subordinate spirits, who cannot be said to
be propitious or unpropitious, beneficent or maleficent. Inferior
spirits, on the other hand, owe their existence to material substances.
As substances have noxious or useful properties, so some spirits may
be propitious, others unpropitious, and some benevolent, others malev-
olent. Man is part of the material universe; the spirit of man, a spe-
cies of spirits.

All created things can be distributed into groups, and individuals
of the same species are generally found together. A man, therefore,
whose heart is good, must have a good spirit. By reason of the influ-
ence exerted by one spirit upon another, a good spirit naturally tends
to attract all other propitious and good spirits. This is happiness.
Now, if every individual has a good heart, then from the action and
reaction of spirit upon spirit, only propitious and good influences can
flow. The country is blessed with prosperity; tlie government fulfills
its purpose. What happiness can be compared with this?

On the other hand, when a man has an evil heart his spirit cannot
but be likewise evil. On account of the influence exerted by one
spirit upon another, the call of this spirit naturally meets with ready
responses from all other unpropitious and evil spirits. This is misery.
If every individual harbors an evil heart, then a responsive chord is
struck in all unpropitious and evil spirits. Kvil influences are scattered
over the country. Misfortunes and calamities overtake the land.
There is an end of good government. What misery can be compared
with this?

Thus, in the administration of public affairs, a wise legislator

Good Hrart,
Qood Spirit.

486

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

\ ?

■ . I

Decrees
Heaven.

I ■

always takes into consideration the spirit of the times in devising
means for the advancement and promotion of civilization. He puts
his reliance on ceremonies and music to carry on the good work, and
makes use of punishments and the sword as a last resort, in accord-
ance with the good or bad tendency of the age. His aim is to restore
the human heart to its pristine innocence by establishing a standard
of goodness and by pointing out a way of salvation to every creature.
The right principles of action can only be discovered by studying
the waxing and waning of the active and passive elements of nature,
as set forth in the"Bookof Changes,"and surely cannot be understood
by those who believe in what priests call the dispensations of Provi-
dence.

Human affairs are made up of thousands of acts of individuals.
What, therefore, constitutes a good action, and what a bad action?
What is done for the sake of others is disinterested; a disinterested
action is good and may be called beneficial. What is done for the
sake of one's self is selfish; a selfish action is bad and naturally
springs from avarice.

.Suppose there is a man who has never entertained a good thought
and never done a good deed, does it stand to reason that such a
wretch can, by means of sacrifices and prayers, attain to the blessings
of life? Let us take the opposite case and suppose that there is a
man who has never harbored a bad thought and never done a bad
deed, docs it stand to reason that there is no escape for such a man
from adverse fortune except through prayers and sacrifices? "My
prayers," says Confucius, " were offered up long ago." The meaning
he wishes to convey is that he considers his prayers to consist in liv-
ing a virtuous life and in constantly obeying the dictates of con-
science.

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 purifying themselves from the contam-
ination of the world, so that they 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, sacrifices cannot be offered by all persons without distinction.
Only the emperor can offer sacrifices to heaven. Only governors
of provinces can offer sacrifices to the spirits of mountains and rivers,
land and agriculture. Lower officers of the government can offer sac-
rifices only to their ancestors of thf. 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 common people, are

THE WORLUS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

487

strictly required to observe the worship of ancestors. The only way in
which a virtuous man and a dutiful son can show his sense of obligation 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 rea on that the
most enlightened rulers have always made filial duty the guiding prin-
ciple of government. Observances of this character have nothing to
do with religious celebrations and ceremonies.

Toward the close of the Ming dynasty the local authorities of a
certain district invited a priest from Tsoh to live in their midst. The
people began to vie with one another in their eagerness to worship the
new-fangled deities of Tsoh. Shortly afterward an invitation was
extended to a priest from Yueh to settle there also. Then the people,
in like manner, began to vie with one another in their eagerness to
worship the new-fangled deities of Yueh. The Tsoh priest, stirred up
with envy, declared to the people that the heaven he taught was the
only true heaven, and the deities he served were the only true deities,
adding, that by making use of his prayers they could obtain the for-
j^iveness of their sins and the blessings of life, and if they did not
make use of his prayers even the good could not attain to happiness.
Me at the same time denounced the teachings of the Yueh priest as
altogether false. The Yueh priest then returned the compliment in
s'rnilar but more energetic language. Yet they made no attack on the
inefficiency of prayers, the reason being that both employed the same
kind of tools in carrying on their trade.

To say that there are true and false deities is reasonable enough.
But can heaven be so divided that one part may be designated as
belonging to Tsoh and another part to Yuen? It is merely an attempt
to practice on the credulity of men, to dogmatize on the dispensation
of Providence, by saying that no blessings can fall to the lot of the
good without prayer, and that prayer can turn into a blessing nC
retribution that is sure to overtake the wicked.

Tr'ne and
False Deities.

> i

i ( 1

f i 1

1 i

:l I.

Interior of the Mosque of Sultan Hassan.

Genesis and Development of Con-
fucianism.

Paper by DR. ERNEST FABER, of Shanghai, China.

N order to show the greater contrast in modern
China and its Confurianism compared with
China in the times of Confucius and RIencius
and their teaching's, it seems best to invite both
Confucius and Mencius to a short visit in the
middle kingdom. On their arrival Mencius
began to congratulate his great master on the
success of his sage teachings, but Confucius
would not accept congratulations until he had
learned the cause of the success.

He found that the spread of C nfucianism
was brought about, not by the peaceful attrac-
tion of neighboring states but by bloody wars
and suppression. The constitution of the state
was changed and ruins were everywhere. He no-
ticed splendid temples dedicated to gods he had
never heard of, while around these magnificent homes lived people who
were poor and famine-stricken or who spent their lives opium smoking
and gambling. He found that benevolent institutions were misman-
aged and that the money which belonged to the poor found its way
into the pockets of the respectable managers dressed in long silk robes.
There had been changes in dress which chilled the hearts of Con-
fucius and Mencius. They sighed when they saw women with dis-
torted feet and men wearing queues. As they wandered along they
found that sacrifices were made at graves, and that every one bowed
down before the genii of good luck. In the colleges they found that
most of the time was spent in empty routine and phraseology. There
was no basis for the formation of character,

Passing by a large bookstore they entered and looked about them
in surprise at the thousands of books on the shelves. "Alas!" said
Confucius, "I find here the same state of things I found in China
2,400 years ago. The very thing that induced me to clear the ancient
literature of thousands of useless works, retaining only a few, filling
32 489

■■ fl i

PolifuciUB

•i

In Honor of
Funioai* Wom-
an.

490

T//£ lyORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

five volumes, worthy to be transmitted to after ages. Is nothinfj left
of my spirit anonjj the myriads of scholars professing to be my fol-
lowers? Why do they not clear away the heaps of rubbish that have
accumulated during twenty centuries? They should transmit the
essence of former ages to the young generation as an inheritance of
wisdom which they have put into practice and so increase."

Going into a gentleman's house, they were invited to take chairs,
and looked in vain for the mat spread on the ground. Tobacco pipes
were handed to the sages, but they declined to smoke, saying that the
ancients valued pure air most highly Seeing many arches erected in
honor of famous women, they wondered that the fame of women should
enter the streets and be proclaimed on highways. "The rule of
antiquity is," said Confucius, "that nothing should be known of women
outside the female departments, either good or evil." Then they
found out that most of the arches were for females who had committed
suicide, or who had cut a little flesh from their own bodies, from the
arm or the thigh, as medicine for a sick parent. Others had refu.sed
marriage to nurse their old parents. Arches were erected to a few who
had reached an old age, and to a very few who had performed charita-
ble woiks.

Neither Confucius nor Mencius raised any objection to these
arches, though they did not agree to some of the reasons given for
their erection. They did not approve of the imperial sanction of the
Taoist pope, the favors shown to Buddhism, and especially to the
Lamas in Peking, the widespread superstition of spiritism, the worship
of animals, fortune lolling, excesses and abuses in ancestral worship,
theatrical performances, dragon festivals, idol processions and displays
in the street, infanticide, prostitution, retribution made a prominent
move in morals, codification of penal law, publication of the statutes
of the empire and cessation of the imperial tours of inspection.

Then they noted the progress of the west, the railroads, the steam
engines and steamers of immense size moving on quickly, even against
wind and tide. "Oh, my little children," said Confucius, "all ye who
honor my name, the people of the west are in advance of you as the
ancients were in advance of the rest of the world. Therefore, leain
what they have good and correct their evil by what you have better.
This is my meaning of the great principle of reciprocity."

'*;'!

1 '^

Points of Qontact Between Qhristianity
and ]V\ohammedanism.

Paper by GEORGE WASHBURN, D. D., President of Robert College,

Constantinople.

T is not my purpose to enter upon any defense
or criticism of Mohammedanism, but simply to
state, as impartially as possible, its points of
contact and contrast with Christianity.

The chief difficulty in such a statement
arises from the fact that there are as many dif-
ferent opinions on theological questions among
Moslems as among Christians, and that it is
impossible to present any summary of Moham-
medan doctrine which will be accepted by all.
The faith of Islam is based primarily upon
the Koran, which is believed to h:ve been
delivered to the prophet at sundry times by.
the angel Gabriel, and upon the traditions
reporting the life and words of the prophet; and
secondarily, upon the opinions of certain distin-
guished theologians of the second century of the hegira, especially, for
the Sunnis, of the four Imams, Hanife, Shafi, Malik and Ilannbel.

The Shiites, or followers of Aali, reject these last with many of
the received traditions, and hold opinions which the great body of
Moslems regard as heretical. In addition to the two-fold divisions of
Sunniis and Shiites and of the sects of the four Imams, there are said
to be several hundred minor sects.

It is, in fact, very difficult for an honest inquirer to determine!
what is really essential to the faith. A distinguished Moslem states-|
man and scholar once assured me that nothing was essential beyond a^
belief in the existence and unity of God. And several years ago the
Sheik-ul-Islam, the highest authority in Constantinople, in a letter to
a German inquirer, states that whoever confesses that there is but one
God, and that Mohammed is his prophet, is a true Moslem, although
to be a good one it is necessary to observe the five points of confes-

• ■ ' 491 . ■-.,.

What iH Es.
Hiiutial t<> the
MuHlem Faith.

:' 1

i- i

;

!i' li .

fjl

II li

492

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

H iHtoriciil
Iti'luliiiiiN.

■i'

sion, prayer, fasting, almsgiving and pilgrimage; but the difficulty
about this apparently simple definition in that belief in Mohammed as
the prophet of God involves a belief in all his teaching, and we come
back at once to the question what that teaching was.

The great majority of Mohammedans believe in the Koran, the
traditions and the teaching of the school of Hanife, and we cannot do
better than to take these doctrines and compare them with what are
generally regarded as the essential principles of Christianity.

With this explanation we may discuss the relations of Christianity
and Mohammedanism as historical, dogmatic and practical.

It would hardly be necessary to speak in this connection of the
historical relations of Christianity and Islam if they had not seemed,
to some distinguished writers, so important as to justify the statement
that Mohammedanism is a form and outgrowth of Christianity; in
fact, essentially a Christian sect.

Carlyle, for example, says: " Islam is definable as a confused form
of Christianity." And Draper calls it "The southern reformation,
akin to that in the north under Luther." Dean Stanley and Dr. Doel-
linger make similar statements.

While there is ascertain semblance of truth in their view, it seems
'to me not onl\' misleading but essentially false.

Neither Mohammed nor any of his earlier followers had ever been
Christians, and there is no satisfactory evidence that up to the time of
his announcing his prophetic mission he had interested himself at all
in Christianity. No such theory is necessary to account for \vi> mono-
theism. The citizens of Mecca were mostly idolaters, but a few, known
as Hanifs, were pure deists, and the doctrine of the unity of God was
not unknown theoretically even by those who, in their idoL;!;ry, had
practically abandoned it. The temple at Mecca was known as Beit
ullah, the house of (iod. The name of the prophet's father was
Abdallah, the servant of God, and "by Allah" was a common oath
among the people.

The one God was nominally recognized, but in fact forgotten in
the worship of the stars, of Lat and Ozza and Manah, and of the 360
idols in the temple at Mecca. It was against this prevalent idolatry
that Mohammed revolted, and he claimed that in so doing he had
returned to the pure religion of Abraham. Still, Mohammedanism is
no more a reformed Judaism than it is a form of Christianity. It
was essentially a new religion.

The Koran claimed to be a new and perfect revelation of the will
of God, and from the time of the prophet's death to this day no
Moslem has appealed to the ancient traditions of Arabia or to the
Jewish or Christian Scriptures as the ground of his faith. The Koran
and the traditions are sufficient and final. I believe that every ortho-
dox Moslem regards Islam as a separate, di.stinct, and ab.solutely
exclusive religion; and there is nothing to be gained by calling it a
form of Christianity. But, after having set aside this unfounded state-
ment, and fully acknowledged the independent origin of Islam, there is

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

408

still an historical relationship between it and Christianity which
demands our attention «

The prophet recognized the Christian and Jewish Scriptures as
the word of God, although it cannot be proved that he had ever
read them. They are mentioned 131 times in the Koran, but there
is only one quotation from the Old Testament, and one from the
New. The historical parts of the Koran correspond with the Talmud,
and the writing current among the heretical Christian sects, such as Tho Koran
the Protevangelium of James, the pseudo Matthew, and the Gospel mud. **"' ^*'"
of the Nativity of Mary, rather than with the Bible. His informa-
tion was probably obtained verbally from his Jewish and Cliristiau
friends, wno seem, in some cases, to have deceived him intentionally.
He seems to have believed their statements, that his coming was
foretold in the Scriptures, and to have hoped for some years that
they would accept him as their promised leader.

His confidence in the Christians was proved by his sending his
persecuted followers to take refuge with the Christian king of Abys-
sinia. He had visited Christian Syria, and, if tradition can be trusted,
he had some intimate Christian friends. With the Jews he was on
still more intimate terms during his Inst years at Mecca and the first
at Medina.

Hut in the end he attacked and. destroyed the Jews and declared
war against the Christians, making a distinction, however, in his treat-
ment of idolaters and "the people of the Hook," allowing the latter,
if they quietly submitted to his authority, to retain their religion on
the condition of an annual payment of a tribute or ransom for their
lives If, however, they resisted, the men were to be killed and the
women and children sold as slaves (Koran, sura i.\ ). In the next world
Jews, Christians and idolaters are alike consigned to eternal punish-
ment in hell.

Some have supposed that a verse in the second sura of the Koran
was intended to teach a more charitable doctrine. It reads: ".Surely
those who believe, whether Jews, Christians or Sabians, whoever be-
lieveth in God and the last day, and tloth that which is right, they
shall have their reward with the Lord. No fear shall come upon them,
neither shall they be grieved." Hut Moslem commentators rightly
understand this as only teaching that if Jews. Christians or Sabians
become Moslems they will be saved, the phrase used being the com-
mon one to express faith in Islam.

In the third sura it is stated in so many words: " Whoever fol-
loweth any other religion than Islam it shall not be accepted of him,
and at the last day he shall be of those that perish."

This is the orthodox doctrine; but it should be said that one meets
with Moslems who take a more hopeful view of the ultimate fate of
those who are sincere and honest followers of Christ.

The question whether Mohammedanism has been in any way
modified since the time of tiic prophet by its contact with Christianity
1 think every Moslem would answer in the negative. There is much

404

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELICrONS.

Wido Divpr
Kenco uf Fuitli.

'I'

to be said on the other side, as, for example, it must seem to a Chris-
tian student that the offices and qualities assigned to the prophet by
the traditions, which arc not claimed for him in the Koran, must have
been borrowed from the Christian teaching in regard to Christ; but
we have not time to enter upon the discussion of this (juestion.

In comparing the dogmatic statements of Islam and Christianity
we must confine ourselves as strictly as possible to vhat is generally
acknowledged to be essential in ea»-h faith. To go beyond this would
be to enter upon a sea of speculation almost without limits, from which
we could hope to bring back but little of any value to our present dis-
cussion.

It has been formally decided by various fetvas that the Koran re-
tjuires belief in seven principal doctrines, and the confession of faith
is this: "I believe on God, on the Angels, on the Hooks, on the
Prophets, on the Judgment day, on the eternal Decrees of God
Almighty concerning both good and evil, and on the Resurrection after
death."

There are many other things which a good Moslem is expected to
believe, but these points arc fundamental. Taking these essential
dogmas one by one we shall find that they agree with Christian doc-
trine in their general .statement, although in their development there
is a wide divergence of faith between the Christian and Moslem.

First. The Doctrine of God This is stated by Omer Nessefi (A.
D. 1 142), 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 nor
numbers, neither parts, multiplications nor divisions, because He is
neither body nor matter. He has neither beginning nor end. He is
self-existent, 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."
The Westminster catechism says:

"God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable in His being, wisdom,
power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth. There is but one only,
the living and true God."

It will be seen that these statements differ chiefly in that the
Christian gives special prominence to the moral attributes of God, and
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 per-
fect 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 truth, there is no conceivable perfection which the
Moslem would neglect to attribute to God.

Their conception of Him is that of an absolute Oriental Monarch,

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tho CnriCi'

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and His unlimited power to do what He pleases makes entire submission
to His will the first, most prominent duty. The name which they fjiivc
to their religion implies tliis. It is Islam, which means submission or
resignation; but a kinjj may be jjood or bad, wise or foolish, and the
INIcjslem takes as much pains as the Christian to attribute to God all
wisdom and all ({oodness.

The essential difference in the Christian and Mohammedan con-
ception 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 blasphemous but absurd and incompre- of UckI.
hensible; and the idea of fellowship with God, which is expressed in
calling Him our Father, is altogether foreign to Mohammedan
thought. God is not immanent in the world in the Christian sense, but
apart from the world and infinitely removed from man.

.Second. The Doctrine of Degrees, or of the Sovereignty of God,
is a fundamental principle of both Christianity and Islam.

The Koran says:

"God has from all eternity foreordained by an immutable decree all
things whatsoever that come to pass, whether good or evil."

The Westminister catechism says:
"The decrees of God are His eternal purpose according to the
counsel of His will, whereby for His own glory He hath foreordained
whatever comes to pass."

It is plain that these two statements do not essentially differ, and
the same controversies have arisen over this doctrine among Moham-
medans as among Christians with the same differences of opinion.

Omer Nessefi says:

'Predestination refers not to the temporal, but to the spiritual state.
Klccti.)n and reprobation decide the final fate of the soul, but in tem-
poral affairs man is free."

A Turkish confession of faith says:

"Unbelief and wicked acts happen with the foreknowledge and will
of God, but the effect of His predestination, written from eternity on
the preserved tables, by His operation but not with His satisfaction.
God foresees, wills, produces, loves all that is good, and docs not love
unbelief and sin, though He wills and effects it. If it be asked
why (jod wills and effects what is. evil and gives the devil power to
tempt man, the answer is. He has His views of wisdom which it is not
granted to us to know."

Many Christian theologians would accept this statement without
criticism, but in general they have been careful to guard against the
idea that Goil is in any way the efficient cause of sin, and they gener-
ally give to man a wider area of freedom than the orthodox Moham-
medans.

It cannot be denied th.it this doctrine of the decrees of God has
degenerated into fatalism more generally among Moslems than among
Christian?- J have never known a Mohammedan pf any sect who was

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(iood and
Evil Angels.

not more or less a fatalist, notwithstanding the fact that there have,
been Moslem theologians who have repudiated fatalism as vigorously
as any Christians.

In Christianity this doctrine has been offset by a different concep-
tion of God, by a higher estimate of man, and by the who!.- scheme of
redemption through faith in Christ. In Islam there is no such coun-
teracting influence.

Third. The other five doctrines we pass over with a single remark
in regard to each. Both Moslems and Christians believe in the exist-
ence of good and evil angels, and that God has revealed His will to
man in certain inspired books, and both agree that the Hebrew and
Christian Scriptures are such books. The Moslem, however, believes
that they have been superseded by the Koran, which was brought
down from God by the angel Gabriel. They believe that this is His
eternal and uncreated word; that its divine character is proved by its
poetic beauty; that it has a miraculous power over men apart from
what it teaches, so that the mere hearing of it, without understanding
it, may heal the sick or convert the infidel. Both Christians and Mos-
lems believe that God has sent prophets and apostles into the world
to teach men His will; both believe in the judgment day and the resur-
rection of the dead, the immortality of the soul, and rewards and pun-
ishments in the future life.

It will be seen that in simple statement the seven positive doc-
trines of Islam are in harmony with Christian dogma; but in their ex-
position and development the NewTestamentand the Koran part com-
pany, and Christian and Moslem speculation evolve totally different
conceptions, especially in regard to everything concerning the other
world. It is in these expositions based upon the Koran {c. g., suras,
Ivi, and Ixxviii), and still more upon the traditions, that we find the
most striking contrasts between Christianity and Mohammedanism;
but it is not easy for a Christian to state them in a way to satisfy Mos-
lems, and as we have no time to quote authorities we may pass them
over.

Fourth. The essential dogmatic difference between Christianity
and Islam is in regard to the person, office and work of Jesus Christ.
The Koran expressly denies the Trinity, the Divinity of Christ, His
death, and the whole doctrine of the incarnation and the atonement,
and rejects the sacraments which He ordained.

It accepts His miraculous birth. His miracles, His moral perfec-
tion, and His mission as an inspired prophet or teacher. It declares
that He did not die on the cross, but was taken up to heaven without
death, while the Jews crucified one like Him in His place. It conse-
quently denies His resurrection from the dead, but claims that He will
come again to rule the world before the day of judgment.

It says that He will Himself testify before God that He never
clainictl to be divine; this heresy originated with Paul.

And at the same time the faith exalts Mohammed to very nearly
the same position which Christ occupies in the Christian bcheme. He

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it IFc never

is not divine, and consequently not an object of worship, but he was
the first created being; God's first and best beloved, the noblest of all
creatures, the mediator between God and man, the greatest intercessor,
the first to enter Paradise and the highest there. Although the Koran
in many places speaks of him as a sinner in need of pardon (Kx.,
suras xxiii, xlvii, and xlviii), his absolute sinlessness is also an article
of faith.

The Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trinity, is not mentioned
in the Koran, and the Christian doctrine of His work of regeneration
and sanctification seems to have been unknown to the prophet, who ^
represents the Christian doctrine of the Trinity as teaching that it
consists of God the Father, Mary the Mother, and Christ the Son.
The promise of Christ in the Gospel oi ,;ohn to send the Paraclete, the
Prophet applies to Himself, reading Parakletos as Periklytos, which
might be rendered in Arabic as Ahmed, another form of the name
Mohammed.

We have, then, in Islam a specific and final rejection and repudia- t

tion of the Christian dogma of the Incarnation and the Trinity, and the
substitution of Mohammed for Christ in most of his offices, but it
should be noted in passing that, while this rejection grows out of a
different conception of God, it has nothing in common with the scien-
tific rationalistic unbelief of the present day. If it cannot conceive of
God as incarnate in Jesus Christ, it is not from any doubt as to His ,
personality or His miraculous interference in the affairs of this worl^,
or the reality of the supernatural. These ideas are fundamental to the
faith of every orthodox Mohammedan, and are taught everywhere in
the Koran.

There are nominal Mohammedans who -are atheists, and others^
who are pantheists, of the Spinoza type. There are also some smalll „
sects who are rationalists, but after the fashion of old English deism jistflllmT'panl
rather than of the niodern rationalism. The deistic rationalism is ^i'"*^-
represented in that n')i,st interesting work of Justice Ameer Aali, "The
Spirit 'of Islam." He speaks of Mohammed as Xenophon did of
Socrates, and. he reveres Christ also, but he denies thatJihere was any-;
thing supernatural in the inspiration or lives of either, and claims that
Hanife and the other I mams vcorrupted Islam as he thinks Paul, the
apostle, did Christianity; but this book does not represent Moham-
medanism any more than Renan's "Life of Jesus" represents Christian-
ity. These small rationalistic sects are looked upon by all orthodox
Moslems as heretics of th<; worst description.

The practical and ethical relations of Islam to Christianity arc even
more interesting than the historical and dogmatic. The Moslepi code
of morals is much nearer the Christian than is generally supposed on
either side, although it is really more Jewish than Christian. The
truth is that we judge each other harshly and unfairly by those who
do not live up to the demands of their religion, instead of comparing
the pious Moslem with the consistent Christian.

We cannot enter here into a technical statement of the philosoph-

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Code

ical development of the principles of law and morality as they arc
given by the Imam Hanife and others. It would be incomprehensible
without hours of explanation, and is really understood by but few
Mohammedans, although the practical application of it is the substance
of Mohammedan law. It is enough to say that the moral law is based
upon the Koran, and the traditions of the life and sayings of the
Prophet, enlarged by deductions and analogies. Whatever comes
from these sources has the force and authority of a revealed law of God.
The first practical duties inculcated in the religious code are:
Confession of God and Mohammed, His prophet; Prayer at least five
times a day; Fasting during the month of Ramazan, from dawn to sun-
set; Alms to the annual am.ount of two and a half per cent on prop-
erty; Pilgrimage to Mecca, at least once in a lifetime. A sixth dut\ ,
of equal importance, is taking part in sacred war, or war for religion,
but .some orthodox Moslems hold that this is not a perpetual obliga-
tion, and this seems to have been the opinion of Hanife.

In addition to these primary duties of religion, the moral code, as
given by Omer Nessefi, demands: Honesty in business; modesty or
decency in behavior; fraternity between all Moslems; benevolence
and kindness toward all creatures. It forbids gambling, music, the
Thf Moral making or possessing of images, the drinking of into.xicating liquors,
the taking of God's name in vain, and all false oaths. And, in general,
Omer Nessefi adds: "It is an indispensable obligation for every
Moslem to practice virtue and avoid vice; i. <., all that is contrary to
religion, law, humanity, good manners and the duties of society. He
ought especially to guard against deception, lying, slander and abuse
of his neighbor."

We may also add some specimen passages from the Koran:
"God commands justice, benevolence and liberality. He forbids
crime, iniustice and calumny."

"Avoid sin in secret and in public. The wicked will receive the
rewards of his deeds.'*

"God promises His mercy and a brilliant recompense to those who
add good works to their faith."

"He who commits iniquit\- will lose his soul."

"It is not righteousness that you turn }'our faces in prayer toward
the east or the west; but righteousness is of him who bclioveth in God
and the last day, and the angels and the prophets; who giveth money,
for God's sake, to his kindred and to orphans, and to the needy and
the stranger, and to those who ask, and for the redeiniition of capti\es;
who is constant in prayer, and giveth alms; and of those \\ho])erform
their covenant, and whc behave themselves ])atieiitl\' in adversity
and hardships, and in time of violence. These are t'\c\' who are true,
and these are they who fear God."

So far, with one or two exceptions, these conceptions of the
moral life are essentially the same as the Christian, although some
distinctively Christiaj? virtues, such as mggkngss and humility, arc t
emphasized.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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Beyond this we have a moral code equally binding in theory, and
equally important in practice, which is not at all Christian, but is es-
sentially the morality of the Talmud in the extreme value which it
attaches to outward observances, such as fasting, pilgrimages and cer-
emonial rites.

All the concerns of life and death are hedged about with prescribed
ceremonies, which are not simple matters of propriety, but of morality
and religion; and it is impossible for one who has not lived among
Moslems to realize the extent and importance of this ceremonial law.

In regard to polygamy, divorce and slavery, the morality of Islam
is in direct contrast with that of Christianity, and as the principles of PoiyBamy.
the faith, so far as determined by the Koran and the traditions, are Biavery."* """^
fixed and unchangeable, no change in regard to the legality of these
can be expected. They may be silently abandoned, but they can never
be forbidden by law in any Mohammedan state. It should be said
here, however, that, while the position of woman, as determined by the
Koran, is one of inferiority and subjection, there is no truth whatever
in the current idea that, according to the Koran, they have no souls,
no hoi)c of immortality and no rights. This is an absolutely unfounded
slaniler.

Another contrast between the morality of the Koran and the New
Testament is found in the spirit with wliich the faith is to be propa-
gated. The Prophet led His armies to battle and founded a temporal
kingdom by force of arms. The Koran is full of exhortation to fight
for the faith. Christ founded a spiritual kingdom, which could only
be extended by loving persuasion and the influence of the Holy Spirit.

It is true that Christians have had their wars of religion, and have
committed as many crimes against '.lumanity in the name of Ciirist as
Moslems have ever committed in the name of the Prophet; but the
opposite teaching on this -subject in the Koran and the New Testament
is unmistakable, and involves different conceptions of mtjrality.

.Such, in general, is the ethical code of Islam. In practice there
are certainly many Moslems whose moral lives are irreproachable
according to the Christian standard, who fear God, and in their deal-
ings with men are honest, truthful and benevolent; who are temperate
ill the gratification of their desires and cultivate a self-denying spirit,
of whose sincere desire to do right there can be no doubt.

There are those whose conceptions of pure spiritual religions seem
to rival those of the Christian mystics. This is specially true of one or
two sects of Dervishes. Some of th .'se sects are simply IMohammedan
Neo-Platoiiists, and deal in magic, sorcery and purely physical means
of attaining a state of ecstacy; but others are neither pantheists nor
theosophists,«and seek to attain unity of spirit with a supreme, per-
sonal God by spiritual means.

Those who have had much acquaintance with Moslems know that
in addition to these mystics there are many common people — as many
women as men — who seem to have more or less clear ideas of spiritual
life and strive to attain something higher than mere formal morality

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and verbal confession; who feel their personal unworthiness, and hope
only in God.

The following extract from one of many similar poems of Shereef
Hanum, a Turkish Moslem lady of Constantnople, rendered into En-
glish by Rev. H. O. Dwight, is certainly as spiritual in thought and
language as most of the hymns sung in Christian churches:

"O Source of Kindness and of Love
Who givest aid all hopes above,
'Mid grief and guilt although I grope,
From Thee I'll ne'er cut off my hope.
', My Lord, O my Lord!

, Thou King of kings, dost know my need,
Thy pardoning grace no bars can heed;
Thou lov'st to help the helpless one.
And bidd'st his cries of fear be done.
My Lord, O my Lord!

Should'st Thou refuse to still my fears,
Who else will stop to dry my tears?
For 1 am guilty, guilty still.
No other one has done so ill.
My Lord, O my Lord!

The lost in torment stand aghast
To see this rebel's sin so vast;
What wonder, then, that Shereef cries
For mercy, mercy, e'er she dies.
My Lord, O my Lord!"

These facts are important, not as proving that Mohammedanism

is a spiritual faith in the .same sense as Christianity, for it is not, but as

Spiritual Life showing that many Moslems do attain some degree, at least, of what

Attained. Christians mean by spiritual life; while, as we must confess, it is equally

possible for Christianity to degenerate into mere formalism.

Notwithstanding the generally high tone of the Moslem code of
morals, and the more or less Christian experienceof spiritually minded
Mohammedans, I think that the chief distinction between Christian
and Moslem morality lies in their different conceptions of the nature
and consequences of sin.

It is true that most of the theories advanced by Christian writers
on theoretical ethics have found defenders among the Moslems; but
Mohammedan law is based on the theory that right and wrong depend
on legal enactment, and Mohammedan thought follows the same
direction. y\n act is right because God has commanded it, or wrong
because He has forbidden it. God may abrogate or change Mis laws,
so that what was wrong may become right. Moral acts ha\e no
inherent moral character, and what may be wrong for one may be
right for another. So, for example, it is impossible to discuss the
moral character of the prophet with an orthodox Moslem, because it
is a sufficient answer to any criticism to say that God commanded or
expressly permitted those acts which in other men would be wrong.

There is, however, one sin which is in its very nature sinful, and

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(irBve iinil
Light Hins.

which man is capable of knowing to be such; that is, the sin of deny-
ing that there is one God, and that Mohammed is His prophet.
Everything else depends on the arbitrary command of God, and may
be arbitrarily forgiven; but this does not, and is consequently unpardon-
able. For whoever dies in this sin there is no possible escape from
eternal damnation.

Of other sins some are grave and some are light, and it must not
be supposed that the Moslem regards grave sins as of little conse-
quence. He believes that sin is rebellion against infinite power, and
that it cannot escape the notice of the all-seeing God, but must call
ilown His wrath upon the sinner; so that even a good Moslem may be
sent to hell to suffer torment for thousands of years before he is
pardoned.

Hut he believes that God is merciful; that "he is minded to make
his religion light, because man has been created weak." (Koran, sura
4. ) If man has sinned against His arbitrary commands, God may ar-
l)itrarily remit the penalty, on certain conditions, on the intercession
of the Prophet, on account of the expiatory acts on the man's part or
ill view of counterbalancing good works. At the worst, the Moslem
will be sent to hell for a season and then be pardoned, out of consid-
eration for his belief in God and the Prophet by divine mercy. Still,
we need to repeat, the Moslem does not look upon sin as a light thing.

Hut, notwithstanding this conception of the danger of sinning
against God, the Mohammedan is very far from comprehending the
Christian idea that right and wrong are inherent qualities in all moral
actions; that (iod Himself is a moral being, doing what is right because
it is right, and that He can no more pardon sin arbitrarily than He can
make a wrong action right; that He could not be just and yet justify
the sinner without the atonement made by the incarnation and the suf-
fering and the death of Jesus Christ.

They do not realize that sin itself is corruption and death; that
mere escape from hell is not eternal life, but that the sinful soul must
be regenerated and sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit before it
can know the joy of beatific vision.

Wiiether 1 have correctly stated the fundamental difference
between the Christian and Mohammedan conceptions of sin, no one
uiio has had Moslem friends can have failed to realize that the differ-
ence exists, for it is extremely difficult, almost impossible, for Chris-
tians and Moslems to understand one another when the question of
sin is discussed. There seems to be a hereditary incapacity in the
Moslem to comprehend this essential basis of Christian morality.

Mohammeilan morality is also differentiated from the Christian
by its fatalistic interpretation of the doctrine of the Decrees. The
.Moslem who reads in the Koran, "As for every man we have firmly
fixed his fate about his neck," and the many similar passages, who is
taught that at least so far as the future life is concerned his fate has *''* i>«crees,
been fixed from eternity by an arbitrary and irrevocable decree, natur-
ally falls into fatalism; not absolute fatalism, for the Moslem, as we

Doctrine of

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liUiW

Will unci Vi'.
sire.

Inflnenco of
the Prophet'M
Life.

have seen, has his strict code of morality and his burdensome cere-
monial law, but at least such a measure of fatalism as weakens his
sense of personal responsibility, and leaves him to look upon the
whole Christian scheme of redemption as unnecessary, if not
absiud.

It is perhaps also due to the fatalistic tendency of Mohammedan
thou<;ht that the Moslem has a very different conception from the
Christian of the relation of the will to the desires and passions. He
does not distinguish between them, but regards will and desire as one
and the same, and seeks to avoid temptation rather than resist it. Of
conversion, in the Christian sense, he has no conception — of that
change of heart which makes the regenerated will the master of the
soul, to dominate its passions, control the desires and lead men on to
final victory over sin and death.

There is one other point concerning Mohammedan morality of
which I wish to speak with all possible delicacy, but which c;innot be
passed over in silence. It is the influence of the prophet's life upon
that of his followers. The Moslem world accepts him, as Christians
do Christ, as the ideal man, the best beloved of God, and consequently
their conception of his life exerts an important influence upon their
practical morality.

I have said nothing, thus far, of the personal character of the
prophet, because it is too difficult a question to discuss in this connec-
tion; but I may say, in a word, that my own impression is that, from
first to last, he sincerely and honestly believed himself to be a super-
naturally inspired prophet of God. I have no wish to think any z\\\
of him, for he was certainly one of the most remarkable men that the
world has ever seen. I should rejoice to know that he was such a man
as he is represented to be in Ameer Aali's "Spirit of Islam," for the
world would be richer for having such a man in it.

But whatever may have been his real character, he is known to
Moslems chiefly through the traditions; and these, taken as a whole,
present to us a totally different man from the Christ of the Gospels.
As we have seen, the Moslem code of morals commands and forbids
essentially the same things as the Christian; but the Moslem finds in
the traditions a mass of stories in regard to the life and savings of the
prophet, many of which arealtogether inconsistent with Christian ideas
of morality, and whichni ke the impression that many things forbidden
are at least excusable.

There are many nominal Christians who lead lives as corrupt as
any Moslems, but they find no excuse for it in the life of Christ. They
know that they are Christians only in name; while, under the influence
of the traditions, the Mohammedan may have such a conception of
the prophet that, in spite of his immorality, he may still believe him-
self a true Moslem. If Moslems generally believed in such a prophet
as is described in the "Spirit of Islam," it would greatly modify the
tone of Mohanmiedan life,

VVc have n presented, as briefly and impartially as possible, the

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Mntnally Kx-
(•luHive.

puints of contact and contrast between Christianity and Islam, as his-
torical, dogmatic and ethical.

VVe have seen that while there is a broad, common ground of be-
lief and sympathy, while we may confidently believe as Christians that
God is leading many pious Moslems by the influence of the Holy
Spirit, and saving them through the atonement of Jesus Christ, in spite
of what we believe to be their errors of doctrine, these two religions
arc still mutually exclusive and irreconcilable.

The general points of agreement are that we both believe that
there is one supreme, personal God; that we are bound to worship
Him; that we are under obligation to live a pious, virtuous life; that
we arc bound to repent of our sins and forsake them; that the soul is
immortal, and that we shall be rewarded or punished in the future life
for our deeds here; that God has revealed His will to the world
through prophets and apostles, and that the Holy Scriptures arc the
word of God.

These are most important grounds of agreement and mutual re-
spect, but the points of contrast are equally impressive.

The supreme God of Christianity is immanent in the world, was
incarnate in Christ, and is ever seeking to bring His children into lov-
ing fellowship with Himself.

The Ciud of Islam is ai)art from tl.e world, an absolute monarch,
who is wise and mercilul, but infinitely removed from man.

Christianity recognizes the freedom of man, and magnifies the
guilt and corrujition of sin, but at the same time offers a way of recon-
ciliation and redemption from sin and its consequences through the
atonement of a Divine Saviour and regeneration by the Holy Spirit.

Mohammedanism minimizes the freedom of man and the guilt of
sin, makes little account of its corrupting influence in the soul and
offers no plan of redemption except that of repentance and good works.

Christianity finds its ideal man in the Christ of the Gospels; the
Mcvslem finds his in the Prophet of the Koran and the Traditions.

Other i)oints of contrast have been mentioned, but the funda-
mental difference between the two religions is found in these.

This is not the place to discuss the probable future of these two
great and aggressive religions, but there is one fact bearing upon this
point which comes within the scope of tliis paper. Christianity is
essentially progressive, while Mohanmiedanism is unprogressive and
stationary.

In their origin Christianity and Islam are both Asiatic, both Sem-
itic, and Jerusalem is but a few hundred miles from Mecca. In regard
to the number of their adherents, both have steadily increased from TwoR«UgiV
the beginning to the present day. After 1,900 years Christianity
numbers 400,000,000, and Islam, after 1,300 years, 200,000,000; but
.Mohammedanism has been practically confined to Asia and Africa,
while Christianity has been the religion of Europe and the New
World, and politically it rules over all the world, except China and
Turkey.

Future of tlie

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Monammedanism has been identified with a stationary civilization,
and Christianity with a progressive one. There was a time from the
eighth to the thirteenth centuries, when science and philosophy
flourished at Bagdad and Cordova under Moslem rule, while darkness
reigned in Europe; but Renan has shown that this brilliant period
was neither Arab nor Mohammedan in its spirit or origin; and
although his statements may admit of some modification, it is certain
that, however brilliant while it lasted, this period has left no trace in
the Moslem faith, unless it be in the philosophical basis of Moham-
medan law, while Christianity has led the way in the progress of
modern civilization.

Both these are positive religions. Each claims to rest upon a
divine revelation, which is, in its nature, final and unchangeable; yet
the one is stationary and the other progressive. The one is based
upon what it believes to be divine commands, and the other upon di-
vine principles; just the difference that there is between the law of
Sinai and the law of Love, the Ten Commandments and the two. The
ten are specific and unchangeable; the two admit of ever new and pro-
gressive application.

Whether in prayer or in search of truth, the Moslem must always
turn his face to Mecca and to a revelation made once for all to the
prophet; and I think that Moslems generally take pride in the feeling
that their faith is complete in itself, and as unchangeable as Mount
Ararat. It cannot progress because it is already perfect.

The Christian, on the other hand, believes in a living Christ, who
was indeed crucified at Jerusalem, but rose from the dead and is now
present everywhere, leading His people on to ever broader and higher
conceptions of truth, and ever new applications of it to the life of
humanity: and the Christian church, with some exceptions, perhaps,
recognizes the fact that the perfection of its faith consists not in its
immobility but in its adaptability to every stage of human enlighten-
ment. If progress is to continue to be the watchword of civilization,
the faith which is to dominate this civilization must also be pro-
gressive

It would have been pleasant to speak here today only of the
broad field of sympathy which these two great religions occupy in
common, but it would have been as unjust to the Moslem as to the
Christian If I have represented his faith as fairly as I have sought to
do, he will be the first to applaud.

No true Moslem or Christian believes that these two great relig-
ions are essentially the same, or that they can be merged by compro-
mise in a jcommon eclectic faith. We know that they are mutually ex-
clusive, and it is only by a fair and honest comparison of differences
that we can work together for the many ends which we have in com-
mon, or judge of the truth in those things in which we differ.

ivilization,
; from the
hilosophy
; darkness
int period
igin; and
is certain
o trace in
Moham-
ogress of

t upon a
able; yet
is based
upon di-
he law of
two. The
and pro-

3t always
11 to the
e feeling
3 Mount

rist, who
d is now
d higher
e life of
perhaps,
ot in its
ilighten-
lization,
be pro-

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cupy in

to the

)ught to

It rclig-
ompro-
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M 'ill'

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a
1

/America's D^^y to Qhina

Paper by DR. W. A. P. MARTIN, of Peking, China

MONG the hundreds of inviting themes of-
fered in the official programme,! have select-
ed this because it is pregnant with live issues,
and because in a parliament of religions no
subject is more fitting than that of duty. A
religion that withdraws men from the active
duties of life and leads them to consume
their brief span of earthly existence in fruit-
less contemplation, or one that exalts cere-
monial observances, at the expense of jus-,
tice and charity, has forgotten the mission'
of a heaven-sent faith. The seal of religion
is the .sanction which it lends to morality. This is
what St. James means when he says that "pure and
undefiled religion is to visit the widow and the father-
less in their affliction; and to keep one's self unspotted from
the world." The same conception is set forth in the eighty-
fifth psalm, in that beautiful picture of heaven and earth
combining to give birth to truth, mercy and righteousness:

" Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Truth springeth out of the earth. Righteousness
hath looked down from heaven."

There is not a religion worthy of the name that docs not in some
degree exert this kind of elevating and sanctifying influence. But it
is not claiming too much for Christianity to assert that beyond all other
systems it has made its influence felt in the morality of individuals and
of nations. It is like the sun, which not only floods the earth with
light, but impart.5 the force that enables her to pursue her pathway.
It has been well said "that it is one of the glories of Christianity that
it has caused the sentiment of repentance to find a place in the heart
of nations." This is the sentiment that I desire to evoke, and I trust
that the views presented in this paper will in some measure contribute
to the promotion of a public opinion, which will not merely check the
prevailing tendency to private and legislative outrage on our Chinese
neighbors, but stimulate to increased efforts for the promotion of their

i)0?

luflucnce of
Christianity.

ri.i;

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Onr Imlphted-
nt)B8 to China

^^'

•

welfare. "The duty of nations," says Montesquieu, "is, in peace to do
good to each other, and in war to do as little harm as possible;" - a
maxim which expresses the essence of Christian ethics, and one which
could not have sprung up in any other than a Christian soil.

Hefore taking up the discussion of our specific duties let us for a
moment take a view of our indebtedness to China. The word duty in
its primary sense signifies what we owe. Gathering a fullness of mean-
ing and rising with the growth of morals and the development of lan-
guage, it finally attains the conception of what we ought, signifying
in the first instance an obligation to make a return for benefits received,
and in its higher sense that which we are impelled to do from any
consideration that binds the conscience. In either sphere we shall dis-
cover a number of weighty obligations which we have to discharge to-
ward the people of China.

To begin with those of the lower order — our obligations for bene-
fits received: Rich are the gifts which that ancient empire has poured
into the lap of our western civilization; gifts, which like air and sun-
shine, we enjoy without taking the trouble to reflect on their origin,
though their withdrawal would carry a sense of grievous loss into
every household. Here, where the products of inventive genius are
so profoundly displayed, let it not be forgotten that to China we are
indebted for the best of our domestic beverages; for the elegant ware
that adorns our table, and for those splendid dress materials that set
off the beauty of our women.

To China, moreover, we arc indebted for at least one of our
sciences, one which is doing more than any other to transform and
subjugate the elements. For, as I have shown in a paper devoted to
that inquiry, alchemy, the mother of our modern chemistry, though
reaching Europe by way of India, Byzantium and Arabia, had its orig-
inal root in the Chinese philosophy of Tao, one of the religions repre-
sented here today. Its votaries, seizing on a hint of the transmuta-
tions of matter which they found in that oldest of the sacred books two
thousand years ago, of their country, the Yi Kingoriiook of Changes,
notonly conceived the ideaof obtaining gold from baser metals, but came
to believe in the possibility of evolving from this perishable body an
imperishable spiritual existence. Thus; at that early date, we find
amon^f the Chinese the search for the secret of making gold and com-
pounding the elixir of immortality — the twin pursuits that have fired
the ambition of alchemists in all subsequent ages.

Are not these few items, if taken alone, suOTicient to warrant the
inference that the nation which originated such things is not unde-
serving of respect, as a benefactor of the human race?

But I hasten to emphasize another obligation which connects itself
directly with the great event commemorated by this Columbian exhi-
bition. For to China, beyond a doubt, we are indebted for the motive
that stimulated the Genoese navigator to undertake his adventurous
voyage, and to her he was indebted for the needle that guided him on
his way. Being an Italian, he was familiar with the marvelous narra-

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

ROO

tivc of Marco Polo's residence at the court of Kublai Khan (A. D-
1280), in Combalar, the present city of I'ckinjj. His imajrination was
filleil with the splendors of Cathay, the name that Polo ^ivcs to China
from the Kitai Mongols, to whose sway it was then subject; and be it
remembered, that at that epoch Europe was far in the wake of China,
both in wealth and civilization, her only pre-eminence consisting in
the possession of those undeveloped germs of religion and science
which since that day have transformed the globe.

The doctrine of the earth's rotundity, which was not new, but
which he was the first to make subservient to maritime enterprise, assured
Columbus that the ocean, on which he looked, must have a farther
shore, and that by crossing it to the west he miglrt arrive at the Asi-
atic Eldorado after passing the island empire of Zipangu, never
dreaming that the ocean held in its bosom a new world, which stretched
almost from pole to pole and barred his westward course.

Convinceii as he was that by steering to the west he might arrive
at tl.at land of wealth and culture, without the aid of the mariner's
compass he would have been powerless to pursue such course. In-
deed, but for the assistance of that mysterious pilot, he never would
have dared to leave behind him coast and headland, and to plunge
into a vast unknown where clouds and fogs might deprive him of sun
and stars.

"I.oiin lay tlie ocean paths from him concealed;

I.ij;ht came from heaven, the magnet was revealed.

Then first Columbus, with the graspini; hand

Of mighty genius, weighed the sea and hind.

There seeme<l one waste of waters — long in vain

His spirit hroodcd on the Atlantic main,

When sudden, as i-reation burst from naught,

Sprang a new world through his stupend-nis thought."

This heaven-sent helper came to him, as already intimated, by way
of China; for it was to the Chinese that the directive properties of the
magnet were first " revealed." Long before the dawn of the Christian
era they had made use of it in crossing the treeless prairies of Mongolia
and the moving sands of the desert of Cobi. Early in our era they
had applied it to coastwise navigation, and nothing was wanting but a
Chinese Columbus to enable them to find their way across the Pacific
and to pre-occupy this goodly continent, which by a special Providence
appears to have been reserved for the people of Europe.

We know not the hand by which the magic needle was trans-
mitted, but it is morally certain that it came from China, where it had
made its home for at least two thousand years. There is, indeed, an
apparent difference between our needle and that of China, which
might in some minds give rise to a doubt as to their identity. The
Chinese always speak of theirs as "pointing to the south," while it is
well known that ours points in the opposite direction. Matter this for
a pretty controversy — which might not have been easily settled, but
for the fortunate observation that a needle has two ends. May not
this case serve as a hint to help us in reconciling some of our conflicts

,TheM«tivo
that Stimulat.
ed Colambue.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

ffl

Gave ns
Compass.

the

of religious opinion? Does it not show that both parties may be right,
though the divergency of their views appears to be as wide as the
poles?

Significant it is that the first European known to have employed
the compass was Gioja, a Neapolitan, a countryman of Polo's and
those other enterprising Italians, who brought the news of China from
the ports of the Euxine or sought them in Tartary. Not merely did
Polo's story awaken the aspirations of Columbus, the needle itself
spok-:; to him of China, seeming to say, " fear not the trackless ocean;
here is a guide that I have sent you to conduct you to my shores."
In Irving's "Tales of the Alhambra," one of the Moorish kings comes
into possession of a wonderful talisman — the image of a cavalier whose
spear is endowed with the inestimable qualiiy of always poMiting in
the direction from which danger is to be apprehended. Would not the
magnetic needle, if only one of the kind had existed, have been
regarded as equally mysterious? Is it worthy of less admiration,
because capable of being indefinitely multiplied? And is our
debt to China the lighter because the in.strument she has given us,
after having unveiled a hidden continent, continues to direct the
movement of our ocean commerce?

In a word, without China for motive and without the magic finger
for guide, it is certain that Columbus would not have matlo his voyage;
and it is highly probable that we should not have been holding a
World's Fair at this time and place. With such claims on our grate-
ful recognition is it not a matter of surprise that China is not found
occupying a conspicuous place in this Columbian exhibition? Could
anything have been more fitting than to have had the dragon (lag float-
ing over a pavilion draped with shining silks, with a p) laniici of tea
chests on one hand, and on the other a lunise of porcelain surmounted
by a gigantic compass and a statue of China beckoning Columbus to
cross the seas?

As a matter of form, our government did send an invitation to
China, as to other countries, to participate in a national capacity. To
Chinese eyes it read like this:

"We have excluded your laborers and skilled workmen because
our people dread their competition. We have ever. eiMctcl a law that
not one of them who turns liis back on our shores shall be permitted
to re-enter our ports. Still we would like to have you help us with
our big sho.v, and for this occasion we are willing to relax the rigor of
our rules so far as to admit a few of your workingmen to aid in arrang-
ing your exhibit, under bond, be it understood, that they shall clear out
as soon as the disi)lay is over."

What wonder that a proud and sensitive government declined the
tempting offer, leaving its industries to be represented (if at all) by
the private enterprise of its people resident in the United .States?

Here is China's official reply as communicated by Minister Uenby
in a dispatch to the Secretary of State. Reporting an interview with
the Chinese premier, Li Hung Chong, he says:

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

511

" I then took up the subject of the Chicago exposition and advised
him to send a fleet to Hampton Roads to show the world the great
progress China has lately made in the creation of a modern navy. I
found, however, that it was uccless to argue the subject with him. He
said he would not send a fleet, and that China would have no exhibi-
tion ^t Chicago. I expressed my regret at this irrational conclusion and
used some arguments to make him recede from it, but without avail."

If our indebtedness to China is such that nothing but ignorance
or want of thought could prevent its due recognition; on the other
hand our duties to her and her people are not less conspicuous. In
treating of them I shall not attempt to carry out the form of a debt
and credit account; for though our sense of moral responsibility may
sometimes be quickened by sentimental considerations, such as those
to which we have adverted, our duties are of a higher order and more
positive character. They grow not out of obligation for benefits,
such as we have described, but spring directly from the geographical
situation, which the Creator has assigned to us, taken in connection
with the position which we are called to occupy in the scale of civili-
zation.

"Who is my neighbor?" is a question which every human soul is
bountl to ask in a world in which mutual aid is the first of moral laws.
The answer given by Him who, better than any other, expounded and
exemplified the laws of God, is applicable to nations as well as to indi-
viduals. It is an answer that sweeps away the barriers of race and
religion and shows us the Samaritan forgetful of hereditary feuds
ministering to the wants of the needy Jew.

Thus China is our neighbor, notwithstanding the sea that rolls
between us, a sea which, contrary to the idea of the Roman poet,
unites rather than divides. Yes, China, which faces us on the opposite
shore of the Pacific; China, which occupies a domain as vast and as
opulent in resources as our own; China, teeming with a population
ti\e times as great as ours and more accessible to us than to any of
tlic great nations of Christendom; China, I say, is pre-eminently our
ueighhor.

What, then, is the first of the duties which we owe to her? It is
unquestionably to make her jjcople partakers with ourselves in the
l)lessiiigs of the Christian religion. Here in this parliament of relig-
ions it is unnecessary to stop to prove that religion is our chief good,
and that every man who feels himself to be in possession of a clew to
guide him through the labyrinth of earthly evils, is bound to offer it to
his brc^ther man. Who can deny that we may derive a great advantage
from the comjjarison of our religious experience? And who that be-
lieves that (in Huddhistic phrase) "he has found the way out of the
bitter sea" can refuse to indicate the path to his brother man? The
latter may decline to follow it, but that is his lookout; he may even
feel offended by an implied assumption of superiority, but ought a
regard for susceptibilities of that sort to disperse us from the duty of
imparting our knowledge?

"Who is my
Neighbor?"

.ii

f
I

:^^2

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

\\ i

!!'!

Taoism Indif;-
pnouB to China.

"Why should we not send religions to your country?' once said to
me a distinguished Chinese professor in the Imperial University of
Peking, Careful not to say that it was " because water does not flow
up hill," I replied: "By all means, send them and make the experi-
ment."

"But would your people receive them with favor? " he asked
again.

"Certainly," said I; "instead of being a voice crying in the wilder-
ness they would be welcomed to our city halls and their message
would be heard and weighed."

Do you suppose that my esteemed colleague at once set about
forming a missionary society? He was proud of his position as pro-
fessor of mathematics, and proud to be the expositor of what he called
" western learning," but his faith was too feeble to prompt to effort for
the propagation of his religion. He was a Confucianist and believed
in an over-ruling power, vvhich he called "Shangti"or"Tien," and had
some shadow of notion of a life to come, as evidenced by his worship
of ancestors; but his religion, such as it was, was woefully wanting in
vitality, and marked by that Sadduceean indifference which may be
taken as the leading characteristic of his school despite the excellence
of its ethical system.

Another religion indigenous to China is Taoism; but as the Chi-
nese say of their famous Book of Changes, that "it cannot be carried
beyond the seas," we may say the same of Taoism; it has nothing that
will bear transportation. Its founder, Lao Tsze, did, indeed, express
some sublime truths in beautiful language; but he enjoined retirement
from the world rather than persistent effort to improve mankind. His
followers have become sadly degenerate; and not to speak of alchemy,
which they continue to pursue, their religion has dwindled into a com-
pound of necromancy and exorcism. It is, however, very far from
being dead.

It has at its head a pontiff who represents a hierarchy as old as
the Christian era. From his palace on the Tunghn mountains, of
Kiongsi, he exercises a serious sort of spiritual jurisdiction overcvery-
thing in the empire, the tutelar deity of the city being by him selected
from a list of dead Mondouins. He is suppo.sed, moreover, to be able
to control all the bad spirits that molest mankind, and the visitor is
shown long rows of jars, each bearing the seal of the pontiff and an
inscription indicating that some culprit spirit was there confined.
Such is Taoism at the present day, and though it exercises a tremen-
dous power over the minds of the superstitious, its doctrines and
methods would hardly be deemed edifying in other parts of the
worl -.

Buddhism has a nobler record. It imported into China the ele-
ments of a spiritual conception of the universe. It has implanted in
the minds or the common people a firm belief in rewards and punish-
ments. It has cherished a spirit of charity; and in a word, exercised
an influence so simii vc to that of Christianity that it may be considered

THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

r)i:{

as having done much to prepare the soil for the dissemination of a
iiighcr faith. But its force is spent and its work done. Its priesthood
has lapsed into such a state of ignorance and corruption that in Chin-
ese liuddhism there appears to be no possibility of revival. In fact, it
sccnis to exist in a state of suspended animation similar to that of
those frogs that are said to have been excavated from the stones of a
Buddhist monument in India, which inhaling a breath of air took a
li.-ap or two and then expired. Of "the Buddhism of Japan, which
appears to be more wide-awake, it is not my province to speak; but as
to that of China there is reason to fear that no power can galvanize it
even into a semblance of vitality.

The religion of the state is a heterogeneous cult made up of cere-
monies borrowed from each of these three systems. And of the
religion of the people, it may be affirmed that it consists of parts of
all three commingled in each individual mind, much as gases are
mingled in the atmosphere, but without any definite proportion. Each
of these systems has, in its measure, served them as a useful discipline,
though in jarring and irreconcilable discord with each other. But the
time has come for the Chinese to be introduced to a more complete
>'Migion, One which combines the merits of all three, while it heightens
■ i.om in degree.

To the august character of Shangti, the Supreme Ruler, known but
neglected, feared but not loved, Christianity will add the attraction of
a tender Father — bringing Him into each heart and house in lieu of
the fetiches now enshrined there. Instead of Buddha, the light of
Asia, it will give them Christ, the " Light of the world," for the faint
hopes of immortality derived from Taoist discipline or Buddhist trans-
migration it will confer a faith that triumphs over death and the grave;
and to crown all, bestow on them the energy of the Holy Ghost quick-
ening the conscience and sanctifying the affections as nothing else has
ever done.

The native systems, bound up with the absurdities of geomancy
and the abominations of animal worship, are an anachronism in the age
iif steamboats and telegraphs. Whf^n electricity has come forth from
its hiding place to link the remotest quarters of their land in instan-
taneou synpathy. ministering light, force and healing, does it f ot
sugg'- • t.cm the coming of a spiritual energy to do the same for
tlie \\< i I soul?

i\\- -,>i '.iial power 1 hold it is pre-eminently the duty of Ameri-
cans to sei I. to iripart to the people of China. When Christianity
comes to tnein from Russia, England or France, all of which have
pushed their territories up to the frontiers of China, the Chinese are
prone to suspect that evangelization under such auspices is only a
mask for future . ,:;ression. It is not Christianity in itself that they
object to, so much as its connection with foreign power and foreign
politics.

Now these impediments are minimized in the case of the United
States, a country which, until the outbreak of this unhappy persecu-
88

Religiou cf
the Staf e.

514

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Mm 'i

Daties Incum-
bent upon our
(ioverninent.

I ■

tion of their countrymen, was regarded by the Chinese as their best
friend, because an impossible enemy. Our treaty of 1858 gives ex-
pression to this feeling by a clause inserted at the instance of the
Chinese negotiators to the effect that whenever China finds herself in
a difficulty with another foreign power she shall have the right to call
on America to make use of her good offices to effect a settlement.
America holds that proud position no longer. To such a pass have
things come that a viceroy, who has always been friendly and at times
has been regarded as a patron of missionaries, not long ago said to an
American missionary: "Do not come back to China. Stay in your
own country and teach your peoplethe practice of justice and charity."

This brings us to the duties especially incumbent on our govern-
ment, and the first that suggests itself is that of protecting American
interests. That, you may say, is not a duty to China, but one that it
owes to its own people. True, but Americans have no interest that
does not imply a corresponding good to the Chinese empire.

Take, for example, or! commerce. Do we impoverish China by
taking her teas and silks* /e not, on the contrary, add to her

wealth by giving in exchange materials for food and clothing at a
less cost than would be require, for their production in China? The
value of our commercial interests in that empire may be inferred bet-
ter than from any minute statistics from the fact that within the last
thirty years they have been a leading factor in the construction of four
lines of railway spanning this continent and of three lines of steam-
ships bridging the Pacific. What dimensions will they not attain when
our states west of the Mississippi come to be filled with an opulent pop-
ulation, and when the resources of China are developed by the appli-
cation of occidental methods?

Had Columbus realized the grandness of his discovery, and had
he, like Balboa, bathed in the waters of the Pacific, what a picture
would have risen before the eye of his fervid imagination? Anew
land as rich as Cathay, and new and old clasping hands across a broad
expanse of ocean whitened by the sails of a prosperous commerce.
Already has such a dream begun to be fulfilled, and to the prospective
expansion of our commerce fancy can hardly assign a limit. In that
bright reversion every son of our soil and every adopted citizen has a
direct or indirect interest.

But what has the government to do with all that beyond giving
free scope to private enterprise? Much in many ways. But not to
descend into particulars, its responsibility consists mainly in two
things, both negative, viz., not by an injudicious tariff to exclude the
products of China from our markets, and not to d'">'ert the trade of
China into European channels by planting a bitter root of hostility in
the Chinese.

Let the Christian people of the United States rise up in their
might and demand that our government shall retrace its steps, by re-
pealing that odious law which may not be forbidden by the letter of
our constitution, but which three eminent members of our supreme

:im

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

515

court have pronounced to be in glaring opposition to the spirit of our"
magna charta.

In September, 1888, the Chinese government had under advise-
ment a treaty negotiated by its minister in Washington in which, to
escape the indignity of an arbitrary exclusion act, it agrees to take
the initiative in prohibiting the emigration of laborers. That treaty
would undoubtedly have been ratified if time had been given for the
consideration of amendments which China desired to propose. But
the exigencies of a presidental campaign led our government to apply
the "closure" with an abruptness almost unheard of in diplomatic
history, demanding through our minister in Peking the ratification
within forty-eight hours on pain of being considered as having rejected
the treaty. The Chinese government, not choosing to sacrifice its
dignity by complying with this unceremonious ultimatum, our congress,
;is a bid for a vote of the Pacific coast, hastily passed the Scott law, a
law which our supreme court has decided to be in contravention of
our treaty engagements.

Another Olympiad came around, a term which we might very well
apply to the periodical game of electing a president, and on the high
tide of another presidential contest a new exclusion law, surpassing
its predecessors in the severity of its enactments, was successfully
floated. Could such a course have any other effect than that of ex-
citing in the mind of China a profound contempt for our republican
institutions, and an abiding hostility toward our people? One of our
leading journals has characterized that law as "a piece of buncombe
and barbarous legislation," of which the adminstration would appear
to be " heartily ashamed," to judge from the excuse they find for
evading its execution.

Let a wise diplomacy supersede these obnoxious enactments by a
new convention which shall be fair to both parties; then will our peo-
l)lc be welcomed as friends; and America may yet recover her lost
influence in that great empire of the East.

Ashamed of
the Qeary Law.

<- ■ I

»,

I 'Si'

-M i

Mr T

i\ii'

'V I - ;l

Procession of the Holy Carpet to Mecca.

Religion of Peking.

Paper by ISAAC T. HEADLAND, of the Peking University.

HE Chinese are often supposed to he so poor

that, even if they wislied, they would not be

able to support Christianity were it established

in their midst Such a supposition is a great

,.-^_. ^_»ii_. mistake. Not to mention the fact that they

g^ 4^^\ ^ ^HH"^ are at present supportin.g four religions, viz.,

Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and IMoham-
medanism, a glance at the condition of any
city or village is enough to convince one of
the fact that, whatever the Chinese wish to do
and undertake to do, they are abundantly able
to do

The country swarms with people — poor
people- people who are so very poor that there
are, no doubt, thousands who statve every
year. It is said that just outside of the Chien
Men gate, which stands immctliately in front of the emperor's palace,
more than 400 people froze to death during a single night during the
past winter In front of this gate is a bridge called l^eggars' bridge,
where half naked men ami boys ma\- be seen at any time, except
when the emperor himself passes, eating food which would not be
eaten by a respectable American dog. Hut while this is all true, it does
not alter the fact that there are more temples in Peking than there
are churches in Chicago. There are temples of all sorts and si7xs,
from the little altar built outsiile the door of the watchman s house on
tlu- top of the city wall, to the great Lama temple, which covers
many acres of ground, ha\ing an idol of Huddha lOO feet tall and
1,500 priests to conduct the worshi[) .Similar to this great Buddhist
temple is the great Confucian tem])le, not so large, and without priests,
but ecjually well built and well kept. The large Taoist temple, im-
mediately outside of the west side gate, is exj)ensive and well sup-
ported and contains many priests, wliile the large grounds of the IMo-
hamniedans with their twenty-one moscpies is worthy to be ranked
with those above mentioned

Professor Headland had a scries of oictures of scenes and inci

r.i7

IVmplps
III I Sorts.

518

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

;•(

I I

\:-\

mill
Pel

kinB.

dents among the districts of temples in and about I'cking, and his ad-
dress explained these pictures. He then said:

"Besides these, the temple of the sun, the temple of the moon, the
temple of the earth, the temple of heaven and the temple of agricult-
ure are all immense structures of the most costly type. These are all
state temples, where the emperor performs worship for all the people,
and the annual sacrifices of cattle and sheep are by no means inexpen-
sive. There are few churches in the United States which cost more
than $500,000, but some of those I have just mentioned would far
exceed, if not more than double, that amount. The Roman Catholics
have shown their wisdom in erecting cathedrals, which, though not so
expensive, far surpciss the others in beauty, design and workmanship.
They have three very fine cathedrals, the east, the south and the
north, the last of which would be an ornament to any city in the
United States."

The following translation of the inscription on two tablets at the
mouth of a cave called Hermit's cave will show how temples are some-
times repaired. The cave is eight feet square and four and a half feet
high, and is cut out of the solid rock:

"On this stone is recorded the restoration of the idols and the
rebuilding of the temple Dung Clung Au on this mountain, Tsui Wei
Shan. By whom this temple was originally built many j-ears ago is
unknown. A number of eunuchs of the emperor's palace have con-
tributed to its entire restoration, and now that the work is completed
the buildings, idols and Lo Man fully restored, I make this record that
the merit of these generous men may be known to future generations.
I, Chas Yu, chamberlain of the emperor's palace, make this record,
inscribing first the names of the forty largest donors, Ming Dynasty,
VVau Li, emperor."

The number of temples in the city that are entirely out of repair
is not small. In the purchase of our mission j)remises we become the
possessors of no less than three temples, while one stands at our south-
west and another at our northwest corner, another at the .southwest of
our W. F. M. S. property, another in front of our hospital gate and
still another near a large well back of our houses.

The first one purchased ha.s been turned into a dining-room for the
preparatory school of the Peking university. When the workmen came
to take the gods out of this temple they first invited them to go out,
and then carried them out. When we made our second purchase one
of the priests walled himself up in one corner, tied a rope to a large
bell, and declared that he would never leave the place. He kept ring-
ing the bell at intervals for some time, but this after a while became
so monotonous that he took opium for the purpose of committing sui-
cide. Our physician was called, and, by administering the proper rem-
edies, he was saved and eventually left. Our third temple was turned
into a charity school last winter, in which seventeen small boys arc
studying the catechism and other Christian books, and Durbin hall
takes the pl'icc of the temples.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

519

ig, and his ad-

thc moon, the
Ic of agricult-
Thcse are all
all the people,
leans inexpen-
liich cost more
mcd would far
,man Catholics
though not so
1 workmanshii).
south and the
my city in the

, tablets at the

nples are some-

and a half feet

c idols and the
intain, Tsui Wei
mv years ago is
dace have con-
iik is completed

this record that

lie generations.

<c this record.

Ming Dynasty,

out of repair
'we become the
nds at our south-
he southwest of
)spital gate and

ing-room for the

c workmen came

them to go out,

id purchase one

rope to a large

;. Hckeptring-

a while became

f committing sui-

r the proper rem-

MUple was turned

1 small boys are

anil Durbin hull

PatroiiiiKi'.

All sorts of stratagem are resorted to by the priests to secure pat-
ronage. I have heard of an old priest whose temple was rapidly fall-
ing into decay who, after thinking of many ways, settled upon the fol-
lowing scheme:

Having made arrangements with an old woman, he sent her away
from the temple some distance and persuaded her to buy a donkey and
ride to the temple. She did so. Dismounting, she left the donkey and
driver outside while she entered the temple. Not returning for a long _SfrafaKem for
time, the driver became impatient and made a disturbance about his
pay. Hereupon the priest entered in the midst of the crowd that had
gathered and asked what was the matter. When told, he said that it
was impossible, that no old woman had come into the temple, and in-
vited the driver to go and examine. He led him in among the genii
which were arranged around the building and the driver soon picked
out the right one.

"But," said the priest, "this is not an old woman, this is one of the
gods; fall down and worship her and she will give you your money."

He did so and to his surprise found a piece of silver on the ground
where he knelt. When he returned to the donkey he found a string of
cash on its back. He began at once to spread the news. The people
went to worship and many of them found silver. The news spread, the
money poured into the temple treasury, and the crowd so increased
about the temple that the government was forced to interfere.

Whether or not it may be considered a misfortune that the Bud-
dhist priests are a company of beggars is perhaps largely a matter of
opinion. Buddhism was established by a prince, who became a beggar
that he might teach his people the way to enlightenment, and they are but
following his illustrious example. But while they follow in the matter
of begging — at least a large part of them — there is no room for much
doubt as to whether most of them make a very strenuous effort to
enlighten the people. Indeed, if all the facts brought to light in our
foreign hospitals, especially those situated near the Lama temples
and visited by the priests, were set forth, they would reveal a condition
of things among the class of priests not very different, perhaps, from
that which called forth Paul's epistle to the Corinthians. But these
facts are of such a character as to be fit only for a medical report.

It need not be considered a matter of wonder, then, that the mor-
als of the people are not better than they are. "Like Driest, like peo-
ple." Says Chaucer:

" For if a priest be foul, on whom we truste,
No wonder it is a lewid man to ruste."

And it is by no means a matter of doubt that a large number of Bud-
dhist priests are "foul." They are not all so. We have seen among
them faces which carry their own tale; we have heard voices which
carry their own recommendations, and we have seen conduct which
could only proceed from a devoted heart. But of those with whom
we have come in contact, this class has been the exception, not the
rule. At Miao Feng Shan, a large temple situated above the clouds,

i I

Like Priest,
Liko People.

i I

: a

520

r//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

f :

Pros|irrou8
ftmpl «.

the priests themselves, I have been told by a Chinese teacher, support
a company of prostitutes. Certain it is, that at the most prosperous
of the temples arc found some of the worst priests, as thouj^h when
the jjetting of money for their support was off their minds, having lit-
tle left to occupy them, they entertain themselves by the gratification
of their passions. They may, however, like many other priests, be
misrepresented by their own people.

By "the most prosperous tcmj)les" we mean those to which the
most pilgrimages arc made. Miao Feng Shan is forty miles west of
Peking, and another fifty miles east is almost equally popular. Tof
these in the springtime many thousands of people from all the sur-
rounding country make pilgrimages, some of which are of the most
expensive and self-denying character, while others exhibit almost every
form of humiliation and self-torment, such as wearing chains as pris-
oners, tying their feet together so as to be able to take only short steps,
being chained to another man, wearing red clothing in exhibition of
their sin, or prostrating themselves at every one, three, or five steps.

The temple worship of the Jews at its most prosperous period was
not more largely attended than is this worship at these temples.
While the temples are enriched by the gifts or subscriptions of these
worshipers, they are, at the same time, robbed by those "pious frauds"
who are ready at all times to sell their souls for the sake of their
bodies. At Mioa Feng Shan they give candles at the foot of the hill
to those pilgrims who arrive at night to enable them to ascend the
hill. Here these pious frauds (sham pilgrims) get their candles, as-
cend the hill at a little distance; then by a circuitous route join another
company and get another candle, and so on as long as, by a change of
clothes, they can escape detection of those distributing candles. Thus,
instead of worshiping, they become thieves.

One thing is noticeable as we pass through the country villages.
The houses are all built of mud — mud walls, mud roofs, paper windows,
and a dirt floor. But no matter how poor the people may be, or what
the character of their houses, the temple of the village is always made
of good brick.

I have never seen a house in a country village better than the
temple in the same village. I think that what I said in the beginning
of this article is literally true— rwhat the Chinese wish to do and
undertake to do they are abundantly able to do. Dr. C. W. Mateer says:

"It has been estimated that each family in China spends, on an
average, about 181.50 each year in the worship of ancestors, of which at
least two-thirds is for paper money. China is estimated to contain
about eighty million families, which would give S8o,oco,ooo. A fair
estimate for the three annual burnings to the vagrant dead would be
about $6,000 to each hsien, or county, which would aggregate about
!8 10,000,000 for the whole country. The average amount burned by
each family in the direct worship of the gods in the temples may be
taken as about half that expended in the worship of ancestors, or
840,000,000 for all China. Thus we have the aggregate amount of

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

621

5130,000,000 spent annually in China for paper money for use in their
worship."

While it is impossible to make a correct estimate of the amount
(if incense burned by the Chinese in their worship, we can neverthe-
less {^et some idea. It is the custom to burn incense three times per
day, morninj^, noon and eveninff. The amount burned thus by each
family in the house and at the temple amounts to about 84,000,000
|nr year. The rich, of course, burn many times tiiis amount, and
some of the po(jr families, perhaps, not cjuite so much. Hut S4 per year
as an averaj^e is an under rather than an over estimate of the amount
1)1 incense burned by each famil>'. This beiuff true, the amount of
incense burned by eij^htj- million families would amount in one year
lu the enormous sum of §320,000,000.

U :

;t'il

I : ^■ - i

Mahommed Alexander Russell Webb, New York.

l\»

l.-^

Xhe Influence of Social Condition.

Paper by MOHAMMED ALEXANDER RUSSELL WEBB, of New York.

NK of the fireatest mistakes the follower 1
of any relij;ion can make is to form and'
express a positive opinion of the moral'
effects of another relief ions system fronii
the t^eneral coiuluct of those who profess,
to follow it, and, at the same time, to ig-
nore the faults and weaknesses of those
who are within the folil of his own faith.
It is unfortunate, perhaps, that among
the masses of believers religious preju-
dice is so strong as to prevent the exer-
cise of a calm and just discrimination in
the examination of an opp' sing creed.
It would be neither just nor truthful to as-
sert that every man who lives in an American city,
town or village, is a Christian and represents in his acts and words the
natural effects of Christian teachings. Nor is it fair to judge the
Islamic system in a similar manner, and yet I regret to say that it is
([iiitc generally done in Europe and in America. There are in Asia
today many thousands of people who call themselves Mussulmans and
\ et who have a no more truthful conception of the character and teach-
ings of Mohammed than they have of the habits of the man in the
ini)on. If one or a dozen of these should commit an act of brutal in-
tolerance or fanaticism, would it be just to say that it was due to the
incritable tendencies of their religion?

There are several reasons why Islam and the character of its fol-
lowers arc so little understood in Europe and America, and one of why IhIuiu i«
these is that when a man adopts, or says he adopts, Islam, he becomes Mi»umier8t.«..i
known as a Mussulman and his nationality becomes merged in his re-
ligion. As soon as a Hindu embraces Islam his character disappears.
If a Mohammedan, Turk, Egyptian, Syrian or African commits a
rrime the newspaper reports do not tell us that it was committed by a
Turk, an Egyptian, a Syrian or an African, but by a Mohammedan.
If an Irishman, an Italian, a Spaniard or a German commits a crime in
the United States we do not say that it was committed by a Catholic,

523

n !

624

THE n'URLD'S COSCRESS OF RELIGIONS.

iff

I -" »:

a Methodist or a Haptist, nor even a Christian; we tlesij^nate the man
by liis nationalit)-. I'hi re ate thousands of men in the prisons v)f our
country w'lose reii^i*)!!."-- helief, if they have an\', is rarely or never
referreil to. We do not .-. lerto them asC'hristians, simply l)eeanse their
parents attemleil a Christian ehureh, or they themselves had a ehureh
membership at some time in the remote past. Hut, just as soon as a
native of the Mast is arresteil for a erime t>r niistlemeanor, he is le^;-
istered as a representative of the religion his parents foHoweil or
whieli he has ailopteil.

We should only jnd^^e of the inhereni tendencies of a reli^^ious
SN'stem by t>bservin}^ carefully aiul without prejudice its general effects
upon the character anil habits of those who are intellij;ent enou{;ii to
understand its basic principles, anil who [lublidy i)rofess to teach «)r
follow it. If we lind that their lives are clean and jtuie ami full of
U>ve anil charity, we may fairly say that their reli^jion is j^ood. If we
find them ^iven to lupocrisy, dishonesty, uncharitableness and intol-
Ckance, we ma\' safely infer that there is something wrong with the
system they profess.

In formini; our estim.ite of a ielii;ion we should also calmly
analyze its fuiulaiuentals and consider the raci.d and climatic inllucnces
that surround its followers as well as their national habits and customs.

1 take it that we all desire to know the truth, and that we are will-
ing to have our attention called to the fact if we make a mistake
in our estimate of our neighbor's relii;ion. That was the sentiment
that jHissessed me ten \ears ,»;'o, w hen 1 be;;an the study of the Oriental
religions, and \ hope that it i.;ri;cly inllucnces the minds of all wlio
hear me toda\'.

Another of the most potent reasons for the unfa\oral)le opinion
of Islam and its jirofessed followers which prevails in America and
b'.urope toilay, is the disposition of the people of the Wi-st to judge
the ]>eople of the b'.ast by our western stamlard of civilization. We
of i.he \Vest believe that our wonderful progress in the arts and sci-
ences, and the perfection of those means by which our physical com-
fort and pleasure are sccuretl, give us just cause to feel superior to
those who do not bask in the sunshine of our nineteenth century civil-
ization. In a general way, and with some few exceptions, perhaps, we
consider our social system admirable, and when we find that many Mo-
hammedans, Huddhisls, Hindus, and other easte<;: people do not join
with us in this opinion, we console ourselves with the belief that it is
because the\* are heathen and incapable of recognizing and api)reciat-
ing a gooil thing when they see it. It would, undoubtedly, surprise
What Oriont- somc of my hcarcis U) know whaL many of the more intelligent Alus-
aisthiuk.ifour sulmaus and llindusot India think of thiscivilization of oursof which

I iTiliiation. ,

we arc so proud.

There is a class of Mussulmans and Hindus and Hudilhists in the
East, with whom the western nussiunaries rarely come in contact, and
when they do there is t.o discussion of religious doctrines, because
these "heathen" have learned b\- experience that it is worse than a

THE WORLD'S CONCRllSS OF REIJCfONS,

525

ate the niail
1 isoiis i)l our
lely "»■ never
because their
hail ;i church
as soon as a
lur, he is .et;-
foUoweil or

t)l' a reliptius
jenenil ellects
i\t enouj^li to
iS to teach or
lire aiul lull of

jrood. 11 we
t>ss aiul iiitol-
■rou'f; with the

il also calmly
latic iutlucnces
Is and customs,
lat we are will-
ake a mistake
the sentiment
i)t" the Oriental
ii\cls of all who

•orable opinion

n Atnerica anil

West to juilj;e

ili/ation. We

arts anil sci-

physical com-

cel superior to

I century civil-

ns, perhaj)s. we

that many Mo-

)le ilo not join

)clief that it is

J anil appieciat-

btedlv, surmise

ntelliKH-nt Mus-

of ours of which

Buddhists in the

: in contact, and

ctrines, because

is worse than a

waste of time to arj^nic over such matters. Ihit fjeiu rally they are men
of profound learning', who speak ICn^rlishaslltiently as t'wy dotlu: Orien-
tal tont^'us, and who are well verseil in all the known systems of reli^j-
ion and philosophy. It will probably sur|)rise many people here to
Iv'iow that nearly all the more intellij^ent and hi^jhly educated Mussnl
mans of Indiii are (|uite as well informed as to the history and doc-
trines of the other relijjious systems as they are concerniii}.j their
own.

We Mussulmans I'uinly believe that tin; teac hinj^fs of Moses, Abra-
ham, Jesus and Moliannned were substantially the same; that the f<jl-
U)wers of each truly insi)ired prophet have always corrupted and
addeil, more or less, to the sjslem he tau^dit, and have drifted into
materialistic forms and ceremonies; that the true spirit has often been
sacrificed to what may, perhaps, be called the weak coixeptions of
fallible humanity.

In order to realize the inilueiice of Islam upon social conditions,
and to comprehend and appreciate the teachin^rs of Mohammed, his
whole life and apparent motives must bi; inspec.te<l and analyzed care-
fully and without prejudice. In view of the very unsatisfactory and
contradictory nature of much thit has been written in I'.iudish con- Uofw^im tin

1- il 1 111 a\ \- c Mil- IjIIU'M of Ho

cernini^ ium, we must learn to read between the hues ol so-called his- o<ilii<i iiintory.
tory. When we have done this we will lin<l that the ethics he tauj^jht
are identical with those of every other prominent relif.(ious system.
That is to sa)', he presented the very hi^;liest slandanl of morality,
established a system of worship calculated to produce the best results
iunon^^ all classes of his followers, and made aspiration to (iod the
paramount purpose of life.

lake e\ ery other truly inspired teacher, he showed that there were
two aspect or divisions of the spiritual knowledf^e he had ac(iuired —
one for the masses who were so thorouj^hly occupied with the affairs
of this world that they had only a very small portion of their time to
devote to relit^ion, and the other for those who were capable of com-
prehending^ the hij^her .sijiritual truths anil realize that it was better to
lay up treasures for the life to come than to enjo)- the pleasures of this
worhl. Hut his purpose, clearly, was to secme the most ])erfe( t moral
results by methods applicable to all kinds and conditions of humanity.

In analyzing,' the sayin}j;s of the prophet, aside from the Ko-
ran, we should always bear in mind the social conditions prevalent
amon^ the Arabs at the time he tauj^ht, as well as the fjeneral charac-
terof the people. Presumin^r that Mohammed was truly inspired by
the Supreme Spirit, it is quite reasonable to sujipose that he used quite
different met'iods of brin^in^j the truth to the attcnt! >ti of the Arabs
twelve hundred years ayo than he would follow before an audience of
intelligent, educated people, such as sits before me m this nineteenth
century.

Before proceeding further, I desire to explain that, in order to
show clearly the influence of Islam upon social conditions, it will be
necessary to make some comparisons between the habits and customs

!ff'ip i

526

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

- .'Sir-

■

Enters a Gen-
eral Denial.

in Mussulman communities and in the cities and towns of Europe and
America, where Christianity is the prevailing religion. In doing this
I have no intention to reflect upon the latter nor give offense to any
of its followers. My purpose is to show, as lucidly and distinctly as
possible, a side of the Islamic faith, which is quite familiar to my fellow
countrymen and which is the life of the Moslem social fabric.

There are a number of objections to Islam raised by western
people which I would like to reply to fully, but the very limited
time allotted to me prevents my doing so. I can only enter a general
denial and trust to time and the earnest, honest efforts of some
of those who hear me to prove the truth of what I say. Nearly, if not
quite all, the objections I refer to have their birth and growth in igno-
rance of the vital principles of Islam.

The chief objection and the first one generally made is polygamy.
It is quite generally believed that polygamy and the Purdah, or ex-
clusion of females, is a part of the Islamic system. This is not true.
There is only one verse in the Koran which can possibly be distorted
into an excuse for polygamy and that is, practically, a prohibition of
it. Only the other day I read a communication in a church newspaper,
written by a well-known clergyman who said that the Koran required
the sultan of Turkey to take a new wife every year. There is no such
requirement in the Koran, and what surprised me most was that such
an intelligent, well educated n;an as the writer should make that
: statement. I am charitable enough to admit that he made it through
ignorance. I never met but two Mussulmans in my life who had more
than one wife. There is nothing in the sayings of the prophet nor in
the Koran warranting or permitting the Purdah. During the life of
the prophet and the early caliphates, the Arabian women went abroad
freely, and, what is more were honored, respected and fully protected
in the exercise of their rights and privileges.

Islam has been called "The religion of the sword," and there are
thousands of good people in America and Europe who really believe
that Molinniincd went into battle with the sword in one hand and the
Koran in the other. This is rather a singular charge for Christian
writers to make; but they do make it and very inconsistently and un-
justly, too.

The truth is that the prophet never encouraged nor consented
to the propagation of Islam by force, 3nd the Koran plainly forbids
it. It says:

"Let there be no forcing in religion; the right way has been made
clearly distinguishable from the wrong on<v If the Lord had pleased,
all who are on the earth wculd have believed together; and wilt Thou
force men to be believers? "

And in the second Sura, 258th verse, it says:

"Let there be no compulsion in religion. Now is the right way
made distinct from error; whoever, therefore, denieth Taghoot (liter-
ally error) and believeth in God, hath taken hold on a strong handle
that hati\ no flaw. And God is He who heareth, knoweth."

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

527

Our prophet himself was as thoroughly non-aggressive and peace-
loving as the typical Shaker, and, while he realized that a policy of
perfect non-resistance would speedily have resulted in the murder of
himself and every Mussulman in Arabia, he urged his followers to
avoid, as far as possible, violent collisions \\ ith the unbelievers, and
not to fight unless it was necessary in order to protect their lives. It
can be shown, too, that he never in his life participated in a battle and
never had a sword in his hand for the purpose of killing or maiming a
human being.

It has been charged that slavery is a part of the Islamic system in
the face of the fact that Mohammed discouraged it, and the Koran for-
bids it, making the liberation of a slave one of the most meritorious
acts a person can perform. But, in weighing the evidence bearing
upon this subject, we should never lose sight of the social and political
conditions prevalent in Arabia at the time the prophet lived and the
Koran was compiled.

It has also been said that Mohammed and the Koran denied a soul
to woman and ranked her with the animals. The Koran places her on
a perfect and complete equality with man, and the prophet's teachings
often place her in a position superior to the males in some respects.
Let me read you one passage from the Koran bearing upon the sub-
ject. It is the thirty-fifth verse of the thirty-third Sura.

"Truly the men who resign themselves to God (Moslems), and
the women who resign themselves; the believing men, and the
believing women; the devout men, and the devout women; the men of
truth, and the women of truth; the patient men, and the patient women;
the humble men, and the humble women; the mon who give alms,
and the women who give alms; the men who fast, and the women who
fast; the chaste men, and the chaste women, the men ami women who
oft remember God, for them hath God prepared fornix ciicss and a
rich recompense."

Could anything have been written to empha more forcibly the
perfect equality of the sexes before God? The property rights which
American women have enjoyed for only a few years iia\ f l)eeii enjoyed
by Mohammedan women for twelve hundred years; and to<!:i>- there is
no class of women in the world whose rights are so completeK- pro-
tected as those of the Mussulman communities.

And now, having endeavored to dispel some of the false ideas
concerning Islam, which have been current in this country, let me
show you briefly what it really is and what its natural effects are upon
social conditions. Stated in the briefest manner possible, the Islamic
system requires belief in the unity of God and in the inspiration of
Mohammed. Its pillars of practice are physical and mental cleanliness,
prayer, fasting, fraternity, alms-giving and pilgrimage. There is noth-
ing in it that tends to immorality, social degredation, superstition
or fanaticism. 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,

Men and Wo-
man on Eqoal-
ity.

W '^

.^ r-aiiT W

'; i-' iii

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

I ■':

. I

I'injr Five
limes a Day.

irreverent, or fanatical, fails utterly to p^rasp 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 Mos-
lems, show how well the prophet understood human nature. It will
not produce the kind of civilization that wey\mericans seem to admire
so much, but it will make a man sober, honest and truthful, and will
make him love his (iod with all his heart and all his mind, and his
neighbor as himself.

Every Mussulman who has not become demoralized by contact
with British civilization prays five times a day, not whenever he hap-
pens 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 incomprehensible, unknowable God, the Oi.mipotent, Onmiscicnt,
Omnipresent Ruler of the uni\ erse. He cU.es not believe that by argu-
ment and entreaty he can sway the judgment and change the j^lans 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 da)', and this habit clings to him
through life and keeps him physicalix' clean. He comes in touch with
his religion five times a day in a manner which produces results pro-
portionate to the intelligence and s[)iritual 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 inseparal)le 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 ci\ ilization differs from that of
the West; that it is less active and progressive, less grand and impos-
ing and dazzling and noisy?

I will confess that when I went to li\e aincmg the intelligent Mus-
sulmans I was astonished beyond measure at the social conditions I
encountered. I hatl acquired the idea that pre\ails generally in this
country and Europe, and was pre[)are(l to fiin' the professed followers
of Islam selfish, treacherous, untruthful, intok ;;int, sensual and fanati-
cal. I was very agreeably disappointed. I >a\\ the practical results
of Islam manifested in honesty, truthfulness, sobriety, tolerance, gen-
tleness and a degree of true brotherly love that was a surprise to me
The evils that we Americans complain of in our social systenv-
drunkenneps, prostitution, marital infidelity and cold selfishness— were
almost entirely absent.

It is a significant fact that only Mussulmans who drink whisky
and gamble are those who wear European clothing and imitate the

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

529

ing of the

;rc teaching
al, and the
ligent Mos-
Lire. It will
m to admire
ful, and will
lind, and his

by contact
^ver he hap-
3t a servile,
praise to the
Omniscient,
hat by argu-

the plans of
^ard in spirit
nd holy and
ise is to rise
irit wings for

ice, nostrils,
acquires the
;lings to him
in touch with
results pro-
of the man.
put on once
ith his busi-
is existence
ght and act.
irom that of
lud impos-

illigcnt M US-
conditions I
rally in this
;cd followers
and fanati-
ctical results
crance, gen-
rprise to me
ial systcnv-
shness— were

drink whisky
1 imitate the

ippearancc and habits of the Englishmen. I have never seen a
drunken Mussulman, nor one who carried the odor of whisky or beer
about with him. But I have heard that some of those who have be-
come Anglicized and have broken away from the Moslem dre'-s and
customs actually do drink beer and whisky and smoke cigarettes.

I have been in mosques where from five hundred to three thousand
Mussulmans were gathered to pray, and at the conclusion of the prayer
I was hemmed in by a hundred of them who were eager to shake my
hand and call me their brother. But I never detected those disagree-
able odors which suggest the need of extended facilities for bathing.
I have repeatedly called this fact to mind while riding on the elevated
railways in New York and in two or three public assemblages in
London.

Prostitution and marital infidelity, with scandalous newspaper re-
ports of divorce proceedings, are quite impossible in a Mussulman
community where European influences have no foothold. A woman
toiling over a washtub to support a drunken husband and several chil-
dren, and a poor widow with her little ones turned into the streets for
non-payment of rent are episodes that never occur where Islamic laws
and customs prevail. Woman takes her place as man's honored and
respected companion and helpmate and is the mistress of her home
whenever she is disposed to occupy that position. Her rights are
accorded to her freely.

It is true that she does not attend public balls and receptions, f
wearing a dress that some people might consider immodest, and waste
iier health and jeopardize her marital happiness in the enervating
dance, nor does her husband do so. She does not go to the theater,
the circus, the races, nor the public gatherings in search of amusement,
but finds her pleasure and recreation at home in the pure atmosphere
of her husband's and children's love and the peaceful, refining occupa-
tions of domestic life. Both she and her husband, as well as their chil-
dren, are taught andbelievethatit is better to retire at nine, just after the
]irayer of the day, and arise before daybreak and say the morning
prayer just as the first rays of the sun are gilding the eastern horizon.

Another feature of the Islamic social life that has impressed me
is the utter absence of practical joking, or what is popularly known as
"guying." There is little or no sarcasm, bitter irony, cruel wit among
the Mussulmans calculated to cause their fellows chagrin, shame or an-
noyance, wounding the heart and breaking that bond of loving frater-
nity which should subsist between men. The almost universal disposi-
tion seems to be to cultivate unselfishness and patience and to place as
little value as possible upon the things of this world.

In the household of the true Mussulman there is no vain show, no
labored attempt to follow servilely the fashions, including furniture
and ornaments, in vogue in London and Paris. Plainness and frugality
arc apparent everywhere, the idea being that it is far better to culti-
vate the spiritual side of our nature than to waste our time and money
trying to keep up appearances that we hope will cause our neighbors

Plemmrc ami
Reon'ul.oii j. t
Home.

530

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

i '. I

\l !'

i* '■

Hospitable
Wplconie.

to think that we have more money than we really have and are more
aesthetic in our tastes than we really are.

•' But," someone may say, " what about the story that a Mussulman
believes that he will go directly to paradise if he dies while trying to
kill a Christian?"

This is one of the numerous falsehoods invented by enemies of the
truth to injure as peaceful and non-aggressive a class of people as the
world has ever seen. A traveler who has visited nearly all the
Mohammedan countries said to me last week: "I would rather
be alone in the dark woods and miles away from a town with
one hundred Mussulmans than to walk half-a-dozen blocks in the
slums of an English or American city after dark."

tie also told me that while he was on a steamer at Constantinople,
he gave a Turkish boatman a lira, or about five dollars, to buy him
some fruit and cigarettes. The English passengers laughed at his
credulity and assured him that he would never see his lira again. But
just as the anchor was being raised the boatman returned bringing
with him the fruit and cigarettes and the exact change.

In April last a lady at the Desbrosscs street ferry, in New York,
gave her cloak to a young man to hold while she purchased her ticket.
She has not seen it since.

A Mussulman, if he is hungry and has no lodging place, may walk
into the house of a brother Mussulman and be sure of a cordial, hospi-
tal welcome. He will be given a seat at the frugal meal and a place
where he can spread his sleeping mat. One of the best of Islamic
social customs is hospitality. Many Mussulmans are glad to have the
opportunity to give a home and food to a poor brother, believing that
God has thus favored them with the means of making themselves
more worthy to inherit paradise.

The greeting, " Assalam Aleikum " (Peace be with thee), and
the response, "Aleikum Salaam" (With thee be peace), have a true
fraternal sound in them, calculated to arouse the love and respect of
anyone who hears them. In the slums of our American cities this
summer there were hundreds of hungry, homeless people, while hun-
dreds of houses in the fashionable streets were closed and empty and
their owners were living luxuriantly at summer resorts. Such a state
of affairs would be impossible in a purely Mussulman community.

I have seen it asserted that, under the Islamic system, a high state
of civilization is impossible. Stanley Lane-Poole writes as follows:

"For nearly eight centuries under her Mohammedan rulers, Spain
set to all Europe a shining example of a civilized and enlightened state.
Her fertile provinces, rendered doubly prolific by the industry and en-
gineering skill of her conquerors, bore fruit in a hundred fold. Cities
innumerable sprang up in the rich valleys of the Guaalquivir and
Guadiana, whose names, and names only, still commemorate the van-
quished glories of their past. Art, literature and science prospered as
they then prospered no where else in Europe. Students flocked from
France and Germany and England to drink from the fountains of learn-

THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

531

ing which flowed only in the cities of the Moors. The surgeons and
doctors of Andalusia were in the van of science; women were encour-
aged to devote themselves to serious study, and a lady doctor was not
unknown among the people of Cordova. Mathematics, astronomy
and botany, philosophy and jurisprudence were to be mastered in
Spain and in Spain alone. The practical work of the field, the scien-
tific methods of irrigation, the arts of fortification and ship building,
the highest and most elaborate products of the loom, the graver and
the hammer, the potter's wheel and the mason's trowel were brought
to perfection by Spanish lords. In the practice of war, no less than
in the arts of peace, they long stood supreme. "Whatsoever makes a
kingdom great and prosperous, whatsoever tends to refinement and
civilization, was found in Moslem Spain."

And what has become of this grand civilization, traces of which
we still see i". some of the Spanish cities, and the splendid architecture
of the Mogul emperors of India? It is to be seen here in Chicago and
in wherever there is a manifestation of materialistic progress and en-
lightenment.

So long as the pure teachings of the prophet were followed the
Moslem development was pure and healthy, and much more stable
and admirable than the gaudy materialism that finally developed and
brought with it utter ruin. True civilization— a civilization based upon
purity, virtue and fraternal love — is the kind of civilization that exists
today among the better classes of Mussulmans, and brings with it a
degree of contentment and happiness unknown amid the tumult of the
western social system.

The devout Mussulman, one who has arrived at an intelligent
comprehension of the true teachings of the prophet, lives in his religion
and makes it the paramount principle of \\\-, existence. It is with him
in all his goings and comings during the day, and he is never so
completely occupied with his business or worldly affairs that he cannot
turn his back upon them when the stated hour of prayer arrives and
present his soul to God. His loves, his sorrows, his hopes, his fears are
all immersed in it; it is his last thought when he lies down to sleep at
night and the first to enter his mind at dawn, when the voice of the
Muezzin sings out loudly and clearly from the minaret of the mosque,
waking the soft echoes of the morn with its thrilling, solemn, majestic
monotones, " Come to prayer; prayer is better than sleep."

True Civiliz-
ation.

TheK

oran.

By Rev. George E. Post, D. D., of Beirut, Syria.

EV. Geo. E. Post, D. D., held up a copy of the\
Koran, and said: "I hold in my hand a.\
book which is never touched by two hundred
millions of the human race with unwashed
hands, a book which is never carried below
the waist, a book which is never laid upon
the floor." And Dr. Post then read without
note or comment:

In chapter Ixvi. is said: "O Prophet, at-
tack the infidel with arms." And chapter ii
says: "And fight for the religion of God
against those who fight against you, and kill
them wherever ye find them, and turn them
out of that whereof they have dispossessed
you." Also on page 25 it is written: "War is en- ReiiRious
joined you against the infidels, but this is hateful WarJuBtified.
unto you; yet perchance ye hate a thing which is
better for you, and perchance ye love a thing which is worse for you."
Chapter xlviii.: "Say unto the Arabs of the desert who are left behind,
yc shall be called forth against a mighty and a warlike nation, ye shall
fight against them or they shall profess Islam." And this may be
translated, "until they profess Islam." In chapter ix. it is said: "Now
has God assisted you in many engagements, and particularly at the
battle of Hunein, when ye pleased yourself in your multitude, but it
was no manner of advantage to you and the earth was too straight for
you, notwithstanding it was spacious; then did ye retreat and turn your
backs. Afterward God sent down His security upon His apostle and
upon the faithful, and sent down troops of angels which he saw not.
Fight against them who believe not in God." And many more of S\
similar character. \

I read in chapter iv. of the Koran: "And if ye fear that ye shall
not act with equity toward orphans or the female sex, take in marriage
of such other women as please you two, or three, or four, and not
more." In the same chapter I read: "Ye may with your substance
provide wives for yourselves." I read, however, that these were not

533

f .. J E >

!'4

534

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Pol};gnniy
Auihurized.

sufficient provisions for the Prophet, and the special revelation had to
be made from heaven in these words: "O Prophet, we have allowed
thee thy wives unto whom thou hast given 1 1; dower, and also the
slaves which thy right hand possesseth of the booty which God hath
granted thee; and the daughters of thy uncles and the daughters of
thy aunts, both on thy father's side and thy mother's side, who have
fled with thee from Mecca, and any other believing woman, if she give
herself unto the Prophet, in case the Prophet desires to take her to
wife. This is a peculiar privilege granted unto thee above the rest
of the true believers. We know what we have ordained them concern-
ing their wives and their slaves which their right hands possess; lest
it should be deemed a crime in thee to make use of the privUcge
granted thee, for God is merciful and gracious. It shall not be lawful
for thee to take other women to wife hereafter, nor to exchange any
of thy wives for them, although their beauty pleases thee, except the
slaves whom thy right hand shall possess." The commentators, who
are all of them men who stand high in the Mohammedan world, as
Origen, Chrysostom, and the other fathers of the church stand in the
Christian world, differ as to the meaning of these words. Some think
that Mohammed was thereby forbidden to take any more wives than
nine, which number he had then, and is supposed to have been his
stint, as four was that of other men; some imagine that after this
prohibition, though any of the wives he then had should die, or be
divorced, he could not marry another in her room. Some think he
was only forbidden from this time forward to marry any other woman
than one of the fiur sorts mentioned in the passage quoted.

There is one chapter which I dare not stand before you, sisters
and mothers, and wives and daughters, and read to you. I have not
the face to read it; nor would I like to read it even in a congregation
of men. It is the sixty-fourth chapter of the Koran. You may read
that chapter if you like yourselves, and you may read the comments
of their great leaders and theologians, those men on whom they rely
for the interpretation of the Koran. The chapter is called "Prohibi-
tion." If I were going to name it I should call it "High License."
Chapter xxiv. says: "And compel not your maid servants to prosti-
tute their bodies." In chapter xxxiii. it is revealed to the Prophet
that he is an exception to this rule: "O Prophet, we have allowed thee
thy wives, unto whom thou hast given their dower, and also the slaves
which thy right hand possesseth of the booty which God had granted
thee." Now let us hear the Koran on the subject of divorce: "Ye may
divorce your wives twice, but if the husband divorce her a third time
she shall not be lawful for him again until she marry another husband.
But if he also divorces her, it shall be no crime in them if they return
to each other." Chapter iv: "If ye be desirous of exchanging a wife for
another wife and ye have already given one of them a talent, take not
anything away therefrom." In chapter iv. it is said: "Ye are also for-
bidden to take to wife free women who are married except those
women whom your right hands shall possess as slaves." But this was

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

5S5

r woman

not enough for the Prophet, There had to be a sjiecial revelation
from God in order to justify him. The following passage was recorded
on Mohammed's wives asking for more sumptuous clothes and
additional allowance for their expenses. The Prophet had no sooner
received the request than he gave them their ontion cither to continue
with him or be divorced. In this passage God is supposed to be the
speaker. He says: "O Prophet, say unto thy wives, if ye seek this
present life and the pomps thereof, come, I will make a handsome pro-
vision foryou,and I will dismiss you with an honorable dismission; but
if ye seek God and His apostles, and the life to come, verily God hath
prepared for such of you as work righteousness a great reward."

Mohammed purchased a slave boy named Zcid, who was a win-
some youth, and Mohammed loved him. The father of the boy, hear-
ing where he was, came to Mecca with a great ransom in his hand, and
he said to Mohammed. "Give me back my boy and take this gold."
Mohammed was magnanimous — he had many great and noble quali-
ties, of which I would like to speak at another time — and Mohammed
refused the ransom, and, turning to the boy, offered him his freedom.
The boy, however, preferred to remain, lie said to the Prophet: " I
will stay with you; you are my father." After a time Mohammed had
the boy swear a mighty oath at the Kaaba that he was his son, and
thus he adopted him. This occurred before the proclamation of Islam. 5,^,1,1^ ,,,„,,jg
After the revelation of Islam, Mohammed gave the boy a beautiful PolygMmiBt.
girl named Zeinab to wife, Some years after their marriage Moham-
med visited the house of Zeid in the latter's absence. His eyes fell
upon this young woman and he loved her. .She told her husband of
this, and he, from his devotion to his adopted father, offered to divorce
her so that Mohammed might marry her. Mohammed at first recoiled
from this. He said it was a scandal that would ruin him, but it is
alleged that God gave him a revelation on which he took the wife of his
own adopted son and made her his wife. The revelation is this: "But
when Zeid had determined the matter concerning her and had resolved
to divorce her we joined her in marriage unto thee; lest a crime
should be charged on the true believers in marrying the wives of their
adopted sons' when they have determined the matter concerningthem;
and the command of God is to be performed. No crime is to be
charged on the Prophet as to what God hath allowed him conformable
to the ordinance of Gt)d with regard to those who preceded him (for
the command of God is a determinate decree) who brought the mes-
sages of God and feared Him, and feared none besides God; and God
is a sufficient accountant. Mohammed is not the father of any man
among you, but the apostle of God and the seal of the prophets.'"

; \

'^>

The Primi-
tive ChriHtian*
Charitnble.

Xhe {Relations of the f^oman Catholic
Church to the Poor and Destitute.

Paper by CHARLES F. DONNELLY, read by Rt. Rev. John J. Keane^ D. D.

HE Christian church was from the bcginninfj
always solicitious of the poor, even in her early
struggles and in the persecution she was then
undergoing. This solicitude is shown in the
first papal prescript transmitted by Saint
Clement, the Fourth of the popes, to the
Church of Corinth, wherein he said: "Let the
rich give liberally to the poor, and let the poor
man give praise and thanks to God for having
inspired the rich man with the good will to
relieve him." A little later Saint Cyprian,
bishop and martyr, wrote his book on "Ciood
Works and Aims-Deeds," an admirable treat-
ise on Christian charity, for which he was
distinguished.
Under the auspices of the church the primitive Christians estab-
lished means for the relief of the poor, the sick and the travelers in
distress or needing shelter, hospitals for lepers, societies for the
redemption of captive slaves, congregations of females for the relief of
indigent women, associations of religious women for redeeming those
of their sex who were leading dissolute lives, and hospitals for the
sick, the orphaned, the aged and afflicted of all kinds, like the Hotel-
Dieu, founded in Paris in the seventeenth century and still perpetu-
ated.

The story of the origin of resorting to the place for the cure of the
insane is that an Irish princess, Saint Dymphna, was slain there May
15, A. D. 6cx), by the hand of her own father, a pagan, who having be-
come enraged at her conversion to Christianity, caused her to flee, and
pursuing her there, beheaded her. An in.sanc person witnessing
the act was cured, and thus a belief became current that miraculous
cures of the insane were effected by visiting the spot where she
was beheaded. A shrine was erected there and in A. D. 1340 a

memorial church was added. ._-

000

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

587

It is fair to assume that the charitable religious of the neighbor-
hood saw early that the ancient methods or imprisoning the in-
sane were irrational, and so gradually surrounded them with condi-
tions akin to their home lives, and gently led them to improve, if not
to wholly recover their reason, under a method of treatment centuries
in advance of the most intelligent methods pursued with the insane
until our time, when we find no better ■;> stem can be followed.

The church was, it may be said, almost unreservedly, the only
almoner to the poor in primitive times, up to the period when modern
history begins; for charity was not a pagan virtue, and man had not
been taught it until the Redeemer's comiitj,; so the religious houses,
the monasteries, convents, asylums and hospitals were the great
houses of refuge and charity the poor and needy had to resort to in
their distress in later times.

But there appeared in the seventeenth century a man surpassing
all who preceded him in directing the attention of mankind to the
wants and necessities of the poor and to the work of relieving them,
tlic great and good St. Vincent de Paul, whose name and memory
V. ill ever be revered while the church of Chri.st endures. Born on April Paul
24. 1576, in the little village of Pouy, near Dax, south of Bordeaux,
bordering on the Pyrenees; he was ordained priest in 1600, and
later fell into the hands of the Turks and was sold as a slave at
Tunis.

In the great work of St. Vincent dc Paul nothing commends itself
more to this practical age than his plan of enlisting large bodies of
laymen to cooperate with the clergy by establishing confraternities
HI each parish of men who devote themselves to seeking out, visiting
niid relieving the sick, the orphaned and the destitute. Such associa-
tions achieve in a quiet and unostentatious way wonderful results by
the modest contributions of their own members chiefly and by the
zeal and effectiveness of the work the/ do. France leads in such
organizations naturally enough, but the United States is emulating her
successfully and will, in view of what has been accomplished here of
late years, soon surpa.ss that nation.

The work of founding ecclesiastical charitable organizations did
not cease with the labors of St. Vincent de Paul, nor has it ceased at
the present day. It will be well to recall at this point a few of the
many active rather than the contemplative orders and congregations
tliat we may be reminded of the constant care exercised by the church
over those in need, and here it should also be mentioned that while
such deserving praise is given St. Vincent de Paul for laying the
foundations for the most active religious communities ever established
under the auspices of the church, there were others who preceded him
early in the same direction, but without achieving the same success,
and conspicuously the Alexian, or Cellite Brothers, founded in 1325,
at Aix-la-Chapelle, devoted to nursing the sick, especially in times of
pestilence, the care of lunatics and persons suffering from epilepsy.

Thn Chnrcb
an Almoner.

St. Vincunt de

Clfl

Work.

Panl'a

538

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF R/:UGIONS,

Mil

!! I

I r I

\\ m\\

The Church
More C^harit
abl« than
Htete.

the

In 1572 ti:e congregation of the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of
God was also founded for the care of the sick, infirm and poor.

Twenty years after St. Vincent de Paul ended his life of charity
there was founded at Rheims, in 1680, the congregation of the Brothers
of the Christian Schools for the instruction of poor children, ^n 1804
the Christian Brothers were founded in Ireland, mainly for the educa-
tion of poor youths; at Ghent, the congr gation of Brothers of Charity,
in 1809, who devote their lives to aged, sick, insane and incurable men,
and to orphans, abandoned children and the deaf, dumb and blind; at
Paris, in 1824, the Sisterhood of Bon Secours was established for the
care of the sick; in 1828, the Fathers of the Institute of Charity; in
Ireland, in 1831, the Community of the Sisters of Mercy was founded
for visiting the sick, educating the poor and protecting destitute chil-
dren, and this religious body of women has now several hundred houses
establish? ^ in different parts of the world. For the reclamation and
instruction of women and girls who had fallen from virtue the Nuns of
the Good Shepherd were established in 1835. -^t St. Servan, in Brit-
tany, some peasant women, chiefly young working women and domes-
tic servants, instituted the Little Sisters of the Poor, in 1840, having for
their object the care of the aged poor, irrespective of sex or creed, and
they, too, have hundreds of houses now in nearly all the large ci:ies of
the world.

L .t is the state the best almoner? In ancient times ii Eng-
land it was considered wiser to leave the whole duty of providing for
the poor to those who would be required by humanity and religicn to
care for them, namely, the clergy, regular and secular; and the duty
devolved on them, for centuries, as we have seen. Oul of the tithes,
the products of the labor of the monasteries, and the charitable contri-
butions given by the laity to dispense, came the sole means of main-
taining the poor in Catholic England, there being no compulsory
methods by common law, or statute, looking to th^^ir support, and
Blackstone himself credits the monasteries with the principal .support
of the poor in Catholic times.

The affecting death of Father Damian among the lepers of Molo-
kaoi was better than all polemical discourses to allay religious rancor
where it may exist, and to aw ken in the mind of all reflecting Chris-
tians the importance not only of extending charity to the heathen in
remote places, but to each other at home in our differences relating to
creed and opinion.

It is not improbable that within a few years grct^t changes will be
made by the Catholic church itself in the administration of many of its
charities throughout the world. Some of its organizations are greatly
impressed with the importance of studying new systems and methods of
relief growing out of the social conditions of the nineteenth century.
The slender equipment of the poor child in the past for the part he had
to pLy in life; the continuous, or casual, administration of alms to the
destitute, instead of leading them kindly and firmly forward from de-

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

589

){ St. John of
I poor.

fe of charity
i the Brothers
Iren. ^n 1804
for the educa-
ers of Charity,
ncurable men,
1 and blind; at
jlished for the
of Charity; in
r was founded
destitute chil-
undred houses
clamation and
;ucthe Nuns of
>ervan, in Brit-
len and domes-
840, having for
X or creed, and
z large ci.ies of

; times i 1 Eng-
)f providing for
and religion to
and the duty
of the tithes,
laritable contri-
means of main-
no compulsory
ir support, and
incipal support

epers of Molo-
rcligious rancor
reflecting Chris-

the heathen in
nces relating to

changes will be
n of many of its
ions are greatly
and methods of
;teenth century,
the part he had
n of alms to the
)rward from de-

pendence on others to self-help and self-reliance, are not adapted to
the needs of the present,or to anticipate the requirements of the future.

Ubi Petrus Ibi Ecclcsia: " Where Peter is, there is the church,"
and Rome was made by the poor fishermen of Galilee the seat of the
church nearly nineteen hundr^^d years ago, and the seat of the church it
remains, and shall to the end of time. In considering our subject it
would seem the work would be incomplete if we did not inquire what
the relations of the church to the poor and destitute have been, at its
seat and center. Far back in the history of Christian Rome all the
nations of Europe assisted in contributing to the opening of asylums
for strangers there in distress. Prior to the advent of secular rule
thcr^;, under the existing government, the income for her charities
was $800,000 per annum, with the population less than 175,000.

It is impossible in a summary of this nature to give more tnan an
outline of the ecclesiastical charities of Rome, as they existed up to the
assumption of the government by the reigning family, in Italy; but in
the recital of those charities it is well to mention the schools of gratu-
itous instruction, which were founded by Clement XIII., in 1592; by
the Peres Doctrinaires, in 1727, and by St. Angela de Merecia, in 1655,
the latter mainly for poor females, and all instructing in the ordinary
branches of a common school education. Then there were fifty-five
rcgionary schools; a number of parochial schools, and besides 374
general, or public free schools for the young, with 484 teachers and
fourteen tliousand pupils, in attendance. So it appears the church has
not failed in her duty to the poor at her center.

In the United States there are over seven hundred Catholic chari-
table institutions, the inmates of which are maintained almost entirely
by the contributions of their co-religionists, who, with their fellow
citizens of other denominations, share in the burden of general taxa-
tion, proportionately to their means, in maintaining the poor at the
public charitable institutions besides. A truly anomalous condition,
but arising from the strong adherence of Catholics to the idea that
charity is best administered, where not attended to individually, by
those in the religious life, who give to the jwor of their means, not
through public officers and bureaus, but through ihose who serve the
poor in the old apostolic spirit, with love of God and their less fortu-
nate neighbor and brother actuating them. In the scheme of the dis-
pensation of public charity relief is extended on the narrow ground
tiiat there is some implied obligation on the part of the state to main-
tain the citizen in his necessities in return for service rendered or ex-
pected; but the church imposes the burden on the conscience of every
man of helping his neighbor in distress, apart from any service done
or e.\pected, and teaches that all in suffering are entitled to aid,
whether they lixe within or without the territory; neither territory,
nor race, nor creed can limit Christian charity. In its relation to the
poor the church will always be in the future, as she has been in the
past, in ad\Miuc of the state in all examples of beneficence.

The Home-
lees Poor Cared
For.

Rome's Char>
itiee.

ill

lit

1 ' »'■

The Catholic
idea of Charity.

iil

\ J' i

f ^

!'<

Sunka-Gi and Family, Indian Police.

,llii

, H

The f^eligion of the fsjorth American

Indians.

Paper by MISS ALICE C. FLETCHER.

')Wm^

HE North American continent, extending from
the tropics to the Polar seas, presents wide
diversity of physical aspects, and many dis-
tinctive environments which have left their
impress upon the arts and cults of its peoples.
Within this extended area there are two races,
the Esquimau, which will not come under our
consideration today, and the American race
proper.

This race, like our own, is composed of
many peoples speaking different languages,
languages belonging to widely different stocks.
In our race these stocks are few in number,
but here, in North America, there are more
than two score, each varying from all the
others as widely as the Semitic from the Aryan.

Among so many linguistic stocks one would expect to find tribes
of various mental capacities, and we do find them. There are some
possessing a richer imagination, greater vitality of ideas and greater
power of organization, and these people have impressed themselves
upon others less capable of organization and power of growth. Thus
it has happened here, as elsewhere, that one people has been perme-
ated by the ideas of another while preserving its own language intact,
;is with us, who speak an Aryan tongue, but have become imbued with
Uic religious thou<i[ht of the Semites.

The people we are considering are very ancient people. There is
no reason to doubt that their ancestors were the men whose imple-
ments and weapons have been found associated with the remains of
extinct specimens of aniniL's This evidence of antiquity is rc-in-
I'orced by the recent disco^'^ry of an eminent Mexican archaeologist,
who has found the key to the interpretation of the ancient Mexican
calendar, thereby revealing a system of time measurements based upon

541

Tribes of Va-
rioua mental
Capacities.

Ill

i ,1 ■';
■' -it

M\»

r{f> IW'KI n'S «(',V(.A7 ,ss <!/ h'l lly.hWS.

Iltr K't Mut'iu «' <<( i« «(MtiUi\ irlittur po'tition ol lli<< 'iiiu aiul niooii,
\vIm« it ii'ii(iiio«l loi thr ( t<in|il('Uun ol it>t i;iiii\tl t \ « !«■ out' (liitii'tiinti
ntnr hin\t1ii>«l (U<il twrniN lout vciii-i Mv lite IowcmI i ,ilt ulitlioit iIiim

« ,(

K'litl.

u \\i««t in U'ii" two tlWMi't.uul Ihu'o luindirtl v«tU>

W (

a lil^

\ U>»>M» «>f

lu'iith ;tl«'M«liU,our (ItiU.solat a> I'l Know lUod.iv, « >uiltl nol li.i\r l)riulM)i
u>\M>>l luMU iUU' othri lU'opU", Niih r ttollun^; liK»- it liiCi lu-fU tlismvrnMl
\\\ i\y\\ \A\w\ p.ul ot the \\i>il>l, ll«>\\ in.uu mmi'i iiur.l liiivi- Imtii
•i|>»*m m tho ol<'toi\ i»lion'» wlu* l\ InMo ii'i « nifiiuu lii'ii who < .III >iii\ I*
liiit wo know \\\A\ tioiii tlu' «\tm|ilrtion ol lliii >i\'>lnii llic l\l«<\i«iin
pt-opic )i, 1(1 liNCtl it>li);ioii<4 ntf-, ,111(1 ill, It tticii «'l.il)oi,iii- wor>lit|i w.h
iv'j;u1.iI(nI In ( \ ( Ich w illiin I lie f'.u mI ( \ ( Ic ol llicii woinlcilul < .ilcnd.ii.
StiuUinn '*"* >>* 'ho lil( I lli.il III llu>. NO ( .ilU'd N«"W Woi Id we .lie .iMr

tO'Hud\ il ( ultllU" IIUMC tll.lll l(>\ll lIloUN.iml \ (Mpiold, <i|l.lll|M'l l,l( Is III. IV

( (Mii(< t(< ti^^llt in (li(' iic.ii liitnuv riic pouil to Ik- (-iu|iti.i>ii.M'd in, tliiit
luM(^ in N((itli .\iH(MU'(» o\isl>. a \mv ol c.kmI .intnimlv III, it liiis (tin
Uh«i»i \(((i.j(» ''(MNx'd -ivx i.il and ioli);iouH t(>inc. wliuh, spciKinp. l>io.idlv, iinlcd.ilr
t>i((\«> «>| tlw< ln>«t(ni( p(Mi(>d'i ol lli(- I' .I'.l, Heir we ( .in •.liidv not only
tn(- «d(>w p,tv>\\th k>t '.(>( u'tw l>ut the r(|u,dl\ -dow .ind um^iuai di\«"lo|i-
nunt (>l n\.»n'>. iiicnt.il .iiul •.|Miitii,d ii.itiiu"

.\ K (MU|M(-li(n'.i\ o '.Ivct*!! ol llu- i("lij;ioii ol llir Noilh Amnii.ui
Indi.tn ( Miuu^l t>(- );\\(Mi wittini tin- liniil* (d tlii< p.ipci, nun h less a
\l("linU(' pi> tuu- i^nl\ tlu- indi( ,iti«>n «d ,1 lew '..duiit points is |>o'.«<il»lr,
A\\\.\ ON on tliONO w ill not bo o,»<>\ t(» ni.iko ( lo.ii l>0( .iiisi- ot om ow \\ oom-
0(-\ nu'tluxis ((| tluMiidit Anvtliinr. .ippio.n liiii); ,i ( onsoiisiis ol
ndi.iii l>oli(l-i cm l>o ol>l.unod om1\ lioni ,» (MioIuI s|nd\' o\ \\w niytlis
\\\ tlio po(»pK\ (d tluMi voioiwonios. thoir .snpoistitions and tlioir various
onst(Mi\s. .ind In sx'.juliiiu'. tliuMio.li .ill thi-st> |()i tlw iindoi Iviiu; pitiuiplo,
thv- j>\n(inin}: tli(nii>Jit<i .iiul iiiotuos. N(>\\lu"io .inioii}; tlio tiilu-s » .m
bo t(nind anv toinini.il('d st.UiMiiont ol Ivliol. in no ooionionv or litnal

«>

dv>os tlioio appoai aii\ thiin^ ios(inl>lin); .i vioo(

d. n

IIS p.ipor is tlioio

tvMx' pi\\hoato»i upv>n p(>uits oi i;(Mioi,iI iinil\ . Flu" v.ir.nonoss ol tlio
Induxn's mot.iphvsios must novoi Iv lost sijjlit oi, and to oliininatoan>-
sohoiuo ((MiiptoluMisiMo t(> us li(>in his mass (>t p(nMi(.il and ollin

soomuhMv iiuons

lit

.\.

ovjuoiitial tlioui>lit,is an oNoi-i'dmr.lN' doliv .ito and ddVi
(.^110 luns tho tisk ot t\>inudatinii sonu'tliini',. which althoiii;h
tnio m tho pionusos. mu;ht Iv iiniooinim.Mldo !>>• tho Indi.m liinisoli.

Vho .dv>n;,^mal .XmoiivMn's tooling oon(Oiniiij; llod st>oms to indioato
a pv>woi. nustoiunis. imkiu>w.ihlo, unti.ini.iblo. th.it anim.dos all n.itnio

l"u>in this p(>woi. I

n S(nu

iinovplaiiiod w.iy, proooodod in tlio past

.«,ijcs ooitain i^onoiio tvpos. |>iv>tv^tvpos (d ovoiythmi; in tho wiuld. .ind
thoso still oMst. bo.t thoy .no invisiMo to ni.in m his n.itmal st.ito.boini;
spinl tvpos. alth(>iij;h ho oan holu^Ul thoin .ind ho.u thoni spoak in liis
<\ijHM'n4tmal \ isix\ns, rhi\<ui;h thoso j;onoiio t\pos. .is thiiUi^h .so
nunv ovMivUnts. t1vn\s tlio liio oiMniiiv^ trom tho s'.io.it m\ stoii(nis souioo
ot all iitc mto tho ovMUioto t\>nus whioh in.iko up this world, as tho
sut>, moon ^nd the wind, tho watot. tho o.uth ami the thuiuicr, the
ImuU. the annuals and the tiuits ot the earth.

77/A W'oki.D's ((>/vt;h'/:.<i,s or kKuaioNS.

r..i«

iiitil nioon,
iilitlioii iImm

nun h l«'r>s .»
> is po>.sil>li',

111 OW l» I oi\»-
f)i>srM;>>is ol
I llu- n\yllv.
lun x.uioUN
\i; |Minnplr,
(lllu'S * .u\
Ml\° «M < itll.tt
\W\ is IIUMO-
lM\OSS ol tlu"

Ainoi^j llifMr piolul v|M"i llirrr m'riU't ((• liavt* l»fni iiolir of iiiiii
Innnrll, Iml iii Moiiir va(',tirly iinauiiinl way lir liafi hern (Miinatctl |ty

tlinii, a

\u\ \\

in |tli>''tital as \v«

II at I

(in •tpii'itiial naliirc is mouiihIiciI aiitl

.iii|',inciil(-il lliiiiii);li lliciii. Mi't |>liyMit al tlcpciMlriirr iipiMI llicnc
'.iuiiri"t ol pnwri \'\ illii'ilral('«l ill Ihm « t-rnnonicM. TIiiim, wlicii the;
II lite vv.o ahoiit Itt mcI oiil upon the lliiiil a-i in llic Inil'lalo < iiiiiitiy, the
ItMili I't, who ri'pic'tcnti-il tin* pcoplr, p^atlnird lo(Mlh«T in a itolcinti
icii'inonv. Thi-y sal rioiK hrti alionl a iriilial lite, i-a< h wiappol iti
lln- •tlxiii ol a Inil'lalo, tht-ir atlilinlc and llicii inannri ol iiailaUiii^; the
looil loi tin- ftt ration wt-ic its iiiiitalioii ol tlii'i animal, i'licy Im-i aiiic
,n Inillalo pnltinp, Iht-iiiMclvivt in the lint- ol tiaii'iinin'tion, mo Io spcaU,
app<-alin^|; to the i^cm-iu or lypit al Inillalo Ih.it the lilr l1owiii|' lioin
Ihi-t pailirnlar pio|i'(iioii ol' llu* t icalivt- povyci into llir 'iitccirir lni(

lalo nii^hl lt(< tian-nnitlril to Ihnn, that when they kilU-tl and ate of
thr « icatinc tlics' nii|',hl he inilnird with its Mlmip.th.

This I'l all vt'iy simple to thr Indian; nothing; in my.lt'rioiifi wIkmc
.ill IH myntcry. l(,;iioiant of the pioirnscs ol nature, iveiylhiiiK is
-.imply alive to him and all lile is the same liie, « oiilitinally passinp,
over lioiii one form to another, lie t.iKes the lile ol thetoni when
III* e.il-t it .ind its lil«< passes into and reinhni es his own eiiiially with

HttniiKtIi for

ihelileol lh<> animal whit h i;oeM out iindei his hand. .So lie hniitrd
li'.hed ,ind pl.inte*l, having', liisl appealed to the prototyiie lor pliys-
K .d stient;tn throiip,!! a ceremony which always inelinhMi the partak-
m|', <d lood.

lint the Indi.iii reco^^ni/ed other needs than those of the txxly,
lii'« spirit dem.inded stieni;th«'iiin|', and, to s.ilisly its needs. In: rcvt-rsed
his manner «>l .ipoeal, Instead of ^^atliei iii^; toeelher with his fellows,
III* went ap.irt .mil remained in solitude upon tin; mountain or in the
u-eesses ol the lorest ; instead of eating; in i onipanioiiship, he lasted UuiiHprrTt,
.mil niortilied his hoily, sought to i^pime it, denied its i raviin;s, that
some spirit prototype; ini);ht approai h him and rtMiilon i; his spirit
witli lili' dr.uvn Iroin the t;real imn.-mialtle power. Whatever was
the piototN'pe which appeared to him, whether ol Itird or heast, or of
one of th(< elements, it Ineathed upon him and left a soii^' with hint
which should hecome the viewless messen},MT speeding,' from the lu'.irt
.md lips of the man, to the prototype of his vision, to hriiif; him help
in the hour of his need.

When the man had received his vision, before it could avail hi

he had to procure something,' from the creature whose type he had
seen, a tuft of hair, or a feather, or he had to fashion its semhiuncc or
emiitem. This ho carried ever alter near him as a token of remein-
hrance, hut he did not worship it. I lis aspiration does not api)cur to
have rested iinon the prototype, although his imat^ination seems to
have carried him lU) farther, hut in some v.iffue way each man had thu.s
his mode of individual approach to the unnamahle source of life.

The helief that cverythinjj was alive and active to helj) or hindc
man not oidy leil to numherless ohscrvances in order to placate and
win favor, but it also prevented the development of individual respon-

is.

[

.l(^

•

544

THE WORLD'S COM

Personal Im
mortality.

■; !i

sibility. Success or failure was not caused solely by a man's own
actions or shortcomings, but because he was helped or hindered by
some one of these occult powers. Self torture was an appeal to the
more potent of these forces and was a propitiation, rather than a sac-
rifice, arising from a consciousness of evil in himself, for the Ind an
seldom thought of himself as being in the wrong, his peculiar belief
concerning his position in nature having engendered in him a species
of self righteousness. Time forbids any illustration of this intricate
belief, the numerous ramifications of which underlie every public and
private act of the race.

Personal immortality was universally recognized. The next world
resembled this with the element of suffering eliminated. There was
no place of future punishment; all alike started at death upon the
journey to the other world, but the quarrelsome and unjust never
reached it, they endlessly wandered.

Religious ceremonials had both open and esoteric forms and
teachings. They were comprised in the observances of secret socie-
ties and the elaborate dramatization of myths, with its masks, cos-
tumes, rituals of song, rhythmic movements of the body and the
preparation and use of symbols.

As the ceremonials of the Indians from Alaska to Mexico rise
before me, it is difficult to dismiss them without a word, for they are
impressive and instructive, and although their grotesque features, and
in some instances their horrible realism overlies and seems to crush
out the purpose of the portrayal, yet they all contain evidences of the
mind struggling to find an answer to the ever pressing question of
man's origin and destiny.

The ethics of the race were simple.

With the Indian, truth was literal rather than comprehensive.
This conception led to great punctiliousness in the observance of all
forms and ceremonies, although it did not prevent the use of artifice in
war or in the struggle for power, but nothing excused a man who broke
his word.

Justice was also literal and inexorable. Retributive justice was in
exact proportion to the offense. There was no extenuation, there was
no free forgiveness. A penalty must be enacted for every misdeed.
Justice, therefore, often failed of its end not having in it the element of
mercy.

To be valorous, to meet hardships and suffering uncomplainingly,
to flinch from no pain or danger when action was demanded, was the
ideal set before every Indian. A Ponca Indian who paused an instant
in battle to dip up a handful of water to slake his burning thirst
brought upon himself such ignominy that he sought death to hide his
shame.

Hospitality was a marked virtue in the face. The lodge was never
closed, or the last morsel of food ever refused to the needy. The
richest man was not he who possessed the most, but he who had given
away the most. This deeply rooted principle of giving is a great obsta-

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

545

cle in the way of civilizing the Indians, as civilization depends so largely
upon the accumulation of property.

In every home the importance of peace was taught and the quar-
relsome person pointed out as one not to be trusted, since success
would never attend his undertakings, whom neither the visible nor
invisible powers would befriend.

This virtue of peace was inculcated in more than one religious ritual,
and it was the special theme and sole object of a peculiar ceremony
which once widely obtained over the valley of the Mississippi — the
Calumet or Sacred Pipe ceremony. The symbols used point back to
myths which form the groundwork of other ceremonies hoary with age.
In the presence of these symbolic pipes there could be no strife. Mar-
quette, in 1672, wrote: "The calumet is the most mysterious thing in
the world. The scepters of our kings are not so much respected, for
the Indians have such a reverence for it that we may call it the God
of Peace and War, and the arbiter of life and death. * * # One
with this calumet may venture among his enemies, and in the hottest
battles they lay down their arms before this Sacred Pipe."

The ceremony of these pipes could only take place between men
of different gentes or of different tribes. Through it they were made
as one family, the affection, the harmony, and the good will of the
family being extended far beyond the ties of blood. Under this be-
nign influence of the pipes strangers were made brothers and enemies
became friends. In the beautiful symbolism and ritual of these fel-
lowship pipes the initiated were told in the presence of a little child,
who typified teachableness, that happiness came to him who lived in
peace and walked in the straight path, which was symbolized on the
pipes as glowing with sunlight. In these teachings, which transcended
all others, we discern the dawn of the nobler and gentler virtues of
morcj/' and its kindred graces.

We are recognizing today that God's family is a large one and
that human sympathy is strong. Upon this platform have been gath-
ered men from every race of the eastern world, but the race that for
centuries was the sole possessor of this western continent has not
been represented. No American Indian has told us how his people
have sought after God through the dim ages of the past. He is not
here, but cannot his sacred symbol serve its ancient office once more
and bring him and us together in the bonds of peace and brotherhood?

Virtae
Peace.

:hll:!3!

If 'ii

i. 'I

'i -

I ^ ^ I

<.
1

Diooystos Latas, Archbishop of Zante, Greece.

T^he Orthodox Qreek Qhurch.

Paper by THE MOST REV. DIONYSIOS LATAS, Archbishop of Zante,

Greece.

EV1CR1*',N1) ministers of the eminent name of
Gotl, the creator of the world and of man:
Ancient Greece prepared the way for Chris-
tianity and rendered smootii the path for
the chffusion and propagation of it in the
world Cireece undertook to tlcvclop Chris-
tianity and fcM'med andsystemized a Christian
church; that is the church of the east, the
original Christian church, which for this rea-
son historically antl justly may be called the
mother of the Christian churches, [Ap-
plause.] The oritjinal establishment of the
Greek church is directly referred to the
presence of Jesus Christ and His apostles.
The comintj of the Messiah, from which the God
was toorit,Mnate in this world, was at a fixed point of
time, as the Apostle Paul saitl it was to be. The fullness of this point
of time ancient Greece was predestined to point out and determine.
Greece had so developed letters, arts, sciences, philosophy 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 bar-
barian." Ikit 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 philosophers, began to
decline and fall. The Macedonian and Roman armies gave a definite
blow to the political independence and national liberty of Greece, but
at the same time opened up to Greece a new career of sjnritual life and
brought it into immediate contact and intercommunication with
other nations and peoples of the earth.

Tracing the effect of Grecian philosophy of the Neo-Platonic as^i'^Fratem^
school upon the faith which came from the east, the archbishop con- Agency,
tinued;

When the Roman empire began to fall Christianity had to under-

547

ill

rfi

548

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

■ f|

I r

Two
Heard.

Voices

i !i<

n I

Firet Chris-
tiaiiChurcli.

take the j^rcat struj^^lc of acquirinfj a superiority over all other rc-
lij^ions that it inij^ht demolish the partition walls which separated race
from race, nation from nation. [Great applause. ] It is the work of
Christianity to brinjf all men into one spiritual family, into the love of
one another, and into the belief of one supreme God. [Applause.]
Mary, the most blessed of all human kind, appears and brings forth
the e.xpected divine nature revealed to Plato. She brings forth the
fulfillment of the ideals of the Goils of the different peoples and
nations of the ancient world. She brinjrs forth at last that one whose
name, whose shadow came down itito the world .md overshadowed the
souls, the minds, the hearts of all men, and removed the mystery from
every philosophy and philosophic system.

In this permanent idea and the tendencies of the different peoples
in such a time and relij^ion, I may say two voices are heard. One,
though it is from Palestine, re-echoed into Egypt, and especially to
Alexandria and through parts of Greece and Rome. Another voice
from Egypt re-echoed through Palestine, and through it over all the
other countries and peoples of the east. .And the voices from Pales-
tine, having Jerusalem as their focus and center, re-echoed the voice
back again to the Grecians and the Romans. And there it was that
His doctrine fell amidst the Greek nations, the Grecian element of
character, Greek letters and the sound reasoning of different systems
of Greek philosophy. [Great applause.]

Surely in the regeneration of the different peop' s there had been
a divine revelation in the formation of all human ki.il into one spirit-
ual family through the goodness of God, in one family equal, without
any distinctions between the mean and the great, without distinction
of climate or race, without distinction of national destiny or inspiration,
of name or nobility, of family ties. And all the beauties which ever
clustered around the ladder of Jacob, or were given to it by the men
of Judea, was given by the prophets to the Virgin Mary in the cave of
Bethlehem. Hut Greece gave Christianity the letters, gave the art,
gave, as I may say, the enlightenment with which the Gospel of Chris-
tianity was invested, and presented itself then, and now presents itself
before all nations.

After referring to his scholarly historical disquisition the arch-
bishop continued:

It suffices me to say that no one of you, I believe, in the presence
of these historical documents will deny that the original Christian,
the first Christian church was the church of the east, and that is the
Greek church. Surely the first Christian churches in Asia Minor,
Egypt and Assyria were instituted by the apostles of Christ and for
the most part in Greek communities. AH those are the foundation
stones on which the present Greek church is based. [Great applause.]
The apostles themselves preached and wrote in the Greek letters and
all the teachers and writers of the Gospel in the east, the contempora-
ries and the successors of the apostles were teaching, preaching and
writing in the Greek language. Especially the two great schools, that

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

549

athor re-
atecl race
l; work of
ic love of
pplause.]
injjs forth
forth the
)plcs and
)ne whose
U)we(l the
itery from

tit peoples
ird. One,
)ecially to
•ther voice
ver all the
rom Tales-
the voice
it was that
clement of
;nt systems

re had been
one spirit-
al, without
distinction
inspiration,
which ever
y the men
he cave of
ve the art,
I of Chris-
ents itself

of Alexandria and that of Antioch, undertook the development of
Christianity and form and systematize a Christian church. The great
teachers and writers of these two schools, whose names arc very well
known, labored courageously to defend and determine forever the
Christian doctrine and to constitute under divine rules and forms a
Christian church.

At last, the (ireek Christian, therefore, may be called historically
and justly the treasurer of the first Christian doctrine, fundamental
evangelical truths. It may be called the art which bears the spiritual
manna and feeds all those who look to it in order to obi. in from it the
richness of the ideas and the unmistakable reasoning of every Chris-
tian doctrine, of every evangelical truth, of every ecclesiastical senti-
ment.

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 wc 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
essence, and say with me, with all your minds and hearts, i prayer to
Almighty God.

Most High, omnipotent King, look down upon human kind; en-
lighten us that wc may know Thy will. Thy ways. Thy holy truths. Hless
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 Colombian
year to see with them an evidence of their progress in the wonderful
achievements of the human mind and the human soul.

A Cominon
Creator.

Arrhbiehop's
Prayer.

the arch-

ie presence
Christian,
I that is the
iia Minor,
tst and for
foundation
[applause. 1
letters and
[ntempora-
Iching and
lools, that

» 1

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fir

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III

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li-i

Idol Deesse Thoueris in Ghiza.

V^oman and the Pulpit.

Paper by REV. ANTOINETTE BROWN BLACKWELL.

EKLINGS wliich come uiibicUlcn from the
infliionct' of our surrouiuliiiffs tend to produce
in us the williiiff acccptiuice of anything to
which we are accustomed. We live so much
more vividly in the present than in the past
or future tliat anything here and now seems
to have more chiim upon us than hifjjher ideals
wliicli wait to l)e realized. Chilly rain falling
steadily for a ila\' or two makes it difificult to
shake off the feeling; that the same weather
will continue without limit. I'l.\perience tells
us that warmth and sunshine will be here
directly, hut it is not easy to recall the sensa-
tion produced by cheerful bright days. If
this is true of events to which we are accus-
tomed, how much more then of the less
familiar, larj^er facts of history. The present be-
■'' comes the instructive measure of the future.

This tendency is much more influential than may be supposed in
the settlement of many of the {^reat problems of life, and it forms the
only justification for the opposition still felt by very excellent persons
to the presence and the wise helpful teaching of capal)le women in the
Christian pulpit. .Serious arguments aj^ainst feminine i)reaching were
answered lonfj ago. It is no longer believed that women are pre-
eminently deficient in mind or character. Many of the older matrons
and unmarried w(Jinen and some even of the young mothers have
already demonstrated their capacity for doing large amounts of benev-
olent outside work without detriment either to the home, to society, or
to their own highest womanly natures. Wherever any of the fairly
acceptable women Mcachers are heard and known long enough to
make their speaking a:Hl their good work familar and appreciated, there
it is already accepted that the se.x of the worker is not a bar to good
work. The easy adaptability to new duties is admitted without ques-
tion. It makes its own place successfully in the varied social domain
just as every tree is said to do, let it be planted almost anywhere,
adding its own new charm to the landscape.

Some one tells a pleasant story of the little boy and girl of a

551

Womon Kffi.
cient in Mind
Huil C'haractor.

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T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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clergywoman who, like many other children, were discussing together
what they were going to do when they grew up.

" I'm going to be a minister like mamma," said the little girl.
"VVhat'llyoube?"

The boy reflected a while dubiously, but the calling nearest at
hand won the day. " I'm doin' to be a minister, too," he said.

Then the sister put on her small thinking cap, but after a few
minutes she replied, seriously, "Well, I suppose mans do preach some-
times."

But the world is so miscellaneously broad that some of the best
men never heard a woman jireacher. They never tried to apply the
hifrher criticism to some of St. Paul's much quoted sayings about
) nen. They verily believe that to hinder " female preaching and
oidination " to the utmost stretch of their ability is doing God's ;.erv-
ice. They tighten, reclasp and rivet afresh with more glittering steel,
loosening ecclesiastical bonds which belonged to less enlightened
ages; for they sincerely think that the world-wide woman movement is
only a perverse, detestable offshoot of pernicious infidel tendencies.

A greater intellectual blunder than this timid, illogical assumption
has seldom been made. Religious creeds have been shaken to their
foundations. Hut women far more than men stood firmly on the
foundation. It is they who were serenely confident that true religion,
if tried in mental and moral furnaces heated seven times, will yet come
out purified, refined, triumphant. It is they who latterly gave boMi
service and money so lavishly for home and foreign benevolences tli'it
the church is both astonished and bewildered, though it opens the
mouths of its sacks to receive the supplies and it establishes unusual
church offices, as that of deaconess, and evangelist, to afford safe out
lets for quickened womanly zeal.

Women are taking an active, increasing share in the education, the
thought and the investigations of the age and are passing into almost
Every Field every field of work certainly to no obvious disadvantage to any worthy
interest. Ihis great parliament or religions is, ui evidence, tiiat narrow
conservatism is rapidly decreasing and that our conception of the re-
ligious pulpit must widen until it, can take in all faiths, all tongues
which strive to enforce the living spirit of love of God and man. But,
on the principle that one outside sheep astray in pastures already
cropped to exhaustion is more to be sought after than ninety-nine in
the fold, this paper, designed to be both a brief history and discussion
of facts, will indirectly remember the unconvinced multitude. As the
remoter distances on the painter's canvas are important aids to the
bringing out of his j)rincipal figures, so the pa.st is an essential back-
ground for the present.

Recently historians from critical comparative study have decided
that in the progress of all peoples toward enlightenment there was a
time when women represented the hardship of the family and the tribe
or clan more e.xclu.iively than men have represented such hardship.s
under later civilizations. That this so-called Matriarchatc was a higher

of Work.

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THE WORLD'S CONGHESS OF RELIGIONS,

553

state of civilization than the present, no one can well bel'eve; yet that
it had less tendency in any way, good or bad, to limit thf; freedom of
women is incontrovertible. Progress has never moved along all lines
simultaneously; an advance is sometimes so blunderingly achieved
that a step forward necessitates a dozen steps backward to interests
that have been so njcrllessly interwoven that they are all pushed
violently into the rea •.

If Christianity liad fully decided the modern status of society,
there would have been neither male nor female in church, or state, or
education, or piuperty, or influence, or work, or honor. Choic and
capacity would have established all questions of usefulness Is God,
who is no respecter of persons, a respecter of sex? Paul's exposition
of practical Christianity is: "In honor preferring one another." As
the heaven'^ :;rc high above the earth, so is '^!\at principle above those
who have largelj- controlled the rel.'.tions oi' aicn and women. Com-
pare the bright Ithuriel pointing his sword, "having touch of celestial
temper," with the other one: "squat like a toad close at the ear of
Eve" and not very far from Adam.

Under barbarism, when no child could inherit except from the
mother, personal property and power were as yet but partially s(;pa-
rate from the community interests. The tribe or clan was a social
unit for offense, defense and ownership. Their gods were tutelary,
household and tribal gods. Like other property safest around the
hearthstones, they or their symbols were given into the safe keeping
of women. Religion and government were not separate. The mothers
controlled the children, took part in the sagest councils of religion,
policy or war, or became interpreters, seers or priests as spontaneously
as women today, having more leisure time than men, are most active
in affairs of society for their class and n benevolences for the less
favored. In that condition of morals women could only safely be-
queath wealth as chieftainship to sons of their own lineage. That
social order was an accepted fact and, miserable as it was, it kept its
women and its men side by side, equals in the onward march toward
a better future.

When property and power were gained by some of the stronger
males, naturally they desired to bequeath these to their own children.
From that time female chastity began to be enforced as the leading
virtue for the legal wives and daughters. In classic lands we know
that it was the wives only who were held to this most imperative of all
helps to high social order and equity. Courtesans, male and female,
were still respectable. Priestesses still held the high, often the highest
rank, still interpreted the oracles, lived in the temples, and their social
vices were not only sanctioned but enjoined by their religion. The
legal adoption of heirs to share with or supersede children born in
wedlock was an accepted custom. Unnatural vices also were made
honorable.

The ruder frank savagery of the Matriarchate was considerate of
women, because it had not found any way how even to attempt to be

la God a Re-
specter of Sex?

554

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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I successful otherwise. The infamous schemes which have baffled every

* subsequent civilization, which have destroyed many and which must

I destroy all if not repudiated, the futile schemes for securing virtuous

I wives and le<^itimate children without entirely discontinuing a wide

,'.x license for husbands, fathers and sons, had not arisen for these simpler

: heathen folk.

! ') Too much is at stake here to allow anything but plain speaking.

,! God forbid that I should charge all good men and women with will-

ij! Plain Speak- ingly upholding this basest of all injustice. We inherit our early en-

ij '"*• vironmcnts. Custom blinds us to the ethics which we accept while

\y life is roseate; but the men and women of this parliament can afford to

'I look all facts in the face. The later enforced civil inferiority of women,

\ I their legal pauperism from the day when they become wives, the

church's solemn requirement of wifely obedience, the husband's cus-
tody of the wife, the entire education for debilitating seclusive timid-
ity and depenilence, all sprang from the same baneful root. It has
demorali/ed even our idea of a strong, beautiful womanhood. And
woman's long exclusion from the ]Hilpit, from the most consecrated
place which Christianit}' has kept for its supposed best and noblest, is
the outgrowth of the same basal inicjuity.

Is this a hard saying? \o living historian who takes as his search-
light modern methods of studj'ing sacred, secular, domestic and civil
society in mutual tlependence can cjuestion this conclusion. No other
explanation is atlecjuate to the various facts. The East adoptetl close
veiling ami almost literal iniprisonment of high class and favorite
women. Why, if not to enforce wifcl)' chastit\-? l^ven the small feet
of the best classes of Chinese women have an ecpially probable origin.
Helplessness was security. The lower class could be left in greater
freedom. Hut mental fetters are more jxjtent than ph\ sical bonds.
Two antipcjilal religions, Mohammedanism and the Latter Day .Saints,
bound the consciences, befogged the intellects and crucified the
souls of women to give religious sanction to pohgamy for men. One
high moral standard was not ailopted. There were but two alterna-
tives — either plural wives whose supposed welfare in time and eternit}'
was hung upon uhe skirts of exalted husbands, or Christendom's half-
disguised, cruel separation of feminine humanity into two divisions,
the sheltered monogamous wives and those unwedded others. Of the
two ])lans, which is the most unchristian, let the casuists decide.

The highest code of morals is not elastic, but both men and
women must look aloft before they can cordially ap|)reciate its teach-
ings. To be hedged about 1)}' conventions is not to learn a self-reliant
Aptitu(U'"?'or rectituiK'. Was there e\er a reason why ca])a!)le, good women should

KfiliKi<)UH Dg" not h;i\c continued to be exuounilers of the higliesl truth to which
vol. on. , . , , .,,, ' , , ■( \ ■ \ A-

their era could attain .-' 1 lie\- iia\e alwa\s nianilested a special apti-
tude for religious devotion. About twice as many women as men
are members of ciuirches in all sects, whose ministers are received
by vote, and they are more persistent in their attendance on relig-
ious services ever\'where. This has always been largely true. Has

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

555

it ever been wise to fetter conscience or to nourish a weak self-
consciousness in the illumined presence of a great hope which
points on to an endless triumphant future?

Must female modesty be taught to shrink from the public eye as
ashamed of the womanhood God has bequeathed it in His wisdom?
Dare one allow a poor, shrinking timidity to be pitted against sweet,
retiring solemn consolations and inspirations which comfort and
strengthen needy humanity? Can wc think of Jesus as possibly hin-
dered by modesty from proclaiming to sin-laden multitudes, " Blessed
are the pure in heart, blessed are the peacemakers?" Can we say the
one who counted not His own life here in the service of others, indorsed
a self-consciousness so monstrous as to absorb and stifle the Divine
proclamation of good will to men? His twelve disciples were not
women; but He went about doing good and had not where to lay His
head. Women could hardly share His full pilgrimages, liut who were
His personal friends? Did He not say, " Mar)' has chosen that good
l)art which shall not be taken away from her?" It was not Jesus who
established the apostolic succession.

If only superficial feminine ])n)priety build up the walls between
women and the most consecrated work, such walls will tumble down
without even the blowing of a horn. The real proprieties will be pre-
served. There is no impropriety in jjroclaiming truth from the highest ThoKeai Pro-
house-top. The most consecrated ])ul])it is less sacred than the living priftinH win be
principle. If reverent lips proclaim holiness and truth, the gaze of the ™'*"'-'
thousanils who listen can brush no down from the cheek of maidenhood
or wifehood. Our ancestors took their lives in their hands when they
came to colonize this countrj". Their daughters took the approval of
their own consciences and the betterment of the lives of others into
their hearts when they stepped unheralded upon the open platform
and into the Christian pulpit. Their perils were not largely physical,
but there was a good deal of sore stepping upon the pricks of public
opinion and some walking among the heated plowshares of intemper-
ate disapproval. All that has melted away like black clouds in the
morning sunrise, and the cheerful colors alone remain. The fitness
of the primary educators of the race to be moral and religious teachers
has easily demonstrated itself. It was as ine\ itable.

In 1S53 an orthodox Congregational church called a council and
ordained three women pastors, who had been already settled among
them for si.\ or eight months. Then followed a long waiting of ten
years. In 1S63 two women were ordained by the Universalist church,
Kev. Olympia Hrown, one of the speakers on this platform, and Dr.
Augusta J. Chapiii, the first woman tt) be honored in this year of grace
as 1). D., who is also chairman of the woman's branch of this parlia-
ment. In that second decatle, so far as yet ascertained, three other
women received ordination, only five in all. In the third decade
thirty or forty v.ere ordained, and in the fourth decade about two
hundred have received ordination from many denominations — Congrc-

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77)^£" WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

gationalists, Univcrsalists, Christian, Unitarian, Protestant, Methodists,
Free Baptists and many other sects.

Numbers of our most earnest religious speakers have not chosen
to seek ordination. IVIost of these women are, or have been, stated
preachers or pastors of churches, and are believed to have proved
themselves to be successful above the averatje in promoting the relig-
ious welfare of the church and community. This memorable and com-
momoratixc season's succession of congresses in this place, dedicated
fust to progress then to art, is an excellent gauge of today's opinion,
iv.c'.i this temple has not felt itself to be profaned by the platform
presence of women, and it is believed that the humlred of feminine
\oices which ha\e been heard will leave no discordant echo behind.
This annealing world's i)arliament of religions welcomes half a score
of women to share in the presentation of comparati\e religions.

'Y\\v sympathetic recognition of the magnetic intluence of the se.\
as teachers is recognized, the need of representation for the i)r()tection
of material interests is conceded, liut who anticipates that the entrance
of another t\-pe of luiinanit\- acti\el\- into the workl's thought, with its

till- s?""' i"s modified insights and inspiration must widen the spiritual horizon.

TenchtTN. Women are needed in the pulpit as imperatively and for the same reason

that they are m-etled in tiie world, because the\' are women. Women
have become— or when the ingrained habit of vuiconscious imitation
has been sui)erseded, they will become — indispensable to the religious
evolution of the human race. Mvery religion for the jjcople must be
religion sought after ami interpreted by the pi-ople. .So only can it
become adeipiate mentally and spirituall}' to the universal needs and
to the intelligent acceptance <if a whole humanity. luery teacher,
having taken into his o\\ n heart a central principle, around which
clusters a kindn-d grou]) of ideas, all baptized in the light of his be-
lie\ing soul, brings to us \i\i(lly the fullness of his personal convictions.
His words are in light with his thought, are warm with his feeling,
are alive with his life. To me, the puljjit of the future will be a con-
secrated platform upon which ma\- stand exerj- such soul and freely
proclaim those best antl highest con\ictions which must convince,
strengthen, comfort and ele\ate his own mental and spiritual bemg.

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Xhe Divine ^slsIs of the C^'OP^r^tion
of M^^ ^^^ \Yo"^^^-

Paper by MRS. LYDIA H. DICKINSON.

HAT is the divine basis of the co-oper-
ation of men and women? In at-
tempt injj briefly to answer this ques-
tion we must consider first the nature
of the original ijond between man and
woman. And here secular history
p^ivcs us no help. We find them sep-
arated when history bejjins. The
woman is subject to the man, and cus-
tom, hiw and tiie parties themselves
are accjuiescent in the subjection-
woman cjuitc equally with man Yet,
on the other hand, history bears ample
witness to an intuition at variance
with all these, an intuition that has
recognized in woman a commanding
factor in the world's progress and
given to her thrones of judgment and
dominion. True, these concessions have been

.„ made to the exceptional woman or in the interest

w^.Hd'8 Pro- ,,f hereditary kingship — have been niade to the Helens, the Deborahs,
tlie Catherines and I'.li/.abeths. Hut tiie concession proves the intui-
tion, the more as the women themselves have accepteil the positions
and filled them crcditabU For the rest, there has ne\ er been a peo-
ple exccj'C. perhaps, admitted barbarians, among whom, before mar-
ria^, the woman has not only been equal but superior in love. I'ni
versal man in all the historic past has been her subject here.

Again, the law in holding women the same as men amenable to
punishment as offenders takes a position also at variance with the idea
of subjection. It recognizes the individuality of woman, her personal
responsibility, and so far contradicts itself whenever it denies, not her
right, but her duty to act as an individual in all her relations with him

558

Woman a
Factor in tho

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

nr)*)

and society. In truth, the position of woman in the past has been so
paradoxical that to a superficial judgment the development in her of a
consistent self-consciousness would seem almost miraculous. She has
been at once citizen and alien, subject and queen. She has by-
common consent been responsible for all the evil and the inspiration
to all the good that men do Sentimentally man's superior, practically
his inferior, she has been anything rather than what she alone is — his
equal. The name woman has been the synonym for all that is contra-
dictory in human character and experience.

Hut let us inquire into the original bond between man and woman
— the bond that determines their relations to each other. To those
who accept it, sacred history satisfactorily answers the question. I''rom
this source we learn that lie who made them in the beginning made
them male and female; that the creative bond between them is the
bond of marriage admitting of no divorce, because they are no longer OriKinai
two, but one, being joined together by God Himself — that is, ere- ^°°** ^}^y^^
atively. In a relation of essential oneness, such as is contemplated man.
here, there can of course be no subjection of one to the other, no
separation between them. They are complementary of each other.
They are each iOr the other quite equally. It is clear, however, that
this prospective relation of essential oneness between the individual
man and woman presupposes two things first, a basic marriage in the
universal, a marriage of man as man with woman as woman, a mar-
riage in other words of the essentially masculine with the essentially
feminine, such a marriage or oneness of interest anil work in all their
relations with one another as would lay the i)roper foundation for a
marriage or oneness of interest and work in their more important,
because commanding relation with each other commanding because
individual marriage though last in front is first in entl. It gives the
law. As is this relation iileally or actuall)-, such is society, mutually
peace-giving and helpful, or the reverse. This prospectixe relation of
essential oneness between the individual man and wou;an, presupposes
a marriage in each individual, an at-oue-ment with one's self that
would make at-one-ment with one other possible. Christ's words un-
questiv)nably refer to a time when, by inqjlication, harmony prevailed
on all the planes of our individual and associated life. "In the begin-
ning," He said, "it was not so." Divorce was impossible, because they
are made " male and female," the perfect complements of each other.

It may be said that harmon\- on all the planes of our being would
preclude the itlea of government as we know it, the need of contend-
ing parties and of the ballot to ilecide which one shall rule. This, in
a sense, is true. Our iilea of goxernment, under these conditions,
would change undoubtedly. As wi- know it, government means not
the love of service, but the love of <.K)minion; and this, if my premise
is correct, came about first tiirough defection in the individual from a
state of at-one-ment in himself, and then as a consequence by the
departure of the individual man and woman from the idea of mutual
service in their relations with each other.

ir^rm

560

7'ffE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Departure
from the Tme
Idea.

The proof that the premise is correct will, I think, appear when
we conclude what society of necessity would be were the idea of serv-
ice the only ruling idea in the marriage relation of today. Of course,
our individual and social experiences keep pace with each other. We
realize simultaneously on both planes. And the social acts upon as
well as reacts toward the individual. But the individual gives the
law. According to sacred history, then, marriage, a relation of per-
fect oneness or equality, a complementary relation, precluding the
idea ot separation or subjection, is the original bond between individual
men and women, because it is the bond between masculine and femi-
nine principles in the individual mind. But marriage, as we have seen,
means harmony, and we have discord in ourselves and in our relations
with each other. How, then, came the departure from the true idea?
The separation, we are told, dates from Eden and the sin of Eve, and
one of the consequences of the sin is recorded, not, however, as the
vindicating judgment of the Almighty, but as the fact merely in the
so-called curse upon the woman for listening to the voice of the ser-
pent. "He — thy husband — shall rulf^ over thee."

Let us for a moment consider this fact in its relation to the indi-
vidual mind. For all truth is true for us primarily as individuals.
What we are to others depends upon what we are to ourselves. We
have, then, in this declaration, a case not of marriage, but of divorce.
The mind is at variance with itself. One part rules, the other must
obey. For the mind, like man and woman, is dual, and is one only in
marriage. It is a discordant, too, when we love what the truth forbids,
and a harmonious, complementary one when we love what the truth
enjoins. By common perception, love is the feminine and truth the
masculine principle. Love, when it is the love of self, leads us astray.
It led us astray as a race. It blinded us to the real good. Truth
brings us back to our moorings. But it can only do so by its tem-

Corary supremacy^ over love. This is all we know. Our desires must
e subject to our knowledge. History repeats the story of our indi-
vidual experience in larger character in the relation between man and
woman. Each is an individual, that is, each is both masculine and
feminine in himself and herself, but in their relations to each other
man stands for and expresses truth in his form and activities, while
woman stands for and expresses love. Here, also, as in the individual,
the original bond is marriage, implying no subjection on the part of
either wife or husband, implying on the contrary perfect oneness,
mutual and equal helpfulness. But except in the symbolic story of
Edenic peace and happiness, none the less true, however, because
merely symbolic, we have no historic record of that infantile experi-
ence of the race.

Love, when it is good, unites the truth in herself. But when it is
the love of evil or self, she divorces truth and unites herself with the
false. This briefly is the meaning of the separation between man and
woman in the past; namely, first, the degradation of love into self-love,
and the consequent separation between love and truth in the individual

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

561

mind, a separation that, blinding us to the highest good, makes it no
longer safe for us to follow our desires; second, the separation between
man and woman in the marriage relation, and as a farther consequence,
between man and man socially.

If what I have already said be true, the prominence which the
question of woman suffrage has assumed in the present may be easily
understood. Woman suffrage more or less intelligently for the uni-
versal intuition of the truth 1 have tried to present, namely, the truth
of the creative oneness of man and woman. Human history, it is true,
•s the record of a seeming divorce between them. But what God hath
joined together man cannot put asunder. Creatively one man and
woman cannot be permanently separated. Indeed, their temporary
separation is providentially in the interest of their higher ultimate
union. We are on our way back to relations between them of which
those of our racial infancy were the sure promise and held the potency.
Truth divinely implanted in the soul is our leader because truth being
essenti-iiiy separative or critical can, when necessary, lead against
desire. We have emerged from infancy and must prove our manhood
by overcoming the obstacles to harmony we have ourselves created.
First nature without us, always responsive to nature within, is in rebel-
lion and must be subdued. Here again, "in the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread" is not a curse but the provision of infinite love for our
development, physically and mentally. Nature no longer responds
spontaneously to the needs of man, but brings forth thorns and thistles
and yields bread only under compulsion of the clay-cold, masculine
intellect, which alone is able to master nature's secrets and nature her-
self. She understands the law of must and submits to the might of
masculine muscle.

Woman has apparently no place in this needful preliminary work
save to sustain the worker. True, in her representative capacity of
love, the highest in both, she is under subjection; yet she sees, not
rationally, of course, in the beginning, but intuitively, the reason why,
acquiesces, and hidden from view still leads while she follows; still
rules in obeying. For love, or its opposite, self-love, is always the very
life of man, as love is the life of God who created him. It is always
the woman within us that gives first birth, and then responding to the
voice ct truth and falsity without leads us on and out of the wilderness
or sen<ls us back to wander another forty years before we enter our
Canaan. Woman, yes, and women are, primarily, even, although
sometimes ignorantly, responsible from first to last. It has not always
seemed so. The past has been so predominately masculine as seem-
ingly to obliterate the feminine by absorption — to make the man and
the woman one, and that one the man. Yet only in seeming. In
reality woman has been the inspiration of all that has been done, both
good and evil. Tennyson does not see clearly when he says: "As the
husband, so the wife is." It is always the other way. It is always the
clown within and not without herself that drags a woman down and
the man with her.

Ru leB
Obeying.

i !

562

THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

The
SVithiD.

Voice

But let us take another step. Our way back involves not only
the overcoming of obstacles to harmony of nature without us, the sub-
jugation of nature and the consequent establishment of a scientific con-
sciousness in accord with spiritual truth that harmony for man pre-
supposes his rightful lordship over all below him, it also involves the
overcoming of nature within an at-one-mcnt of man with himself. And
here the work is alike for both, in that both are alike subject to truth.
In addition, however, she has been externally subject to him. And
her temptation has been to identify the voice of truth within herself
with his voice, his idea of truth for her. This, when both are led by
love, is the true idea for both, since then his voice is the voice of truth.
But led by self-love, she, too, must listen to the voice within. And
more. .She must listen for him as well as for herself. Because so
listening she is the very form of embodiment of that love of the truth
which alone can lead them back to harmony in themselves with each
other and with all others. In other words, so listening she is the
revelation of the truth to man.

The legal disfranchisement of woman in the past has been in
accordance with the truth for the past. It has been a strict necessity
of the situation, a necessity for women as well as for men, and with it
in the past we can have no conceivable quarrel. Masculine supremacy,
the supremacy of truth, has been needed to lay the foundation of
Christian character, and a Christian society in the subjection of nature
and self-love. Hut the foundations broadly and deeply laid in natural
and social science, we can at least see that the corresponding super-
structure can be after no petty or personal, partial or class pattern,
but must be divinely perfect; that is, perfect "according to the meas-
ure of a man," of man physical, intellectual and spiritual, of man
individual and social, and finally of man feminine as well as mascu-
line. We can at last see that love is the fulfillment of law.

This truth human law must sometimes embody in order to effect
its universal acceptance. Beliefs crystallized into creeds and statutes
hold the human mind. It is certain that belief in the creative equality
of man and woman will not prevail so long as the statute book pro-
claims the contrary. Neither this nor a practical belief in the creative
equality of man and man. This waits upon that, that upon individual
enlightenment sufficiently focalized to lead the general mind. A rela-
tion of marriage, or, in other words, of mutual co-operation all the
way through in all the work of both, is the creative relation between
man and woman. It follows that as this truth is seen and realized by
individual men and women, society will see the same truth as its own
law of life, to be expressed, ultimated in all human relations and in
the work of the world. This truth alone will lead us back to harmony
in all the planes of our associated life, and the dawning recognition of
this truth explains, as I believe, the growing interest in the modern
question of woman suffrage.

One objection to a further extension of the right of suffrage has
weight. It should have been considered when the negro was admitted

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

563

Woman
tao

tics.

to citizenship. Ignorance is a menace to the state. All women are
not intelligent. Certainly there is no reason in advocating educated
suffrage. But I know of no other discrimination, except, of course,
against criminals and idiots, that can consistently be made against a
citizen under a government that professes to derive its just powers
from the consent of the governed.

Opinions vary as to the actual effect of the introduction of the
woman element into practical politics. It is my own belief, of course,
that the prophets of evil will find themselves greatly at fault in their
specific prognostications. VV^oman suffrage docs not mean to women
the pursuit of j)olitics after the fashion of men. But questions are Practical" Poit
even now before us, and more will arise, that she should help to
decide— questions relating to the saloon, to education, to the little
waifs of society worse than orphaned, to prison reforms, to all that
side of life that most vitally touches woman as the mother of the race.
Women hold, or could hold, intelligent opinions on all such questions;
and the state should have the benefit of them.

Woman suffrage does not mean, as has been charged, a desire on
the part of women to be like men or to assume essentially masculine
duties or prerogatives. God takes care of that. The inmost desire of
the acorn is to become an oak and nothing else. Equally true is it
that the soul of woman irresistibly aspires to the fulfillment of its own
womanly destiny as wife and mother, and, as a rule, to nothing that
definitely postpones such destiny. Most emphatically woman suf-
frage does not mean any persistent blindness on the part of women to
tlu ir high calling as the outward embodiment and representative of
what is highest and best in human nature. Blind she has been and is,
but God is her teacher. He has kept the soul of woman through all
the ages of her actiuiescent subjection to man. He has led her, and,
all unconsciously to IIimself,has led man through her upand out upon
the hightable-landof today; whence both can see the large meaning of
subjection in the past, and the larger realizations that await their
accordant union in the future.

Imperfectly as she now apprehends it, woman .suffrage does, never-
theless, mean for women a consistent, rational sense of personal respon-
sibility, and it means this so pre-eminently that I could almost say
that it means nothing else. Because upon this new and higher sense
of personal responsibility is to be built all the new and higher relations
of woman in the future with herself, with men and with society. This
is a theme in itself. I will only say in passing, that we are ready for
new and higher relations between men and women, that women must
inaugurate these relations, that an intuition of the truth is the secret of
the .so-called woman movement, of the intellectual awakening of
women, of their desii'e for personal and pecuniary freedom, their laud-
able efforts to secure such freedom, the sympathy and co-operation of
the best men in these . Iforts and that the bearing of all these aspects
of the movement upon the future of society gives us the vision of the
poet, true poet and t uc pi ■'phet in one.

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564 THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Then comes the statelier Eden back to men.

Then reign the world's great bridal chaste and calm.

Then springs the crowning race of human kind.

I wish to emphasize the point that, without the consent of woman
her subjection could never have been a fact of history. Nothing is
clearer to my mind than that man and woman (and because of her, let
me insist) have all along been one in their completeness, as they
originally were, and one day again will be one in their completeness.
In any relation between man and wonian, the most perfect as well as
the most imperfect, man stands for the external or masculine principle
of our common human nature. Thus, of course, women always have,
do now, and always will, delight in his external leadership.

Now, however, we are confronting another aspect of the relation
between man and woman. Under a new impulse, derived from woman
herself, man is abdicating his external leadership, his external control
over her. She is becoming self-supporting, self-sustaining, self-reliant.
She is learning to think and to express her thought, to form opinions
and to hold to them. In doing this, she is apparently separating
herself from man as in the past he has separated himself from her.
Really separating herself, some say, but we need not fear. She is
simply doing her )art, making herself ready for the new and higher
relation with man to which both arc divinely summoned. The end to
be attained, a perfect relation between man and man, symbolized by,
but as yet imperfectly realized in, the divine institution of marriage,
involves for its realization equal freedom for both. Not independence
on the part of either. No such thing is possible.

Inequality of natural opportunity operates hardly against women.
It is against this inequality that she is now struggling on the material
and intellectual plane; that they are struggling, let me say, for no
reflecting person can for an instant suppose that the woman movement
does not include men equally with women. They are one, man and
woman, let us continue to repeat, until we have effectually unlearned
the contrary supposition. The woman movement means in the divine
providence "the hard earned release of the feminine in human nature
from bondage to the masculine." It means the leadership henceforth
in human affairs of truth, no longer divorced from but one with love.
It is the last battleground of freedom and slavery. We are in the
dawn of a new and final dispensation. This is why I welcome the
struggle for personal freedom on the part of women including her
struggle for the right of citizenship. It is altogether a new recog-
nition by what is highest in man of the sacredness of the individual,
and it insures the triumph of the new impulse.

The personal freedom of woman when achieved on all planes —
material, mental and spiritual — will not separate her from man. It
will not harm the woman nature in woman. It will, on the contrary,
tend to develop that nature as a fitting complement of the nature of
man. It will give her the same opportunity that he has to exercise all

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

565

he relation

her faculties free from outward constraint. It is distinctive character
that we want in both men and women to base true relations between
them, and freedom is the only soil in which character will grow. We
are still measurably ignorant of the nature of woman in women, of her
real capacities, inrlinations and powers, nor shall we know these until
women are free to express them in accordance with their own ideas,
and not, as hitherto, in accordance with man's ideas of them.

In conclusion, there could, of course, be no legal act disenfranchis-
ing woman since she was never legally enfranchised. But as it is her
divinely conferred privilege to be one with man, the law as it has come
to be understood simply stands for something that could not be, and is
therefore misleading and vicious. It stands not only for the subjection
of woman, which it has had a right to stand for, but it has also come to
mean a real and not apparent separation between man and woman.
We must Dear in mind that this apparent separation is always of the
man from the woman, the masculine from the feminine, truth from love.

Personal
Freedom of
Woman,

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KeynoU to
Onity.

Letter prom L^dy H^^^Y S^^^^^^^t

Read by DR. BARROWS to the Parliament.

EV. DR. JOHN HENRY BARROWS, Chair-
man of the World's Religious Congresses,
Chicago. Honored Friend: You have
doubtless been told with fatiguing reitera-
tion, by your worldwide clientele of corre-
spondents that they considered the religious
congresses immeasurably more significant
than any others to be held in connection
with the Columbian Exposition. You must
allow me, however, to repeat this statement
of opinion, for I have cherished it from the
time when I had a conversation with you in
Chicago and learned the vast scope and
catholicity of the plans whose fulfillment
must be most gratifying to you and your associates,
for, with but few exceptions among the religious lead-
ers of the world, there has been, so far as I have heard and read, the
heartiest sympathy in your effort to bring together representatives of
all those immeasurable groups of men and women who have been
united by the magnetism of some great religious principle, or the more
mechanical efforts that give visible form to some ecclesiastical dogma.
The keynote you have set has already sounded forth its clear and har-
monious strain, and the weary multitudes of the world have heard it
and have said in their hearts: "Behold, how good and how pleasant
it would be if brethren would dwell together in unity!"

I have often thought that the best result of this great and unique
movement for a truly pan-religious congress was realized before its
members met, for in these days the press, with its almost universal hos-
pitality toward new ideas, helps beyond any other agency to establish
an equilibrium of the best thought, affection and purpose of the world,
and is the only practical force adequate to bring this about.

By nature and nurture I am in sympathy with every effort by
which men may be induced to think together along the lines of their
agreement rather than of their antagonism, but we all know that it is
more easy to get them together than to think together. For this

566

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

667

reason the congresses, which are to set forth the practical workings of
various forms of religion, were predestined to succeed, and their influ-
ence must steadily increase as intelligent men and women reflect upon
the record of the results. It is the earnest hope of thoughtful religious
people throughout the world, as all can see who study the press from
a cosmopolitan point of view, that out of the nucleus of influence
afforded by the congress may come an organized movement for
united activity based on the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood
of man.

The only way to unite is never to mention subjects on which we
are irrevocably opposed. Perhaps the chief of these is the historic
Episcopate; but the fact that he believes in this while I do not would
not hinder that good and great prelate. Archbishop Ireland, from
giving his hearty help to me, not as a Protestant woman but as a tem-
perance worker. The same was true in England of that lamented
leader, Cardinal Manning, and is true today of Monsignor Nugent, of
Liverpool, a priest of the people, universally revered and loved. A
consensus of opinion on the practical outline of the golden rule, de-
clared negatively by Confucius and positively by Christ, will bring us
all into one camp, and that is precisely what the enemies of liberty,
worship, purity and peace do not desire to see; but it is this, I am
persuaded, that will be attained by the great conclave soon to assem-
ble in the White City of the West.

The congress of religions is the mightiest oecumenical council the
world has ever seen; Christianity has from it everything to hope; for
as the plains, the tablelands, the foothills, the mountain ranges, all
conduct alike, slowly ascending to the loftiest peak of the Himalayas,
so do all views of God tend toward and culminate in the character the
life and work of Him who said: "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all
men unto Mc."

Believe me, yours in humble service for God and humanity.

Isabel Somerset.

All Into One
Camp.

] he Influence of Religion on \Yomen.

Paper by REV. MRS. ANNIS F. F. EASTMAN, of West Bloomfield, N. Y,

One Kind ot
Beligion.

N Eve, the mother of evil, and Mary, the mother
of God we have the two extremes of religious
thought concerning woman. It is \\orthyof
note that neither of these conceptions was
peculiar to the Hebrew mind. In the sacred
book of the Hindus we have a counterpart of
Eve in the nymph Menaka, of whom the man
complains, in the spirit of Adam: "Alas,
what has become of my wisdom, my prudence,
my firm resolution? Behold, all destroyed at
once by a woman!"

In the .iacred oracles of the Chinese we
find these words: "All was subject to man in
the beginning. The wise husband raised up a
bulwark of walls, but the woman, by an ambitious
desire of knowledge, demolished them. Our
misery did not come from heaven; she lost the human race." In the
religious annals of the Greeks also, we have Pandora, the author of all
human ills. Everywhere in the religious history of mankind you will
find some trace of the divine woman, mother of the incarnate Deity
On the walls of the most ancient temples in Egypt you may see the
goddess mother and her child. The same picture is veiled behind
Chinese altars, consecrated in Druid groves, glorified in Christian
churches, and in all these the underlying thought is the same. Before
entering upon an investigation of the relation of religion to woman, we
must decide what we mean by religion.

If we mean any particular form of faith, body of laws, institu-
tions, organization, whether Hindu, Greek, Hebrew or Christian, then
we are forced to the conclusion that no one of these has given to
woman an equal place with man as the full half of the unit of humanity;
for every organized religion, every religion which has become a human
institution, teaches the headship of man and that involves, in some
measure and degree, the subjection of woman and her consequent

inferiority.

u68

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-F; !

Rev. Annis F. Eastman, West Bloomfield, N. Y.

if I

' ' ii

THE WORUyS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

571

The Vcdas declare that a liusband, however criminal or defective,
is in the place of the supreme to his wife. Plato presents a state of
society wholly disorganized when slaves are disobedient to their mas-
tors, and wives on an eciuality with their husbands. Aristotle charac-
terized women as being of an inferior order, and Socrates asks the
pathetic question: " Is there a human being with whom you talk less Le^cris.*'^^'' "'
than with your wife?" Poor Socrates judged the se.\, we may imagine,
as the modern sage is apt to do, by that specimen with which he was
mo.st familiar. TertuUian, one of the most spiritual of the Christian
fathers, said: "Submit your head to your husband and you will be
sufficiently adorned."

Luther, dear Father Luther, who builded better than he knew,
said: "No gown worse becomes a woman than that she should be
wise." A learned bishop of today said: "Man is the head of the fam-
i!)-; the family is an organic unity, and cannot e.xist without subordi-
nation. Man is the head of the family because he is physically
stronger, and because the family grows out of a warlike state, and to
man was intrusted the duties of defense."

These are the sentiments of leaders of the great systems of relig-
ious doctrine and they reflect the spirit of organized religion from the
l)eginning until now. If, however, by religion we mean that universal
spirit of reverence, fear and worship of a spiritual being or beings, be-
lieved to be greater than man, yet in some respects like man; if we mean
that almost universal conviction of the race, that there is that in man
which transcends time and sense; if we believe that religion is that in
man which looks through the things which are that he may be able to
])erccivc the right and choose it; if, in a word, religion be the possibil-
ity of the fellowship of the spirit of man with the spirit of God, then
its relation to woman, as to man, has been that of inspiring guide to a
fuller light.

With this conception of religion we see that it is a matter of
growth; the religious life of the race is a matter of growth and educa-
tion. In seeking to discern what part religion thus conceived has
played in the advancement of our race, we must go back of religion to
man, because religion was made for man and by man, not man for or
by religion; first that which is natural, afterward that which is spiritual.
When you have scanned the earliest written records of mankind you
have not yet arrived at the root of things. When you find what you
believe are the conceptions of the primitive man concerning God and
the supernatural world you have not arrived at the roots of things.
Vox his gods, his beliefs, as to the mystery by which he is encom-
passed, were born of his effort to explain and account for that which
is in his own condition and circumstance.

The religions of various peoples, we now see, were not superim-
posed upon them by God; they were the outgrowth of the actual life
of the race. They were an attempt on man's part to explain himself
and nature, to answer the question asked him by his own being and
the universe without. Woman's religious position, therefore, in any

1 >.

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iii

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, ;

Antccede nt.

;! !■!

673

y^Z," WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

nation, is only the supernatural or religious sanction put upon her
actual position in that nation. Among primitive peoples she is ahv.iys
a drudge, a chattel, a mere possession, her only actual value being that
of the producer of man.

This state of things, of course, had its antecedent causes, which
we may trace in that seemingly blind struggle for existence which
prevailed among the owners of animals below man, out of which one
type after another emerged because of superior strength or more per-
fect adaptation to environment. Mere we find the foundations of that
physical and mental inferiority of the female which has been the rea.son
of woman's position in human society in all times. A foremost scien-
tist says: "The superiority of male mammals is a remarkable fact. It
is due to causes little creditable to the male character in general. Not
one particle of it is attributable to their noble efforts in protection and
supporting the females and their own offsi)ring. It is the result oi a
sexual selection growing out of the struggle between the males for the
possession of the females." This simple scientific fact might well be
commended to the theologian who argues the natural subjection of
woman through wiiat lie is pleased to call the purposes of nature as
seen in the lower orders of life.

You are familiar with the argument that the male bird sings louder
and sweeter than the female; therefore, a woman cannot be a poet.
In most mammals the male is larger, more beautiful, more sagacious
than the female, and is exempt froni most of the imi)leasaiit labors
connected with the rearing and defense of the young; therefcjre, a
woman cannot stand ])olitics. Vou can easily find instj'.iices, if

you like, in natu story of what we might call nature's favoritism

of the female. \V;.> do you not speak of the ostrich, the male of
which sits on the eggs, hatches out the young and takes j)rincipal care
of them? Why do you not instance that fine, beautiful variety of
spider of which the female invariably devours her consort when he is
of no further use to her? What if that custom should become preva-
lent among women?

The fact is that these things prove nothing. If we have made any
progress, it is away from nature. We are not spiders, nor lions, nor
birds. We arc man, male and female, and we want to be angels, or we
used to when we went to Sunday-school. It is unworthy of us to go
back to the conduct of life among the lower animals to bolster up any
of the remaining abuses oi human society. The point is just here.
W^e cannot trace the degraded and subject position of woman in
ancient times to the religious ideals of her nature and place in the
creation, but the reverse is true in a large measure. We can trace her
religious position to her actual position in primitive society, and this
in its turn back to those beginnings of the human animal which science
is just beginning to discover and which will probably always be mat-
ter of speculation.

We always find the position of woman improving, as warlike activ-
ities are replaced by industrial activities. When war and the chase were

!• t

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

578

the sole questions of human kind, the qualities required in these formed
their chief measure of excellence. The position of woman in ancient
I'-^ypt. '» li<-''' inost brilliant period, was higher than in many a modern
state. Kgypt was an industrial state when we knew it first. Herbert
Spencer says: "There are no people, however refined, among whom
the relative position of the man and woman is more favorable than
with the Laps. It is because the men are not warriors. They have no
soldiers; they fight no battles, either with outside foreigners or be-
tween the various tribes and families. In spite of their wretched huts,
dirty faces, primitive clothing, their ignorance of literature, art and
science, they rank above us in the highest element of true civilization —
the moral element — and all the military nations of the world may stand
uncovered before them."

The same writer points out the fact that woman's position is more
tolerable when circumstances lead to likeness of occupation between
the se.xes. Among the Cheroops, who live upon fish and roots which
the women get as readily as the men, the women h;ive an influence
very rare among Indians. Modern history also teaches us that when
women become valuable in a commercial sense they are treated with
a deference and respect which is as different from the sentimental
adoration of the poet as from the haughty contempt of the philoso-
pher.

Another important influence in the advancement of woman as of
man is the influence of climate. It is a general rule, subject of
course to some exce|)tions, that a tropical climate tends to degrade
woman by relaxing her energy and exposing her purity. The rela-
tively high regard in which woman was held by some of the tribes of
the north of luirope, the strictures of the marriage bond in the case of
the man as well as the woman, may be partially explained by climatic
influences, though among these people, as among all barbarians, woman
was under the absolute authority of husband or guardian, and could
be bought, sold, beaten and killed. Vet she was the companion of his
labors and dangers — his counselor. .She had part of all his wars, en-
couraging men in battle and inspiring even dying soldiers with new
zeal for victory.

livery religion is connected with some commanding personality
and takes from him and his teachings its general trend and spirit, but
in its onward course of blessing and conquest it soon incorporates
other elements from the peoples who embrace it. Thus Buddhism is
not the simple outgrowth of the teachings of Buddha. Organized
Christianity is not the imitation of the life and teachings of Christ
among His followers, Christianity is the teaching of Jesus, plus Juda-
ism, plus the Roman spirit of law and justice and Grecian philosophy,
plus the ideals of medievi! art, plus the nature of the Germanic races,
plus the scientific spirit of the modern age.

It would be interesting to balance the gains and losses of a relig-
ion in their various transitions, but it is aside from our purpose to get
at the true genius of a religion. We must go back to the teaching of

TliP Morai
Eluinent.

Influence
Climate.

574

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

\ 'i

E<l II n I in
Hiiiriiiiiil
ThiuRN.

its founders, and in every instance we find these teachings far in advance
of the averaf,'e life of the pcoj)les among whom they arose.

No one can study the words of Huddha, of Zoroaster, Confucius,
Moliammed and Moses without seeing,' a divine life and sj)irit in them
which is not a reflection from the state of society in which they lived.
C'iiarity is the very soul of Huddhic teachinj'. " Charity, courtesy,
i)encvolence, unselhshne.ss are to the world what the linch-pin is to the
rollini^ chariot."

liuddha declared the equality of the male and female in spiritual
thinf:[s. The laws of Moses exalt woman. The I'Uohistic, o • more
strictly Jewish account of creation, puts male and female on a level.
.So (iod created man in His own image— in the image of (iod created
1 le him— male and female created 1 le them, anil the Lord hlessetl them.
Christ saiti: " Whosoever doth the w ill of (ioil, the same is My brother
and sister and mother." Did He not teach here that spiritual values
are the only real and elementary ones, and that oneness of spirit and
purpose was a stronger tie than that of blood? Is not this also the
teaching when Me says: " Call no man father; one is your father. No
man master; one is your master."

In that declaration which we quoted before, "The .Sabbath was
made for man," is the magna charta of man's freedom and headship,
male and female. The Sabbath was the chief institution of the Jews,
their holy of holies, whose original significance was so overlaid w ith
the priestly laws and prohibitions that it had become a hindrance to
right. It was a machine in which the life was caught and torn and
destroyed. Christ says: " Sabbath was made for man." So all institu-
tions, all creeds, everything, was made, planned and devised for man.
The life is the fruit, and if any institution, any right or form or deed
is found to be hampering and hindering, the growing life or spirit of
man wants to cast it off, even Jis Christ defied the man-made laws of
His people when He healed the man with the withered hand.

In His declaration of the supremacy of love, when He foretold
that He, the supreme lover of the soul, once lifted up should draw all
men unto Himself, He .sounded the death knell of the reign of force in
the earth and destroyed, by cutting its roots, that headship of man
which grows out of the warlike state of human society.

If Christ's speech was silver, His silence was golden. He simply
ignores the distinctions of rank and class and race and se.x among
men, He has nothing to say about manly virtues and womanly virtues
but, "Blessed arc the meek," not meek women; "Blessed are the merci-
ijis Silence ful," "the pure in heart." Paul commends the wife to submission to
the master husband, which was the sentence of the world upon woman
in his day But in that Gospel which gave her Christ, her lot was un-
folded with the germ of that independence and equality of woman
with man, which is beginning to blossom and bear fruit in the latter
half of the nineteenth century,

Christ declared eternal principles. He did not invent them; they
were always true. Men make systems good, serving a valuable pur-

OolUen,

TlfE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

575

losc, but they have their clay and cease to be. If it be ui'fjed that the
)roj;ress of Christianity since Christ's day has often seemed to be
backward .from Mis ideal, in reference to the man and the woman,
there is but one answer, and that is, tha*^ Christianity, as Heproclaimcd
it, soon became mingled with Jewish and Grecian philosophy and
received the impress of the Romans and the different peoples that
embraced it; yet all the time it was slowly molding the race to its own
heavenly pattern, while today the principles of Jesus are findinfj new
presentations and confirmations in the scientific spirit of this genera-
tion. They are not only in full accord with the revelations of science
concerning man's beginning, but when science and religion seek to
point out the lines on which the farther advance of the race must be
found, they say at once: Lcve is the fulfiUii'g of the law.

There are two ways of reading historj'. One way is to get the
facts and draw your conclusions from them. The other is to make
your case first and search the history of mankind for fall^ to support
it. The latter is the more popular way. These two ways pLice them-
selves before me as I endeavor to trace the influence of Christianity on
woman's development, or of religion on woman's de^•elopn1cnt. If I
could only make up my mind that religion had been her greatest boon,
or her greatest curse, then the mattcrof proving cither might be easier.
When 1 begar. t'lc research on this subject my mind was absolutely twoWbhoI
unprejudiced. I studied the history of the religious life of mankind itfiuiinK iuh.
as I woi !d study any subject. I found religion to be one of the factors
in the human problem, like war, or like climate. I found also that it
was impossible to separate the influence of religion upon woman from
its influence upon man. For neither is the man without the woman,
nor the woman without the man. There is no man's cause that is not
woman's, and no woman's cause that is not man's. If religion has
been a beneficent influence to nii'.n, it has been to woman in like man-
ner, though it could not raise hec at once to his level, because it found
her below him.

The fact is that men and women must rise or sink together. It is
true in this matter as in all. The letter killeth; the spirit maketh to
live. The letter of religion as contained in bodies of doctrine, in cere-
monial laws, in all those things pertaining to the religious life which
come with observation, has in all ages been hampering and hindering
man's progress, male and female. But the spirit of religion which
recognizes religion as the spirit of man and binds it to the infinite
spirit, which acknowledges the obligation of man to God and to his
fellows, which brings man finally under spiritual attunement with Him
who is neither man nor woman, the Christ of God -this is at once the
most perfect flower of man's progress. Of the relation of woman to
religion as the interpreter of its profoundest truths, there is no time to
speak. Of the growing dependence of organized Christianity upon
woman, there is no need to speak. Her works speak for her.

tory.

MiiRt Uine or
8ink ToKettier.

< !,i'

1 -';

^::i'

9
O

•a

a
o*
in

Itli

I ■ '

o
B

•3
S

The \yomen of jndia.

Paper by MISS JEANNE SORABJI, of Bombay.

WOULnaskyoiitotravflwillinicin tlioii^lu over
thirteen tliousaiid miles across the seas t(iliave a
glimpse at Itulia, the hiiul of {glorious sunsets,
the eontinent iiihaliited by peoples differinfj
Ironj each other ahiiost as varieiisly as their
niinil)t;rs in laiij^iia^rc, caste and creed, and yet
I may safely say I can liear voices in concord
from my country saying: "Till the wonun of
America we are bcinj; enli^litened, we tliirst
after knowledj^e and we are awakeninfj to tlie
fact that there is no greater pleasure than that
of increasiii}^ our information, training our
^v JHBW^^&Qi^ minds and reaching after the ^M)al of our am-
M^^*^^^«^?^^ bitions." It has been said to me moie than
^w Ss'f Xl once in America that the women of my coun-

try prefer to be ignorant and in seclusion; that
they would not welcome anybody who would attempt to change their
mode of life. To these I wt)uld give answer, as follows: The nobly
l)orn ladies, Zananas, shrink, not from thirst for knowledge, but from
contact with the outer world. If the customs of the country, their
lastes and creeds allowed it, they would gladly live as other women Kffort of
do. They live in seclusion; not ignorance. Highly cultured Hritish Ji^I^L'"' •""'
women, with love for the Master burning in their hearts, have the e.\-
toptional privileg«; of being their com|)anions and teachers, and they
have marveled at the intelligence of some c^f them.

"Pis ri'liLjiiiii tliat floes K've
Sweetest romfc't.

These secluded ladies make perfect business women. They man-
age their affairs of scate with a grace and manner worthy consider-
ation. Do wc \\ ' \\ these women to give up seclusion and live as other
women do? Let us, the Christian women of the world, give up to our
high and holy calling in Christ Jesus; let our lights shine out brill-
iantly, for it is the life that speaks with far greater force than any
vords from our lips, and let us with solemnity grasp the thought that

577

IIHIil

Schools and
('ollogesfor
Women.

578

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REl/OIJJVS.

we may be obstacles in the paths of others. Are we living what we
preach about? Do we know that someone is better for our being in
the world? If not, why is it not so? Let us attend to our lamps and
keep them burning.

The women of India are not all secluded, and it is quite a natural
thing to go into homes and find that much is being done for the uplift-
ing of women. Schools and colleges are open where the women may
attain to heights at first thought impracticable. The Parsee and Brah-
man women in Bombay twenty years ago scarcely moved out of their
houses, while today they have their libraries and reading rooms, they
can converse on politics, enjoy a conversation and show in every
movement culture and refinement above the common. Music, paint-
ing, horsemanship come as easily to them as spelling the English lan-
guage correctly. The princes of the land are interesting themselves in
the education of the women around them. Foremost among these is
the Maharajah, of Mysore, who has opened a college for women, which
has for its pupils Hindu ladies, maidens, matrons and widows of the
highest caste. This college is superintended by an English lady and
has all the departments belonging to the ladies' colleges of Oxford
and Cambridge of England. It is the only college where the zither,
the vena and the violin are taught. The founder had to work three
long years before he was able to introduce these instruments, for the
simple reason that these nobly born high caste women associated the
handling of musical instruments with the stage and women of no
repute.

There are schools and colleges for women in Bombay, Poona and
Guzcrap; also Calcutta, Alahabad, Missoorie and Madras. The latter
college has rather the lead in some points by conferring degrees upon
women. The Victoria high school has turned out grand and noble
women, so also has the new 1 igh school for women in the native city
of Poona. These schools have Christian women as principals. The
college of Ahrmedabad has a Parsee (Christian) lady at its head.
What women have done women can do.

Do you wish to see purity as white as the driven snow in woman?
Allow me to bring before you in thought, that form of a beautiful
woman of India, the Pundita Ramabai, who has opened the Sharida
Sadan, or widow's home, in India. She has traveled a great deal, and
was in America for awhile, taking from you sympathy, affection and
funds for her noble work. Do you wish to hear of learned women?
Again let me mention the Pundita Ramabai and in companionship
with her Cornelia Sorabji, B. A., LL. D. Men and women have
written of these in prose and song; their morality is unquestionable,
their religion beautiful (for they belong to Christ Jesus), their humility
proverbial. These are women for a nation to be proud of. Havinc;
prepared themselves to fill important posts they have gone back to
their country and their life to glorify their Maker. These good women
must have had good mothers. I can speak of one who lives the life of
which she is so great an advocate; with her godliness and refinement go

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

579

'hat we
iing in
ips and

hand in hand; her faith ii. God is wonderful and her children will look
back in years to come and call her blessed. There are others worthy
of your notice, the poet Sumibai Goray, the physician, Dr. Anandibai
Joshi, whom death rcmovecl from our midst just as she was about start-
ing her grand work, and the artist of song, Mme. Th'^rze Langrana,
whose God-given voice thrills the hearts of men and women in
London. My countrywomen have been at the head of battles, guiding
tlicii men with word and look of command. My countrywomen will
soon be spoken of as the greatest scientists, artists, mathematicians
;ind preachers of the world.

Instead of the absurd .saying, "a woman is at the bottom of every
evil," let us rather say all great works are due to good women, noble GojTb Treat
uoiiicn, true women, pure women, the greatest as well as the least of "''®*-
God's creatures.

\ woman? Yes, I thank the tlay,

When I was made to live,

To cast a bright or shining ray,

To love, to live, to give;

To draw aside irom paths of Mn, ^ i • > f'

Tiie halt, the lame, the bUini; l\ U^ '

A woman, glorious, noble, grand,

A woman I would be,

I'o live, to con(|uer, to command,

To lessen misery.

To glorify, in word, in deed,

The Maker I adore!

To help regardless caste or creed

The sad, the lone, the poor.

;-J

■ II [j

/-^

('mil DiKres-

A N^^ X^stament \Yoman; or. What

Phoebe Y)\±

Paper by MISS MARION MURDOCH, of Cleveland, Ohio.

\.,

N the sixteenth chapter of Romans, first and
second verses, is found the following: "I com-
mend unto you Phcebe, our sister, who is a ser-
vant (or deaconess) of the church that is at
Cencraea; that ye receive her in the Lord as
becometh saints, and that ye assist her in what-
soever business she hath need of you; for she
hath been asuccorer of many, and of mine own

i 7SSIHF VS^ ^^'^ also."

\ C^^^V^inJEr^ It is not surprising that this passage in Paul's

l^^i^B' . "*.«£»- ^ epistle to the Romans should be of peculiar

interest. Paul's reputation as an opponent of
the public work of women is well known. For
many centuries he has been considered as the
chief opposer of any activity, official or otherwise,
of women in the churches. They were to keep
riiey were not to teach or to talk or to preach. They
questions except in the privacy of their homes.
Paul merely sliared the popular opinion of his time when he exclaimed
with all his customary logic, "Man is the glory of God, but woman is
theglory of the man!" Hither jjroposition, standingby itself, meetsour
hearty approval. "Man is theglory of God!" Woman is, we are told,
"the glory of man." Hut combining them with that adversative par-
ticle, we feel that Paul's doctrine of the di\ ine humanity with refer-
ence to woman is not quite sound according to the present standard.
Hecause we have come to feel that woman may be also the glory of
God, we call Paul prejudiced. We even refuse to take him as author-
ity upon social questions, and skip the passages in the epistles where
he writes upon this subject.

But here in this sixteenth chapter of Romans we notice a digres-
sion from the general doctrines of Paul in this direction. "I commend
unto you Phcebe, our sister, who is a servant (or deaconess) of the

580

silence, he saic
were to ask no

^;U

A^iss Marion Murdoch, Cleveland, Qhio.

I :

u ■■*

»:'5

ill II

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

583

churcn which is at Cenchrca." I use the word deaconess or deacon
l)ccausc the Greek term is tlie same as that translated deacon elsewhere,
and the committee on the new version have courageously put "or
deaconess' into the margin.

By Paul's own statement, then, Phoebe was deaconess of Paul's
church at Cenchrea. Cenchrea was one of the ports of Corinth in
northern Greece. This epistle to the Romans was written at Corinth
and sent to Rome by Phiebe. It was nearly a thousand miles by sea
from Cenchrea, and this was one of the most important and one of the
ablest of all Paul's letters. Yet he sent it over to Rome by this woman
(official of the church and said: "I commend unto you Phcebe. Re-
ceive her in the Lord as becometh saints and assist her in whatsoever
business she hath need of you; for she has been a succorer of many
and of myseltalso."

I have thought, therefore, that it might be interesting to ask our-
selves the question, What did Phcebe do? supplementing it with some
references to the Phcebes of today. What was it that so overcame
this prejudice of Paul's that he gave her a hearty testimonial and sent
her over on important business to the church at Rome? It is evident
that, notwithstanding all the obstacles which custom had placed about
her, she had been actively at work It is doubtful whether she even
asked if popular opinion would permit her service to the church.

She saw that help was needed and she went eagerly to work. She
was, we may imagine, a worker full of enthusiasm for the faith, active
and eager to lend a hand in the direction in which she thought her
service was most needed. Knowing the prejudice of lit;r time, she
iloubtless acted in advance of custom rather than in defiance of it. Any
bold or defiant attitude would have displeased Paul, for he must have
been very sensitive in this direction. She was wise enough to know
that if she quietly made herself useful a.uJL necessary to the church,
'ustom would stand back and Paul would come forward to recognize
i.er We may suppose that she felt a deep interest in sustaining this
church at Cenchrea, .She knew, without doubt, the great aspirations of
Paul for those churches.

Something like a dream of a church universal had entered the
mind of this apostle to the Gentiles. His speech at Mars Plill was a
prophecy of a parliament of religions. And his earnest, reproving
tiuestion, "Is God not the God of Gentiles also?" has taken nearly
two thousand years for its aflirmative answer by Christendom, in
America. Yes. Paul recognized that all the world he knew had some
perception of the Infinite. But he knew that this perception must have
its effect upon the moral life or it would be a mockery indeed And
there was much wickedness all about. We see by the letters of Paul, as
well as by history, how corrupt and lawless were many of the customs
both in Greece and Rome. Much service was needed. And here was a
woman in Cenchrea who could not sit silent and inactive and see all
this. She, too, must work for a universal church. She, too, must
bring religion into the life of humanity. Realizing that it was her duty

ASDOcorerof
Many.

In Advance uf
Cutttum.

)i m

iii;i

r.S4

/•///•; UORLirS CONiJNESS OF A7:7./(,70/\'S.

II' I

!■ i

' i/'

[i 5

• •• !

Conliiil
ri>)>lioii.

to lu'lp, she entered into this l)eautiliil si-iviee, we (li)iibt not, as if it
were the most natural thinj^ in the woiM to do

"Slic has been a sueioier of many," said Tanl In what ways slie
aided tliem we need not tlelinitely iniiniie. It may have l)een by kind
eneonrajj;ement or SN-mpatliy, it may have been by pecuniary assist-
anee, or active social or executive plans for the stru^^lin^' church.
Whatever it was, I'licebe jjossessed the secret, ".'^he has been a suc-
corer of many, and of myself also," said i'aul. To Mia-be, therefore,
li.is been accorded the Honor of aidint,f an<l sustaininj^ this heroic man,
whom we have dreamed was stroni; enou^li to enilure alone the perils
by laiul and sea. poverty, pain, tempt.Uion for the cause he lovecl.

Antl when Paul had inlrusletl lier wiih this 'etter to the Romans,
how cordial must have been her reception by the church at Rome,
•»<•- bearin^^ as she ilid, not oid\- this epistle, but tliis he.uty recop^nition of
her services by their beloved leailer. Vet, with what a smile of j)er-
plexity and incredulity must the jjrave elders of the churcli have
looked upon this woman-deacon wlion) Paul reipiested them to assist
in whatsoever business she had in hand. This business tran.sacted by
the aid of the society at Rome, I'licebe went home, full of su^^festions
and plans, we may imas^ine, for her chcrislud (irecian churcli.

\\'e must remember that it re«iuireil no small effort and skill to
sustain societies in these various places. Paul often i)reached without
compensation, as we know, workintj at his trade to support himself
and rereiviiiLJ contributions from interestctl friends. There was con-
stant need of money ami effort. What ditl Pluebe do in such a case?
Did she sit tjuietly and helplessl)' down because she was a woman,
with a church nectlini^ service anil Paul needing money?

If she was not able to assist financially, I am sure she went out to
ur<Tc the people to action and to insist upon united effort, and to show
each and every one that he, or she, slu)uld have a personal respon-
sibility in the matter I can imaj^ine that she even arose in church
meeting, after the final adjournment, but ri^lit in the presence of Paul,
and told the people the blessedness of ^ivin^ and serving "Nothinij
{jood " she wouUI say, "can be sustained without effort. Lot us work
together, women and men, for our cause and our children's cause here
in Cenchrea." Such was undoiibteilly this woman whom Paul was
constrained to honor. In spite of all restrictions and social obstacles,
in the face of unyielding custom and prejudice, she could yet arise to
work earnestly for her church, transact its business, extend its in-
fluence and be recognized as one of its most efficient servants.

Yet, notwithstanding this public work of a woman, and Paul's
plain encouragement of it, the letter of his law was the rule of the
8.'x in Saint- churchcs for many ccnturies, and it forbade the sisters from uttering
hiHxi. their moral or religious word in the sanctuaries, or doing public

service of any sort for their own and their brother's cause. IJut here
and there arose the Pluebes, who asked no favors of custom, but
insisted on giving the service they could, in every way they could ; giving
it with such zeal and spirit that jieople forgot that there was sex in
sainthood, and whispered that perhaps they also were called of God.

THE WORLD'S CONuRESH OE REl.li.lUNS.

nsn

if it

s she

kind

iissist-

nircli.

a suc-

cfoie,

man,

)crils

)mans,
Komr,

ion of

»f pcr-

liavc

assist

"It's easy enough," said Anpy I'luinmcr in that chaniiinfj story of
the I^ldei's Wife; "It's easy enough to know how it is, Sis Kinney is a
kind of daughter of (iod, soniethinjf as Jesus Christ was I lis Son. It's
jiist the way Jesus used to ^^o round anioii}^ folks, as near as I can
make out. And I, for one, don't l)elieve that (iod just sent Ilini once
for all, and ain't never sent anyhody else near us all this time. I
reekon He's sending down sons and dauj,diters to us oftcner than we
think."

"An^y riumnier," exclaimed her mother, "I call that down rij^ht
blasphemy." "Well, call it what you're a mind to," said Anj^y, "it's
what 1 helieve."

And so as the years went on there came agrowinfj recognition of
the "daufjhters of (iod." The world ^nadually accepted the thou^dit
expressed by our new translators in that tender letter of John: "iie-
loved, now are we the sons of (iod," was the ^ood old way; "Helovetl,
now are we the children of (iod," is the better new one. The recofjni-
tion ^rew ffreater in word as well as spirit, the call was more earnest
for the active co-operation of the I'hobes in all the non-official work of
the churches, and the I'luibes everjwhere responded to the call.

Hut not until the inauguration of a radically new movement in
relif^ion were the official barriers in some dcfxrec removed. Not imtil
the emphasis was put upon that divine love of (iod, which would save
idl creatures, upon that mother heart of Deity which would enfold all
its children; not until the emphasis was put upon the spirit rather than
the letter of Hible literature, u|)on the free rather than the restricted
revelations of (iod, upon the Holy .Spirit in the human soul without
reijard to sex or time or |)lace, not until all this was proclaimed and
enii)hasized did the IMicebes ask or receive official recognition in the
ministry.

And it was better so. Under the old dispensation they would
have been strantjjely out of place; un<ler the new it is most fittinpf that
they should be called and chosen. Our modern Pauls arc now gladly
ordaining them, and the brethren are receivinj^ them in the Lord, as
becomes the saints. Now may they also be the ^dory of God and
partakers of the spirit; now may the words of Joel be at last fulfilled:
"And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit
upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy."

.Still there are limitations and restrictions in words. Reforms
in words always move more slowly than reforms in ideas. It is won-
derful iiow we fear innovations in hin^uafjc. Even in appellations
of the All-.Si)irit that John reverently named Love, including in that
niomciit of his inspiration the All-Human in the All-Divine Heart,
even here we are ol'ten sternly limited to certain pfcnder. Dr. Bartol,
of HostoB, says rejjrovingly, "Many hold that the simple name of Father
is viKHifjh. They seem unconscious that there is in their moral idea
of Deity an\' desideratum or lack. Hut docs this figure, drawn from a
single human relation, cover the whole ground? Is there no mother-
hood in (iod?"
38

RccoRiiilion
of Dim DiiukIi-
tt.TH of UimI,

i! I ■ '1

■; :u

; ■•%

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUNIONS.

\ i'

."s

I h

Woman'M In>
lueDce Needed

At tbe Pnlpit.

But, thank heaven, it is no longer heresy, as it was in Boston less
than a century ago, to say, with Theodore Parker, "God is oui infinite
Mother. She will hold us in her arms of blessedness and beauty for-
ever and ever."

But what matter the name so we cling to the idea, the ideal of
strength and tenderness for the All-Spirit and for the children of the
All-Spirit? What matter so we remember that it is not man or woman
in the Lord, nor man or woman in the Spirit, neither in the ministry
of the Spirit? It is divine; it is human unity.

1 have referred to the official ministry for the Phoebes as an
assured fact in our growing civilization, but this is only a small part of
the work which they arc called upon to do It is found that many,
very many, in our churches are as capable of efficient work as this
woman helper of Cenchrea, and as truly ministers and apostles as any
that were ever ordained to the formal ministry. It is found that there
is needed not only woman's large moral and spiritual influence, but her
large tact and management in many directions. In philanthropic work
woman has always been active. " In the broad fields of human help
fulness," says Mr. Hale, "her empire is like that of the Queen of Pal-
myra, one that knows no natural limits, but is broad as the genius that
can devise and the power that can win." But this church of the new
dispensation includes all philanthropy in religion. It includes every-
thing that reforms and purifies and strengthens home and society. To
the Phcebes, then, should it be dear as life, because it sustains and en-
nobles life; sacred as home, because it beautifies and sanctifies the home.

Here are we today in the era of a great reformation. It is a refor-
mation not local, not limited to a section or a sect. It reaches over the
civilized woild and into the various activities of life. It is a reforma-
tion which, while it breaks many idols, is to bring about a pure and
more enlightened worship; it is to give freedom to reason ami faith; it
is to proclaim a constant revelation of God; it is to make, bj- its doc-
trine of the divine humanity, a sanctuary of every home and of every
heart. It is to show that the ideal of eternity must enter into the king-
dom of heaven and the kingdom of earth as well; that theology must
have for its highest thought the symbol of both fatherhood ami
motherhood; that incarnated 'divinity must include in every sense
woman as well as man. Not until we have this co-operation of men
and women in all the sacred services and offices of the church and of
life will the real unity in religion be realized. Woman must stand at
the pulpit and behind the altar of God before we shall hear all sides
of sacred and secret moral questions. If we have women at the con-
fessional under the new order, we shall have women to receive the con-
fession. We shall have no dividing of the virtues.

Upon all the sacred events of life, in birth, in marriage, in death,
we shall have woman's divine benediction; we shall have co-operation
along all the lines of life and society; we shall have a full realization
of that unity, human and divine, which this parliament of religions
has so grandly indorspd.

less
nite
for-

nn
It of

^hat Judaism Has Y)^^^ ^^^ W^"^^"*

Paper by MISS HENRIETTA SZOLD, of Baltimore.

RI1^I*'LV, 'the whole education conferred by
Judaism lies in the principle that it did not
assif^n to woman an exceptional position; yet,
by takinj^ cognizance of the exceptional posi-
tion assi<,nicd to woman by brute force, or oc-
cupied by her on account of her physical con-
stitution and natural duties, Judaism made
that education effectual and uninterrupted in
its effects. It would, indeed, be possible to
bejjin with our own luuma La/arus, tlistin-
jfuished for ^ifts alike of heart and brain, and
pass upward throuj^h history, mounting from
Jewish woman's achievement to Jewish wo-
man's achievement, our path marked by poet-
esses, martyrs, scholars, (lueens and prophet-
esses, until we reach the wilds of ourpatriarciis.
Yet, by these last onl)' may we hope to be taught about
Jewish women. In Jewish history, as in that of the
rest of mankind, leaders in |)olitics, in thought, in spiritual endeavor
are only milestones. They but indicate the categories of jjlienomena
that deserve attention. Nor do I conceive that it would be a help to
dwell upon the acknowledged virtues of the moilern Jewish women,
which shine out upon us from the darkness of medieval prejudice and
glorify the humblest home of the Jew in squalid ghetto. That has
been fulsomely treated. We wish to know, as it were, the ancestry
of such steadfast, incorru|)tible virtue Moreover, Jutlaism is so com-
pact a system that it is hazardous to speak of any kind of faith, \^y
\c ison of its conservatism it rctpiires more inexorability than any other
s\stem. Our question calls for the spiritual data about the typical
women whom Judaism has prepaied for nineteenth century work. To
iliscover them we must go back to l,goo years ago to the women of
the time of Abraham

Abraham stands out in the historic picture of mankind as the typ-
ical father He it was of whom it was known that he would conunand
his children and his household after him that they should keep the

587

A rVimpaot
SyHteiii.

lis

H^H III

4
■.. J,

I, !

v •

£■'?

i
if

fH'

■ i: ii

^^1^ V

Miss Henrietta Szold, Baltimore, Md.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUGIONS.

680

way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice. What was Sarah'a
share in this paramount work of education? Ishniacl was to be
removed in order that Isaac, the cUsciple of rif^hteousncss and justice,
mifjht not be lured away from the way of the Lord. In connection
with this plan, wholly educational in its aims, it is enjoined upon
Abraham: "In all that Sarah may say unto tliee, hearken unto her
voice."

The next generation again illustrates, not the sameness in function,
hut equality in position of man and woman. Isaac and Rebecca differ
in their conception of educational discipline and factors. lUit Rebecca, „ ,

1' .1 III 1 r 11 1 • KclM'CrH «

more energetic than her husband, follows uj) sentiment and jjcrception I'mcticni A"
with practical action. She makes effectual her conviction that man- '"'"'
kind will be blessed through the gentleness of Jacob, while F.sau's rule
means relapse into barbari.«m.

From the trend of the story we may infer that there must have
been much unwholesome discussion between father and mother about
the comparative merits of the two favorites, and the methods of bring-
ing up children in geneval. There is an echo in Rebecca's j)laint: "I
\u\\ weary of my life, because of the tlaughters of Jleth," whom Ksau
had married. "If Jacob," she continues, "takes a wife from the
(laughters of Ileth such as these, from the daughters of the land, what
good will life do me?" And although we are told earlier in the narra-
tive that the wives of ICsau "were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to
Rebecca," it is only after he has been j)rodded by his wife's words that
Isaac charges Jacob: "Thou shalt not take a wife I rom the daughters
of Canaan." Finally, whatever may have been the difference of opin-
ion between them in regartl to their children's affairs, before their chil- *
dren father and mother are completely at one, for when the first sus-
picion of displeasure comes to Ksau it reaches him in Isaac's name
alone. We are told that "then saw l^sau that the daughters of Canaan
w -re evil in the eyes of Isaac, his father." (Gen. xxviii, 0.) Isaac, the
executive, had completely adopted the tactics of Rebekah, the advi-
sory branch of the government.

The scene, moreover, is remarkable by reason of the fact that we
are shown the first social iimovr.tor, the first being to act contrary to
tradition and the iron-bound customs of society. Rebekah refuses to
yield to birth its rights, in a case in which were involved the higher
considerations of the guardianship of truth. And this reformer was a
traditionally conservative woman. Rebekah is, indeed, the most indi-
vidual of the women of patriarchal days, both in her feminine attrac-
tions and inner womanly earnestness. To her strong character, it is
doubtless due, that Isaac became a strict monogamist, thus perhaps
making, by the side of Abraham's and Jacob's numerous additions to
civilization's work, his sole positive contribution to its advance.

Such are the ideals of equality between man and woman that have
come down to us from the days of the Patriarchs. We hear of the
mothers of the greatest men, of Yochcbed, the mother of Moses, and
of Hannah, the mother of Samuel, and the sole director of his earthly

.ii

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Li i. 'SI

590

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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^'^''n''^ to indicate a kind's evil character 1
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Folly or

VVoroliipini:

BtranKeti'xls.

career. We still read of fathers and mothers acting in equal conjunc-
tion, as in the disastrous youth of Sampson. The law ranges them to-
gether: "If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, who hearkeneih
not to the voice of his father, or the voice of liis mother, and they
chastise him, and he will not hearken unto them: Then shall his father
and his mother lay hold on him." (Deut. xxi, i8, 19.) It is sufficient

to say: "For a daughter of Ahab
18), attesting abundantly a wife's
influence, though it be for evil. Nor could Abigal's self-confidence
(I Sam. xxv) have been a sporadic phenomenon, without precedent
in the annals of Jewish households. Finally, we have a most striking
evidence of woman's dignity in the parallel drawn by the prophets
between the relation of Israel to God and that of a wife to her hus-
band, most beautifully in this passage which distinguishes between the
husband of a Jewish woman and the lord of a medieval Griseldis: "And
it shall happen at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi
(my husband) and shalt not call me any more Ha'ali (my lord). And
1 will betroth thee unto me forever: Yea, I will betroth thee unto
me in righteousness and in justice, and in loving kindness, and in
mercy. y\nd I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness." (llosc.i
ii, iS, 21, 22.)

Hut Israel was a backsliding nation. Even its crowning glor\-.
purit\'of famil)' life, was sullied, as for instance at Gibeah (Judges xx ),
and by David (2 Sam. xi, xii). In the process of time, Israel came intc;
contact with strange nations, with their strange Gods and their strange
treatment of women. It went after idols whose worship consisted t)f
unchaste rites. Israel's sons married the daughter not of the stranger,
but of a strange God. It was the Israelite's crown of distinction tliat
his wife was his companion, whose ecjuality was so acknowledged that
he made with her a covenant. But this crown was dragged in the mire
when he married the daughter of the strange God. Direst misfortune
t:iught Israel the folly of worshiping strange Gods, but the blandish-
ments of the daughters of a strange God produced the enactment of
many a law by the rabbis of the Talmud. Here was the problem that
conf'onted them: Israel's ideals of womanhood were high, but the
natiuus around acted up to a brutal standard, and Israel was not likely
to remain untainted. Thus Mosaic legislation recognizes the e.\'ce|)-
tional jjosition occupied by woman, and profits by its knowledge
thereof to lay down stringent regulations ordering the relation of the
sexes.

VV'e have the rights of woman guarded with respect to inheritance,
to giving in marriage in the marriage relation, and with regard to
divorce. The maid servant, the captive taken in war, the hateil w ife,
the first wife to be dethroned by a successor— they all are remembered
and protected But woman's greatest safeguard lay in the fact that
both marriage and ilivorce among the Jews wee civil transactions,
connected with a certain amount of formality. VVc hear of the bill of
divorcement as early as the times of Moses. Marriage was preceded

ZJel-MJL

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

591

in some cases by the space of a whole year, during which the woman
remained with her father, by the making of a contract of betrothal
which in every way was as binding as the act of marriage itself. Thus
Malachi's expression, "the wife of thy covenant," was not an empty
pniase It indicates a substantial reality, and at the same time em-
phasizes the difference between Israel's well regulated moral household
and the irregularities and violences of heathen lands.

This, then, was the Jewish basis upon which the rabbis could and
did build. The subject of marriage and divorce is by them considered
so important that one whole treatise out of the six constituting the
Mishnah is devoted to it. But its treatment is so multifarious and
exhaustive that only a very ski led Talmudist and an equally syste-
matic mind would be able to arrange all the details under satisfactory
heads sufficiently to give it a just idea of its admirable perfection. I
am not able to do more than give some instances and some laws in
order to illustrate how the rabbis accept woman's exceptional position,
and by so doing to shield her from wrong and protect her in her
right.

The marriage contract assured to the wife a certain sum of money,
the minimum being fixed by law, in the case of the death of her hus-
band, or div<Mce. This contract had to be duly signed and properly
drawn up. Moreover, a widow is entitled to this minimum sum even
though no mention is made thereof in the contract. With regard to
the [josition of a married woman the rule was: The wife rises with
the husband, but does not descend with him. The expenses of a
woman's funeral, for instance, are regulated by the position of her
Inisband; if his is superior her's is superior. A husband must provide
his wife with food and raiment; is obliged to ransom her if she is taken
cai)tive, and owes her decent burial. A wife's duties are also defined.
Slie must griiid, bake bread, wash the linen, nurse her children, make
lier husband's I^ed and work in wool. If she has a servant at her dis-
posal she is not obliged to grind, nor to bake bread, nor to wash the
linen. Her work diminishes with the numiier of servants at her beck
and call. If .she has four she need do nothing. Even if she had a
hundred servants her husband may exact spinning from her, for idle-
ness leads to wicked thought. Rabbi Simon says: "If a husband has
vowed that his wife shall do no work, he is obliged to divorce her,
and pay her her dowry, for idleness may bring about mental aliena-
tion." This last diead of idleness throws light upon the praise ac-
corded the virtuous woman: "The bread of idleness she doth not eat."
l"\irthermore, there are regulations fixing the wife's riglit. i.v"> property,
her huiband's claims upon it, as upon what she may earn; even the
girl in her lather's home could own property, of which she could dis-
pose as she wished. A man with one wife could marry a second only
with the consent of the first— a most potent measure for resisting
polygamy.

The laws and regulations of divorce are equally full and detailed.
A passage often quoted in order to fiive an idea of the Jewish divorce

HarriBKe an J
DiTorce.

592

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

law is the following: The school of Shammai, clinging to Biblical or-
dinances, says that "a wife can be divorced only on account of infidel-
ity." The school of Hillel says that the husband is not obliged to
give a plausible motive for divorce; he may say she spoiled his meal.
R. Akiba expresses the same idea in another way; he may say that he
has found a more beautiful woman. And those that wish to throw
contempt upon the Jewish law add that the school of Hillel, the milder
school, is followed in practical decisions. This is one of the cases in
which not the whole truth is told. In the first place, a woman has the
same right to apply for a divorce without assigning any reason which
motives of delicacy may prompt her to withhold. The iden underly-
ing this seeming laxity is that when a man or a woman is willing to
apply for a divorce on so trivial aground then, regard anil love having
vanished, in the interests of morality a divorce had better be granteil
after due efforts have been made to effect a reconciliation. In reality,
however, divorce laws were far from being lax. The facts that a woman
who applied for a divorce lost her dowry, and in almost all cases a man
who applied for it had to pay it, would suffice to restrain the tendency.
The important points characterizing the Jewish divorce law and dis-
tinguishing it far beyond other nations of anticjuity are these: A man.
as a rule, could not divorce his wife without providing for her; he
could not summarily send her from him as was, and is. the custom of
eastern countries, but was ol)liged to give her a duly dra vn up 1)111 of
divorcement, and women, as well as men, could sue for a divorce.

Besides these important provisions regulating woman's estate,
there are various intimations in the Talmud of delicate regard paid to
the finer sensibilities of women. In a mixed marriage, the child
UHKardtothe foUow!: the religion of its mother. If men and women present them-
Fincr BeuHibii- sclves whcn alms are distributed, the women must be attended to first,
so that they need not wait. When men and women had cases before
Rabba, ho first dispatched those of the women, as it is a humiliatit)n
, for women to wait. Again, if an orphaned Ijov and an orphaned girl
have to be supported by public charity, the girl is to he helped first,
for begging is more painful to a woman than to a man. Under no cir-
cumstances could a wife be forced to clothe herself in a way to attract
remark or call forth ridicule.

Women are accorded certain privileges in legal proceedings on
account of their grace; that is to say, their sex. This is still subtler in
the deference it pays to woman's intluence. A daughter must remain
with her mother. If a man dies, and his sons, his heirs, who are
obliged to pro\ Ide for the daughters out of the inheritance, wish to do
so at their own home, while the mother wishes to keei) her daughters
with her, then the sons are obliged to take care of them at their
mother's house. With regard to the education of women, this may be
quoted: According to the Mishnah, girls learn the Bible like boys.
The religious obligations of women are thus defined. A he duties
toward children rest upon the father, not upon the mother. Ail the
duties toward parents rest u[)on sons and daughters alike. All the

THE WORLD'S CO X (J RES S OF RELIGIONS.

593

positive commandments which must be observed at a fixed time are
obligatory on men and not on women.

These and such are tiie provisions which, oriijinating in the lioary
past, have intrenched the Jewess's position even unto tliis day. What-
ever she may be, she is through them. But what is slie? She is the
inspirer of a pure, chaste family life, whose hallowing influences are
incalculable; she is the center of all spiritual endeavors, the fosterer
and confidante of every undertaking. To her the Talmudic sentence
a[iplies: "It is a woman alone throu^ii whom God's blessings are
vouchsafed to a house. .She teaches the children, sjiceds the husband
to the place of worship and instruction, welcomes him when he
returns, keeps the house godly and pure, and (lod's blessings rest
upon all these things."

Now, finally, with what fitness to meet nineteenth century de-
mands has Judaism endowed her daughters? Our pulses are cjuick-
ened and throbbing with the new currents of an age of social dissatis-
faction and breathless endeavor. The nineteenth century Jewess is
wholly free lo do as and what she wishes, nor need she aliate a jot of
her Judaism. Judaism tloes not, indeed, bid her become a lawjer, a
|)hysician, a bookkeeper, or a telegraph o])erator, nor does it forbid
lier becoming anxthmg for which her talents and her opportunities fit
her. it simpl\' says nothing of her occupations. Moreover, by reason
of her Jewish antecedents, llie Jewess stands ready to cope with the
new rec]uirements of life. IKr fitness for moral responsibility has
alwavs been gri-;it, and as for her mental cai)aeit\'. it has not oozed
away under artificial homage, nor been par;d\zeil by exclusion from
the intellectual work anil practical undertakings of her family. Juda-
ism permits her tlaui^iiters to go fuilii into this new wt)ild of ours to
assume new duties and responsibilitii's and rejoice in its vast oppor-
tunities. Hut it says: "beware of iorfciliiig your tlignit)'." Remem-
ber, moreover, that, like mothers in all ages, be they kindly or un-
kiiuUy disposed to women, I shall st;ind ami wait, a\e. and l)e ready
to serve you. I\Iy .Sabbath lamp shall e\er be a-lighl; in its rays you
will never fail to find yourself, your dignity, \our [)eace of heart and
mind.

FrpptoDo A«

Sim Wishc".

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Mosque of Sultan Barlcouk.

[Religion and the Love of ]\/\ankind.

Paper by ex-GOVERNOR J. W. HOYT, of Wyoming.

such an introductiun I regret the

necessity to say that owinfr to the j^reat

ssure of duties in connection with the

)osition, and to the assumption that I

!d merely for a moment address tills

ly of people, I ilo not appear before j'ou

with any elaborate paper, but with such

thouj^hts only as I have been able to collect

durinj^the last t)ne or two days.

Let us thank G(Jil that, in this first great
parliament of all the religious faiths, a da\'
has been set apart for the study of " religion
and the lo\e of mankind." During the last two
weeks distinguished representatives of all the great
religions of the worUl have ably, and with a courtesy and
spiritual grace that can never be forgotten, presented the
cardinal tloctrines which serve to identify and distinguish
liiem. The benefit that will come of this frieiuily association of the great
and good of all nationalities, is beyond the power of calculation. 1 lav-
ing severall\' met and heard the representatives of other faiths than our
(twn, and found in them the same high pur[)ose and devotion to the truth
of which we are oursehes conscious, our sympathies must have broad-
ened and our hope in the greater future been nev.ly kindled.

If it should seem that noneha\e \et set forth in the most simple
and explicit terms what religion is in the truest and highest sense, it
has, nevertheless, become ap|)arent that it is not a mere form of wor-
ship, with however rich an adormnent of s\inbol aiui ceremony; that
it is not any particular boily of theological dogmas, however interest-
ing historically, intellectually, t)r ethically. It has surely come to be
understooil that in a generic way it comprehends all frames of senti-
mei't,all sorts of faith, all forms of worshij) to which man is moved by
his lears, or lirawn i)y his hopes, towaril the ever\-where apprehended,
if not always clearly recognized, sources of infinite power and good-
ness; and finally that, while its mainspring on the part of man is the
love and worship of the Supreme Author ami .Supporter of all things,

lil'Ill'fltS
L'OIIIH.

t)Wt)

olH)

THE IVOKLirS COA'OA'/:SS OF RELIGIONS.

Ti,M

tllllt III

Kt'lieion
<■ World

yet in the mind of God the ^rcat office of religion is to insure the pres-
ent and eternal welfare of mankind.

Religion is a fact of man's existence; has its origin not in any con-
ceivable need on the part of God, whose infinity of perfections ex-
cludes even the most shadowy thought of the want of any sort, but
rather in the finiteness of man, who for this simple reason is none
other than a body of wants, both numberless and manifold, and who,
because of this conscious insufficiency, is everywhere and always feel-
ing after God. In other words, religion is to be recognized as an out-
growth of the very constitution of man, with his numberless wants of
the body so fearfully and wonderfully made; of the Godlike intellect
anil will so equal to the iliscovery of natural laws and to a final con-
quest of the material world; of the undying soul, so capable of un-
utterable anguish as well as of a joy almost divine. Aye, it is because-
of this ver\' constitution of man that there has been in all ages, and
will be to the end of the world, pressing need of a body of truth,
suited to all peoples and times, and embracing such laws as should
entitle it to the acceptance and respect of mankinil.

Of all this there can be no (juestion. But there is a very serious
(juestion of how far the several religions of the world can actuall\-
meet these high demands of the race, and how far the vital religious
truths found in all of them have been so obscured by the drapery ol"
useless theories and forms as to have been lost sight of and then made
of no effect. Is not this a question of profound inqiortance? y\n(l
where is the religious organization that does not (piake when it is pro-
poimded?

And there is yet another question of even greater practical mo-
ment, namely: Whether religious faiths, thus made conflicting creeds,
may not be so harmonized upon the great essential truths recognized
by all as to make their adherents cordial allies and earnest co-workers
for man's redem])tion from the bontlage of sin and for his advance-
ment to the dignity and glory of the Ideal ]\Ian as He was in the mind
of God, when He said, "Let us make man in our own image."

The religion that the world needs and will at last have is one that
shall make for the rescue and elevation of mankind in every realm
and to the highest possible degree- one in which the lofty ideas ot
the most perfect lixing here, and of endless progress toward perfec-
tion in tlie great hereafter, shall so engage the powers and aspirations
of its Notaries as to leave no thought for the profitless theories whicji
at present so absorb antl divide the champions of the many faiths.
There had been substantial and valualjle expressions of it by great
and good men long centuries before the Christian era, as by Moses,
Confucius, Buddha, .Socrates and Mohammed; but in my judgment it
iiad its first full and complete expression in Jesus of Nazareth, who.
by His supreme teachings, sounded the depths and swept the heavens
of both ethical and religious truth. One searches the literature of all
kinds a' 11 peoples in vain for treasures comparable with the .Ser-
mon on the Moimt. If it were studied and practically accepted of all
men how quickly it would revolutionize society everywhere.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

597

" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all
thy soul and with all thy mind; this is the first great commandment
and the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Upon these two commandments hang all the law and tlie prophets."

How grandly simple this declaration, so comprehensive of all
there is that is vital. VVho so loveth God with all his heart will seek
to know His will and to do that will to the uttermost; nay, will find
the supreme joy of life in such living and doing; and through such liv-
ing and doing will himself be transformed and exiled. " Thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself." What meaning there is in this Divi.ie
commandment? "As thyself." Here is a theme for many volumes;
involving the science of living, the art of living, the high tluty of true
living, the beauty and dignity and glory of a life consecrated to
exalted ends.

Alas, how little there is of loyalty to the self! How few know and
obey the laws of the body, and are able to stand erect, sound and strong
before the world, fit representatives of the race! How are the multi-
tude but dwarfed, crippled, diseased and comparatively feeble carica-
tiu-es of the perfect man each ought to be. How small is the minority
of those who are loyal to the intellectual self with such culture and
development of the mental powers as fit them for man's intended mas-
tery and utilization of the wonderful resources of nature. How sadly
small is the minority who are so loyal to the mortal self as to have
gained a Christlike comprehension of ethical truth, or even a just con-
ception of the grand possibilities of the moral forces of mankind.

Finally, can it be doubted, that having this perfect love of (iod
and this true and exalted love of self, man woukl spontaneously love
his neighbor? Nay, does not that love of the Heavenly Father neces-
sarily imply a love of one's fellowssince the Fatherhood of God involves
the brotherhood of man? What but such a being could have justified
the strong language of the great apostle, " He who loveth God loveth
his brother, and he who loveth not his brother abideth in death."
"F'or all the law is fulfilled in one word," said the Apostle Paul; "Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." And in yet stronger language
said the loving Apostle John, " If a man say I love God, and hateth his
brother, he is a liar.''

Aye, the brotherhood of mar has been a Divine theory of ex^'lted
man in all the ages. It is only tae Cains of the world who had dared
openly to ask, "Am I my brother's keei)er?" In the earlier ages the
fraternal sentiment found no higher expression than in the negative
comment of the Divine Huddha. " Do not unto others what ye would
iiot have them do unto you." But in the Divine Christ it found affirm-
atr/e expression in these positive words: "Whatsoever ye would
that man should do to you do ye even so unto them."

In this doctrine is founded the fraternities of peoples as well as
the brotherhood of individual man. We sometimes forget that the
individual man stands for the race and that the law of Christ, "Do
unto others whatsoever ye would have them do unto you," is as bind-

L(v.iiltyloS If.

1 i\:

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05)8

THE WORLD'S COA'GRJCSS OF RELIGIONS.

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in^ upon peoples, upon the a<^fjrejTations of men in tlieir relations and
intercourse with other peoples as it is upon you (jr upon me as iiuli-
viduals in the world. How it)ri;ett'ul has been luankind of tiie sublime
truths of the brotherhood of man in all the aj;es. What have meaiil
the wars in all history? Has not the history of the race been written
in blood? Is it not a fact that e\en religious conj^rej^atioiis and the
champions of various faiths ha\e drawn the sword and mingled in the
strife? i.et us thank (iod for the tlawn ofa better era — that the time is
comiiii^, aye, is at hand, when no nation on earth will tlare to ilraw the
sword, or set forth the L;listenint; ba\-()iiet without the uni\ersal con-
sent of mankind. There is a dut\- of self-i)rescrvation which the indi-

i\t5LT

vidual man and the indiviihial nation must rccoi^nize. i\t^_Lnxssi\e
warfare without a submission of one's riL,dits and claims to justice be-
fore a hi,i;;h court of arbitration representing all the nations, let u>
lu)pe, is at an eiul. If there wi-re established, and there will be estab-
lished at an earlv dav, a hisjli court of international arbitrati

tiiat

will hi}- down the law, that will expound and apjjh- the law, if indeed
necessary, to the extent of makin;^' the repudiating nation, the nation
that shall refuse oljedience to that law. an outlaw in the world. \\ iili
that time shall come the reign of peace for which our truly beloved

loin

iris-

bishop and these priestly men from many lands have struggled h
I iiope this parliament of religion w ill go f(jrth as an army with CI
tian bamiers bearing upon them the high symbols of the cross anil a!
symbols that represent religion and humanit\- and make jieace for ai

the nations.

I bel

ie\e

e dav IS at liaiu

1. Let

us join one a

nd all

the dc\()ut pra\er tt) .\lmight)- (iod that it may early cduk.-, that al!
may unite in the grand chorus, "(dory to Gt)d in the highest: j)eai.c
on-earth, tjood will towartl all men.''

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Mosque of Mohamet Aly.

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yhe G^o^^^s 0^ Sy^P^^hy and praternity
Among f^eligious f\J\en, ^'

Paper by A. M. POWELL, of the Society of Friends, New York.

Sftlvationists
Hiui Quuker.s.

T is ill Ijchiilf of (1I1C of the smaller religious
bodies, the Society of Friends, that I am in
vited to speak to )c)ii. In the time allotted it
would he (]uite im|)ossil)le to cover exhaust
ively the whole fielil of my broad subject, "The
(irounds of Sympathy and Fraternit)' Among
Religious MiMi."

It is altogether natural and i)roper that in
. . ''wmM^mf ^M^ form ami method and ritual there should be
V Hfl^^Bj^JBfZ diversitj', great diversity, among the i)eo])les

interested in religion throughout the world; but
it is also possible, as it is e.\tremel\' tlesirable,
that there should be unity and fraternity and
co-operation in the i)ronuilgation of simple
spiritual truth. To illustrate my thouglit I ma)-
say that not very long ago I went to one of the
great salvation army meetings in New York with
two of my personal friends, who were also members of the Society of
h'riends. It was one of those meetings full of enthusiasm witli volle\s
innumerable, and we met that gifted and cloiiueiit Queen of tiie Army,
Mrs. liallington Booth, to whom I had the pleasure of introducing my
two Quaker friends. Taking in the humor of the situation, she said:
"Yes, we have mucli in conniion; you add a little cjuiet and we add a
little noise."

The much in common between these two very different peoples,
the noisy .Salvationists and the (piiet Quakers, is in the application of
admitted Christian truth to human needs. It is along that line that my
thought must lead this morning with regard to unity and fraternit)-
among religious men and religious women. Evt i)' people on the face
of the earth, has some conception of the Supreme and tlie Infinite. It
is common to all classes, all races, all nationalities, but the Christian
ideal, according to my own conception, is the highest and most com-

600

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

601

plctc ideal of all. It embraces most fully the Fatherhood of God and
the brotherhood of niankiiui.

Justice and mercy and love it maintains as due from each to all.
There are no races; there are no territorial liniitations or exceptions.
Even the most untutored have always been found to be amenable to the
presentation of this fundamental Christian thoufjfht exemplified in a
really Christian life. Mere I may illustrate by the experience of
William I'enn amon^ the Indians of North y\merica. He came to
them as their brother and as their frienil, to e.xemplify the principles exp' rioncfof
of justice and truth. It is a matter of history that the relations be- Wiuium I'fuu.
tween I'enn and the Quakers and the Indians have bi-en exceptional
and harmonious on the basis of this ideal brotherhood of man. Alas,
that all the Indians in America mii;ht not have had representatives of
this Ouaker humane th<nitfht to deal with! What a different paj^e
would have been written in American history.

Many years later another Friend was sent out under President
(irant's administration to labor as a superintendent amon^ the Indians
the noble-heartetl, true Uuaker, .Samuel iM. Janiiey. As he went
amon^ the Imliaiis committeil to his charj,fe, he not only undertook to
deal with them with reference to their material interests, but he also
sought to labor amonij them as their friend, and in a certain sense as
a religious helper and teacher. lie talked with those Indians in
Nebraska about spiritual thini;s. The\' could understanil about the
(jreat .Spirit as they listened to him, and he told them furthermore the
wonderful story of Jesus of Na/areth, commending; His teaching; and
the lesson of His life and His death to them. They listened, with
regard to the .Son, as they had, with reverence to the leather, but he
could not impress them, in the face of their sad expenence with a so-
called Christian nature, with the virtues of the Son.

I""inally one t)ld chief said to him: " We know about the P'ather,
but the .Son has not been aloni; this way yet."

I do not wonder, in the li.nht of the record which this so-called
Christian nation had made in dealinj; with those Indians, that they
thouj^ht that they had never seen the .Son out that way yet. It is, alas,
to our shame as a people that it must be said, as a niatter of historic
truth, that the very reverse of the Christian spirit has been the si)irit
shown in dealing; with the Indians, who have been treated with bad
faith and untold cruelty.

A fresh and living instance of this spirit is illustrated in the chap-
ter we are now writin<j so shamefully in our dealings with the Chinese.
We are sendinj:j missionaries abroad to China, but what are we teach-
ing by example in v\merica with reference to the Chinese but the
Godless doctrine that they have no rights which wc are bound to re-
spect? We are receiving lessons valuable and varied, from these dis-
tinjjuished representatives of other relifrions, but what are we to say
in their presence of our shortcoming's measured liy the standard of
our hi^h Christian ideal, which recofrnizes the brotherhood of all maii-
kind and (lod as the common I'ather?

'■■ •

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but n Clmruo-

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602

T//£: WORLD'S COXCKESS OF RLUU/ONS.

I want to say that the potential religious life, — and it is a Icssson
which is beiiijf emphasized tlay by day by this wonderful parliament.
is not a creed but character. It is for this messajje that the waitin^f
multitude listens. We have many evidences of this. Among the
recent deaths on this side of the Atlantic which awakens world-wide
eclujcs of lamentation and regret, there has been no one so missed
and so mourned as a religious teacher in this century as Phillips
lirooks. One thing above all else which characterized the ministry of
riiiliips Hrooks was his interpretation, as a spiritual power in the life,
of the individual human soul. The one jwet who has voiced this
thought most widely in our own and in other countries, whose words
are to be found in theafterpart of the general programmeof this i)arlia-
nieiit, is the (Juaker poet, W'hittier. His words are adapted to world-
wide use by all who enter into the spirit of Christianity in its utmost
simplicity. In seeking the grounds of fraternity and co-operation we
must not look in the region of forms and ceremonies and rituals,
wherein we may all very properly differ and agree to differ, as we arc
doing here, but we must seek them csi)ecially in the direction of unity
and action for the removal of the world's great evils.

I believe we stand today at the dividing of the ways, and whether
or not there shall follow this parliament of religions any permanent
committee or any general organization, looking to the creation of a
universal church, I do hope that one outcome of this great comming-
ling will be some sort of action between the peoples of the different
religions looking to the removal of the great evils which stand in the
pathway of the progress of all true religions.

Part of my speech has been made this morning by the eloquent
ex-governor who preceded me, but I will emphasize his remarks with
regard to arbitration. There were two illustrations of my thoughts to
which he did not make specific reference. One is recent in the Hehring
Sea arbitration. What a blessing that is as compared with the t)ld-
fashioned method of settling the differences between this country and
Great Britain by going to war. We may rejoice and take courage in
this fresh illustration of the practicability of arbitration between two
great and powerful nations.

I may cite also one other illustration, the Geneva award, which at
the time it occurred was perhaps even more remarkable than the more
recent arbitration of the Hehring Sea dispute. Among the exhibits
down yonder at the white city which ym; loubtless have seen is the
great Krupp gun. It is a marvelous pieco of inventive ingenuity. It
is absolutely appalling in its possibilities for the destruction of
humanity. Now, if the religious people of the world, whatever their
naiue or form, will unite in a general league against war and resolve
to arbitrate all difficulties, I believe that that great Krupp gun will, if
not preserved for some museum, be literally melted and recast into
■plowshares and pruning hooks.

This parliament has laid very broad foundations. It is present-ng
an object lesson of immense value. In June I had the privilege of

Tim WOKLD'S CONUKKSS Ql' RELIGIONS,

(il)8

nssistinp here in another world's cnnfrrcss wherein were representatives
dt' various nalionaiities anil countries. W'c had on the platform the
(listinjfuished Archhishop of St. Paul, that ^^reat liberal Catholic, Arch-
bishop Iriland. ISittintf near him was leather Clear)-, his neighbor
and frienil another noble man. Sittin^f near those two Catholics was
Adjutant V'iekery, of the Salvation Army, the represenlati\e of Mrs.
IJallinijton Hootli. who was unable thnniffh sickness to be present.
Near these were se\eral members of tiie Society of Friends, aiul along
u ith them were some l'<j)iscopaliaiis, Methodists, baptists, Presbyteri-
ans and one Unitarian whose face I see here today. All these were
tremendously in earnest to strike a blow at one of the f^reat obstacles
lu the proLjress of Christian life in ICurope — state rej^vdated vice.

1 cannot deal w ith that subject now, but I may say that it is the
most iidamous sjstem of sla\ery of womanhood and jfirlhood the
world has evir -^een. It exists in most JCuropean countries and it has lutwi vio.' *"*
its champions in vVmerica, who have been seekinj^, by their propaj^an-
dism, to fasten it upon our lari,fe cities. It is one of the most vital
jiiestions of this era, and it should be the care and responsibility of
■cli^Mous ])eoi)le everywhere to see that as speedily as possible this
threat sliaine shall be wiped away from modern civil izaticjii.

l,et me tell yon an incident that occurred in Geneva, Switzerland,
three or four years at^o. There jumped out of a four-story window
down to the court below a beautiful young girl. Marvclously, her life
was spared. A noble Christian woman, whom I count it a privilege to
iuind)er among my personal friends, went to this poor girl's side and
got her story. In substance it was this:

.She had been sold for a price in Berlin to one of the brothel keepers
of (iene\a and, as his properly, had been imprisoned in that brothel,
and was held therein as a prisoner and slave. She endured it as long
as she could and finally, as she told this friend of mine, "When I
thought of God I could endure it no longer and I resolved to take the
chances of my life for escape," and she made that fearful leap and
l)roviilentiall>' her life was spared. What must be the nature of the op-
pression that will thus drive its victim to the desjierate straits of this
young girl? It is a slavery worse than the chattelism, in some of its
details, which formerly prevailed in our own country.

Now, what has America to do on this line? America has a fear-
ful responsibility. Though it may not have the actual system of state
regulation, we call ourselves a Christian country, and )-et, in this be-
loved America of ours, in more than one state, under the operation of
the laws called "Age of Consent." a young girl of ten years is held capa-
ble of consenting to her own ruin. Shame, inileed; it is a shame; a
tenfold shame. I api)eal, in i)assing. for league and unity among
religious people for the overthrow of this system in European coun-
tries, and the rescue and redemption of our own land from this gigantic
evil which threatens us liere.

1 now pass to another overshadowing evil, the ever pressing drink
^vil. There was another congress held here in June; it was to deal

li'l'

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

;>;-l

Simplicity in
KoliKiiiUH Life.

with the vice of intemperance. I had the privilege of looking over
forty consular reports prepared at the request of the late secretary oi
state, Mr. Blaine, 'n every one of these reports intemperance was
shown to be a producing cause of a large partof the vice, immorality and
crime in those countries. There is need of an alliance on the part oi
religious jjeople for the removal of this great evil which stands in the
patlr.vay of practical Christian progress.

Now another thought in a different direction. What the 'vorld
greatly needs today in all countries is greater simplicity in connection
with tlie religious life and propagandism. The Society of Friends, in
wliose behalf 1 appear before you, may fairly claim to have bcMi
teachers by example in that direction. We want to banish the spirit
of worldliness from every land, which has taken possession of many
churches, and inaugurate an era of greater simplicity.

The actual progress of Christianity in accordance with its ideal
may be cited, in a sentence, to be measured by the position of women
in all lands. The Society of Friends furnished pioneers in the prisons
of old England and of New Kngland in the direction of Divinely
inspired womanhood. We believe that there is still urgent need of an
enlargement of this sphere to woman and we ought to have it preached
more widely everywhere. There should be leagues and alliances to
help bring about this needed change. The individual stands alone,
unaided, comparatively powerless, but in organization there is great
power, and in the fullness of the life of the spirit, applied through
organization, it is possible to transform the world for its benefit in
many directions.

Some one has described salvation as being simply a harmonious
relationship between God and man. If that be a true description of
the heavenly condition we need not wait till we pass beyond the river
to experience something of the uplift of the joy of salvation. Let us
band together, religious men and women of all names and national-
ities, to bring about this greater harmony between each other and God,
the Father of us all. Then, finally, in all lands antl in every soul, the
lowliest as well as the highest, may this more and more become the
joyous refrain of each, "Nearer, My God, ■;o Thee; Nearer to Thcc."

ji r i !

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>np: ovtr
:retary (,i
ance was
■ality and
c part (.1
els in the

he M'oihl
)nncct,iori
ricnds, in
ivc bc':n

ic spirit
of many

its ideal
• f women
e prisons
Divinely
X'd of an
M-cached
iances to
ds alone,

is j,neal
throii[,di
cnefit in

■monious
iption of
the river
Let lis
riationai-
md God,
soul, the
ome the
hoc."

yhe JVlessage of Christianity to 0^^^**

Religions.

Paper by REV. JAMES S. DENNIS, of New York.

•i.

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IIRISTIAXITY must speak in the name of God.
To Mini it owes its existence, and the deep
secret of its dignity and power is that it reveals
Him. It woukl be effrontery for it to speak
simply upon its own responsibility, or even in
the name of reason. It has no philosophy of
evolution topropound. It has a message from
God to deliver. It is not itself a philosophy;
it is a relij^ioii. It is not earth-born; it is God-
wrouLjht. It comes not from man, but from
God, and is intensely alive with His power, alert
with Ilislove, benij^n with H is j^oodness, radiant
with His litjht, char<^ed with His truth, sent with
His message, inspired with His energy, r^rnant
with His wisdom, instinct with the gift of spir-
itual healing and mighty with sujireme authority.
It has a mission among men, whenever or wherever it finds
them, which is ai? sublime as creation, as marvelous as spiritual
existence, anil as full of mysterious meanirg as eternity. It
fuids its focus, and as well its radiating center, in the personality of its
great Revealer and Teacher, to Whom, before His advent, all the fin-
ders of light pointed; and from When, since His incarnation, all the
brightness of the day has shone. It has a further and supplemental
historic basis in the Holy Scriptures, which God has been pleased to
give through inspired writers chosen and commissioned by I lim.

Its message is much more than Juilaism; it is infinitely more than
tiiG revelation of nature. It has wrought in love, with the touch of
regeperation, with the inspiration of prophetic vision, in the mastery
of spirit control, and by the transforming power of the divine indwell-
ing, until its own best evidence is what it has done to uplift and purify
wherever it has been welcomed among men.

I say welcomed, for Christianity must be received in order to ac-

005

A Hubliine
MixHion.

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

port

complish its mission. It is acklicsscd to the reason and to the heart of
man, but does no violence to liberty. Its limitations are not in its own
nature, but in the freedom which (iod has planted in man. It is not to
be judij^ed, therefore, by what it has achieved in the workl except as
the world has voluntarily received it. Where it is now known, ant!
where it has been i<;nored aiul rejected, it withholds the evidence (jt
its power, but where it has been accepted it does not shrink from the
test, but rather trium|)hs in its achievements. Its attitude toward
mankind is marked by sjjracious urgency, not compulsion; by gentle
condescension, not pride; by kindly ministry, not harshness; by faith-
ful warning, not taunting reproaches; by plain instruction, not argu-
ment; by gentle and quiet command, not noisy harangue; by limitless
promises to faith, not spectacular gifts to sight.

It has a message of supreme import to man, fresh from the heart
Mpsshki^ of of God. It records the great spiritual facts of human history; it an-
nntt™""' ^°'" 'lounccs the perils and needs of men; it reveals the mighty resources
of redemption; it solves the problems and blesses the discipline of life;
it teaches the whole secret of regeneration and hope and moral tri-
umph; it brings to tlie world the co-operation of ilivinc wisdom in tl-'
great struggle with the dark mysteries of misery and suffering. \\
message to the world is so full of quickening inspiration, so res|)lenu
cut with light, so charged with power, so effective in its ministry that
its mission can be characteri/.ed onh' 1)>' the use of the most majestic
symbolism of the natural universe. It is indeed the "sun of righteous-
ness arising with healing in his wings."

We are asked now to consider the message of Christianity toother
religions. If it has a message to a sinful world, it must also have a
message to other religions which are seeking to minister to the same
fallen race and to accomplish in their own way and i)y diverse meth-
ods the ver>' mission (jod has designed should be Christianity's privi-
lege and high function to discharge.

Let us seek now to catch the spirit of that message and to indi-
cate in brief outline its purport. We must be content simply to give
the message; the limits of this paper forbid any attem[)t to vindicate
it, or to demonstrate its historic integrity, its hea\enl}' wisdom, and
its excellent glory.

Its sjjirit is full of simple sincerity, exalted dignity and sweet un-
selfishness. It aims to impart a blessing, rather than to challenge a
comparison. \t is not so anxious to vindicate itself as to confer its
l)enetits. It is not so solicitt)us to secure supreme honor for itself as
to win its way to the heart. It does not seek to taunt, to disparage or
humiliate a rival, but rather to subdue by love, attract by its own ex-
vcllcnce and supplant by virtue of its own incomparaljlc superiority.
It is itself incapable of a spirit f)f ri\alr\-, because of its own indis-
putable right to reign. It has no use for a sneer, it can dispense with
contempt, it carries no weapons of violence, it is not given to argu-
ment, it is incapable of trickery or deceit, and it repudiates cant. It
relics ever upo.i its own intrinsic nu-rit and bases all its claims on its
right to be heard and honoretl.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

607

ItHMiracalous

Its miraculous evidence is rather an exception than a rule. It
was a sign to help weak faith. It was a concession made in the spirit liviiience.
of condescension. Miracles suggest mercy quite as much as they an-
nounce majesty. When we consider the unlimited score of divine
power, and the ease with which signs and wonders might have been
multiplied in bewildering variety and imprcssiveness, we are conscious
of a rigid conservation of power and a distinct repudiation of the
spectacular. The mystery of Christian history is the sparing way in
which Christianity has used its resources. It is a tax upon faith,
which is often painfully severe, t< note the apparent lack of energy
and dash and resistless force in the seemingly slow advances of our
holy religion.

Doubtless God had His reasons, but in the meanwhile we cannot
but recognize in Christianity a spirit of mysterious reserve, a marvelous
patience, of subdued undertone, of purposeful restraint. It does not
"cry, nor lift up, nor cause its voice to be heard in the street." Cent-
uries come and go and Christianity touches only portions of the earth,
but wherever it touches it transfigures. It seems to despise material
adjuncts, and count only those victories worth having which are won
through spiritual contact with the individual soul. Its relation to
other religions has been characteiized by singular reserve, and its prog-
ress has been markeil by an unostentatious dignity which is in
harmony with the majestic attitude of God, its author, to all false gods
who have claimed divine honors and sought to usurp the place which
was His alone.

We are right, then, in speaking of the spirit of this message as
wholly free from the commonplace sentiment of rivalry, entirely above
the use of spectacular or meretricious methods, infinitely removed
from all mere devices or dramatic effect, wholly free from cant or
double faccdness, with no anxiety lor alliance with worldly power or
social eclat, caring more for a place of influence in a humble heart
than for a seat of power on a royal throne, wholly intent on claiming
the loving allegiance of the soul and securing the moral transforma-
tion of character, in order that its own spirit and principles may sway
ilic spiritual life of men.

It speaks, then, to other religions with unqualified frankness and
.^(.liimess, based upon its own incontrovertible claim to a hearing. It
I' ; nothing to conceal, but rather invites to inquiry and investigation.
t iccognizes promptly and cordially whatever is worthy of respect in
ouicr religious systems; it acknowledges the uniloubted sincerity of
personal conviction and the intense earnestness of moral struggle in
the case of many serious souls who, like the Athenians of old, "worship
in igM ranee;" it warns and persuades and commands, as is its right;
it speaks, as Paul did in the presence of cultured heathenism on ^Iars
liill, of that appointed day in which the world must be judged, and of
"that man" by whom it is to be judged; it echoes and re-echoes its
invariable and inflexible call to repentance; it requires acceptance of its
moral standards; it exacts submission, loyalty, reverence and humility.

ecassa

608

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

I--.

'\\

('hnllt'nge
A>liiiii'atiou.

Its Purport.

Fatlierhood.

All this it (Iocs with a superb and unwavcrinrj tone of quiet insist-
ence. It often presses its claim witii arj^ument, appeal and tender
I'rgency, yet in it all and through it all would be recognized a clear,
resonant, predominant tone of uncompromising insistence, revealing
that supreme personal will wiiich originated Christianity, and in whose
' name it ever speaks. It delivers its message with an air of untroubled
confidence and (jiiiet master)'. There is no an.xiety about precedence,
no undue care for externals, no possibility of being patronized, no un-
dignified spirit t)f competition. It speaks, rather, with the conscious-
ness of that simple, natural, incomparable, measureless supremacy
which quickl)' disarms rivalry and in the end challenges the admira-
tion and compels the submission of hearts free from malice and guile.
This being the spirit of the message, let us incpiire as to its
purport. There is one inmiensely preponderating element here which
pervades the whole content of the message— it is love for man.
Christianity is full .>f it. This is its supreme meaning to the world —
not that love eclip .' •>• • hailows every other attribute in God's char-
acter, but tiiat it glo! \\(\ more |)erfectly reveals anil interprets th
nature of (n)tl and the i. .or\' of llis dealing'^ with men. The objec
of this love must be carefull\' noted — it is mankind — the race con-
sidered as individuals, or as a whole.

Christianit)' unfolds a message toother religions which emphasizes
this heavenly principle. It reveals therein the secret of its power and
the unicpie wonder of its whole redemptive system. " Never man
spake like this man, ' was said of Christ. Xever religion spake like thi*
religion, may l)e said of Christianity. The Ciirislian system is con-
ceived in love; it brings the provision of lo\e to fallen man; it
administers its marvelous functions in love; it introduces man into an
atmosphere of love; it gives him the inspiration, the joy, the fruition
of love; it le.uls at last into the realm of eternal love. While accom-
plishing this end, at the same time it convicts of sin, it melts into
humility. We who love and n;vere Christianity believe that it
declares the whole counsel of (jod, and ue are content to rest our case
on the simple statement of its historic facts, its spiritual teachings and
its unrivaled ministry to the world. Christianity is its own best
evidence.

I have sought ti give the essential outline of this immortal mes-
sage of Christianity by grouping its leading characteristics in a
series of cikIc wonls. which, when presented in combination, give the
distinctive signal of the Christian religion which has waved aloft
through sunshine and storm during all the centuries since the New
Testament .Scriptures were given to man.

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
tile 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

'S J

THE IVORLirS COXGRrSS i>F RELIGIONS.

(i(>!»

Redemptirin.

UMidcr relationship the symbolical term of fatlicrliooil is used. Wlici'
(Christ tau{^ht us to jMuy "Our Father," lie ^ave us a lesson which
wanscends 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 ''inception.

A second word wliieh is representative in the Christian message
is Hrotherhood. This exists in two senses— there is the universal Rroturhood.
brotherhood of man to man, as children of one father in whose like-
ness the whole family is created, and the spiritual brotherhood of
union in Christ. Here again the suggestion of love as the rule and
sign of human as well as Christian fellowship. The world has drifted
far away from this ideal of brotherhood; it has been repudiateil in
some quarters even in the name of religion, and it seems clear that it
will never be fully recognized and exemplified exce[)t as the sjjirit of
Christ assumes its sway over the hearts of men.

The next code word of Christianity is Redemption. We use it
here in the sense of a purpose on God's part to deliver man from sin
;uid to make a universal provision for that end, which, if rightly used,
insures the result. I need not remind you tiiat this purpose is conceived
in love. God, as redeemer, has taken a gracious attitude toward man
from the beginning of history, and lie is "not far from every one" in
ihe imminence and omnipresence of His love. Redemi)tion is a
world-embracing term; it is not limited to any age or class. Its
])()tentiality is world-wide; its efficiency is unrestrained except as man
limits it; its application is determined by the sovereign wisdom of
(iod, its author, who deals with each inilivitlual as a possii)le candi-
date for redemption, and decides his destiny in accordance with his
s|)iritual 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, e.xtent and spiritual tests of reilemption 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 i.s infinite. God can apply its saving benefits to one who
intelligently accepts it in faith or to an infant who receives its benefits
as a soverdign gift, or to one who, not having known of Christ, so
casts himself upon God's mercy that divine wisdom sees good reason
to exercise the prerogative of compassion and apply to the soul the
saving power 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 Incarnation,
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 (iod 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 ask the ad-
vice of philosophy. He did not seek the permission of ordinary laws.
He came in His spiritual chariot in the glory of the supernatural, but

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610

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

I!ii

Atonement.

Character.

He entered the realm of human life through the humble gateway ot
nature. He came not only to reveal God but to bring Him into con-
tact with human life. He came to assume permanent 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 doctrine of Atonement. Sin is a fact which
is indisputable. It is universally recognized and acknowledged. It is
its own evidence. It is, moreover, a barrier between man and his God.
The divine holiness and sin, with its loathsomeness, its rebellion, its
horrid degradation and its hopeless ruin cannot coalesce in any .system
of moral government. God cannot tolerate sin or temporize with it
or make a place for it in His presence. He cannot parley with it; He
must punish it. He cannot treat with it; He must try it at the bar.
He cannot overlook it; He must overcome it. He cannot give it a
moral status; He must visit it with the condemnation it deserves.

Atonement is God's marvelous method of vindicating, once for
all, before the universe. His eternal attitude toward sin by the volun-
tary self-assumpt! i 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 resur-
rection take their place in the realm of veritable history, and the moral
value and propitiatory efficacy of His perfect obedience and sacrifical
death in a representative capacity become a mysterious element of
limitle.ss 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 His sacrifice are both available
to faith. The sinner, humble, penitent and conscious of unworthiness,
accepts Christ as his r-deemer, 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 of being Himself just and yet accomplishing the justifi-
cation 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
exeniplification.

This is the heart of the Gospel. It throbs with mysterious love; it
pulsates 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 own attitude to the sinner being settled, and the

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

611

problem of moral government solved, the next matter which presents
itself is the personality of the individual man. It must be purified,
transformed into the spiritual likeness of Christ, trained for immortal-
ity. 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 influence and impulse, a potency and win-
somencss, an inspiration and helpfulness, which is full of spiritual
mastery over the soul. Christianity uplifts, transforms, and eventually
transfigures the personal character. It is a transcendent school of
incomparable ethics. It honors the rugged training of discipline; it
uses it freely but tenderly. It accomplishes its purpose by exacting
obedience, by teaching submission, by helping to self-control, by
insisting upon practical righteousness as a rule of life and by introduc-
ing 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
ministry 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 spiritual 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 wor-
ship which is altogether divorced from work for the weal of others; it
indorses no religious professions which are unmindful of the obliga-
tions 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 Fellowship. 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 transfig-
ures 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
weakness, 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 rfis people and His people with edch other. An
invisible society of regenerate souls, which we call the kingdom of God

■il I!

Servioa.

Fellowship.

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612

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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 Christian-
ity among men.

This, then, is the message which Christianity signals to other
religions as it greets them today: Fatherhood, Hrotherhood, Redemp-
tion, Incarnation, Atonement, Character, Service, Fellowship.

i i:

I '.

v. ii.

! !

■\

Prof, Philip Schaff, New York.

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Xhe [Reunion of Christendom.

Paper bj PROF. PHILIP SCHAFF. D.D., of New York.

lili

VCT)

HE reunion of Christendom presupposes an
original union, which has been marred and
obstructed, but never entirely destroyed. The
theocracy of the Jewish dispensation contin-
ued during the division of the kingdom and dur-
ing the Babylonian exile. Even in the dark-
est time, when Elijah thought that Israel was
wholly given to idolatry, there were seven
thousand — known only to God — who had never
bowed their knees to Baal. The Church of
Christ has been one from the beginning, and He
has pledged to her His unbroken presence "all
the days to the end of the world." The one in-
visible church is the soul which animates the
divided visible churches. All true believers are members of the mys-
tical body of Christ.

The saints in heaven and those on earth

But one communion make;
All join in Christ, their living Head,

And of His grace partake.

Let us briefly mention the prominent points of unity which under-
lie all divisions.

Christians differ in dogmas and theology, but agree in the funda-
mental articles of faith which are necessary to salvation; they believe
in the same Father in heaven, the same Lord and Saviour,and the same
Holy Spirit, and can join in every clause of the Apostles' Creed, of
the Gloria in Excelsis and the Te Deum.

They are divided in church government and discipline, but all ac-
knowledge and obey Christ as the Head of the church and Chief Shep-
herd of our souls.

They differ widely in modes of worship, rites and ccmonies, but
they worship the same God manifested in Christ, they surround the
same throne of grace, they offer from day to day the same petitions
which the Lord has taught them, and can sing the same classical
hymns, whether written by Catholic or Protestant, Greek or Roman,

615

! I

Prominent,
Points of Unity

610

THE WORLD'S COA'UKESS OF K ELI OWNS.

I '::

Modoi of I-iitlicran or Reformed, Calvinist or Methodist, Kpiscopalian or Prcs-
Wowhiii. byteriaii, I'icdo-Haptist or Jiaptist. Some of the best liymn writers,

sucli as Tophidy and Charles Wesley, were antatioiiistic in tlieohigy;
yet their hymns, "Rock of Ajj;es" and "Jesus, Lover of My Soul," are
sunji with ecjual fervor by Calvinists and Methodists. Newman's
"Lead, Kindly Lij;ht" will remain a favorite hymn among Protestants,
although the author left the Church of I^ngland and became a cardinal
of the Church of Rome. "In the Cross of Christ 1 Glory" and
"Nearer, My God, to Thee" were written by devout Unitarians, yet
they have an honored place in every trinitariaa hymnal.

There is a unity of Christian scholarship of all creeds, which aims
at the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. This unity has
been strikingly illustratetl in the Anglo-American revision of the au-
thorized version of the Scriptures, in which about one hundred British
and American scholars — Episcopalians, Independents, Presbyterians,
Methodists, Baptists, Friends and Unitarians, have harmoniously co-
operated for fourteen years ( from 1870 to 1S84).

It was my privilege to attend almost every meeting of the Ameri-
can revisers in the Bible House at New York, and several meetings of
the British revisers in the Jerusalem chamber of Westminster Abbey,
and I can testily that, notwithstanding the positive convictions of the
scholars of the different communions, no sectarian issue was ever
raised, all being bent upon the sole purpose of giving the most faithful
idiomatic rendering of the original Hebrew and Greek. The English
version, in its new as well as its old form, will continue to be t' ^
strongest bond of union among the different sections of Eng'
speaking Christendom, a fact of incalculable importance for pri
devotion and public worship.

iHirmerly, exegetical antl historical studies were too much con-
trolled by, and made subservient to, apologetic and polemic ends; but
now they are more and more carried on without prejudice and with
the sole object of ascertaining the meaning of the text and the facts
of history upon which creeds must be built.

Finally, we must not overlook the ethical unity of Christendom,
which is much stronger than its dogmatic unity and has never been
seriously shaken. The, Greek, the Latin and the Protestant churches,
alike, accept the ten commandments as explained by Christ, or the
law of supreme love to God and love to our neighbor, as the sum and
substance of the law, and they look up to the teaching and example
of our Saviour as the purest and most perfect model for universal
imitation.

Before we discuss reunion we should acknowledge the hand of
Providence in the present divisions of Christendom. There is a great
difference between denominationalism and sectarianism; the first is
consistent with church unity as well as military corps arc with the
unity of an army, or the many monastic orders with the unity of the
papacy; the second is nothing but extended selfishness and bigotry.
Denominationalism is a blessing; sectarianism is a curse.

t! i'l

THE WORLD'S COAGK/:SS OF RELIGIONS.

(U-

Wc must remember that denominations arc most numerous in the
most advanced and active nations of the world. A staj^nant churcli is a stnKnani
a sterile mother. Dead orthodoxy is as bad as heresy, or even worse. lul'Motilor. "^'
Sects are a sign of life and interest in religion. The most important
periods of the church, the Nicene age, and the age of the reformation,
were full of controversy. There are divisions in the church which
cannot be justified, and there are sects which have fulfilled their mis-
sion and ought to cease. liut the historic denominations are permanent
forces and represent various aspects of the Christian religion which
supplement each other.

As the life of our Saviour could not be fully exhibited by one
gospel, nor His doctrine set forth by one apostle, much less could any
one Christian body comprehend and manifest the whole fullness of
Christ and the entire extent of His mission to mankind.

Every one of the great divisions of the church has had, and still
has, its peculiar mission as to territory, race and nationality, and
modes of operation.

The Greek church is especially adapted to the East, to the Greek
and Slavonic peoples; the Roman to the Latin races of southern
Europe and America; the Protestant to the Teutonic races of the North
and West.

Among the Protestant churches, again, some have a special gift
for the cultivation of Christian science and literature; others for the
practial deveh)pment of the Christian life some are most successful
among the higher, others among the miiUlle, and still others among
the lower classes. None of them could be spared without great detri-
ment to the cause of religion ami morality, and witliout leaving its
territory and constituency spiritually destitute. Even an imperfect
church is better than no church.

No schism occurs without guilt on one or on both sides. " It must
needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense
Cometh." Yet God overrules the sins and follies of man for His own
glory.

The separation of Paul and Harnabas, in consccjucnce of their
" sharp contentit)!! " concerning Mark, resulted in the enlargement of
missionary labor. If Luther had not burned the pope's bull, or hail
recanted at Worms, we wouKl not have had a Lutheran cluuch, but be
still under the spiritual tyranny of tiie papaev. If I.uther had accepted
/wingli's hand of fellowshij) at .Marburg the Protestant cause would
have been stronger at the time, but the full development of the char-
acteristic features of the two principal churches of ihe reformation
would have been prevented or obstructed.

If John Wesley had not ordained Coke we would not have a
Methodist Episcopal church, which is the strongest denomination in
the United States. If Chalmers and his friends luul not seceded from
the general assembly of the Kirk of Scotland iii 1S43, forsaking every
comfort for the sake of the whole headship of Christ, we would miss
one of the grandest chapters in modern church history.

V'\

618

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

i;f:

t;:ll

' 1

All divisions of Christendom will, in the providence of God, be
Sinof Schiem. made subservient ;o a greater harmony. Where the sin of schism has
abounded, the grace of future reunion will much more abound.

Taking this view of the division of the church we must reject the
idea of a negative reunion, which would destroy all denominational dis-
tinction and thus undo the work of the past.

History is not like "the baseless fabric of a vision "that leaves
"not a rack behind." It is the unfolding of God's plan of infinite wis-
dom and mercy to mankind. He is the chief actor, and rules and over-
rules the thoughts and deeds of His servants. We are told that our
Heavenly Father has numbered the very hairs of our head, and that
not a sparrow falleth to the ground without His will. The labors of
confessors and martyrs, of missionaries and preachers, of fathers, school
men and reformers, and of the countless host of holy men and women
of all ranks and conditions who lived for the good of the world, can-
not be lost. They constitute a treasure of inestimable value for all the
future time.

Variety in unity and unity in variety is the law of God in nature,
in history and in His kingdom. Unity without variety is dead uni-
formity. There is beauty in variety. There is no harmony without
many sounds, and a garden inclo.ses all kinds of flowers. God has
made no two nations, no two men or women, nor even two trees or two
flowers alike. He has endowed every nation, every church, yea, every
individual Christian with peculiar gifts and graces. His power, His
wisdom and His goodness are reflected in ten thousand forms.

"There are diversities of gifts," says St. Paul, "but the same spirit.
And there are diversities of ministrations, and the same Lord. And
there are diversities of workings, but the same God, who worketh all
things in all. But to each one is given the manifestation of the spirit
to profit withal."

We must, therefore, expect the greatest variety in the church of
the future. There are good Christians who believe in the ultimate tri-
umph of their own creed, or form of government and worship, but they
are all mistaken and indulge in a vain dream. The world will never
become wholly Greek, nor wholly Roman, nor wholly Protestant, but
it will become wholly Christian, and will ini:I.!de every type and every
aspect, every virtue and every grace of Christianity — an endless variety
in harmonious unity, Christ being all in all.

Every denomination which holds to Christ the Head will retain its
distinctive peculiarity, and lay it on the altar of reunion, but it will
cheerfully recognii;e the excellencies and merits of the other branches
of God's kingdom. No sect has the monopoly of truth. The part is
not the whole; the body consists of many members, and all are necessary
to each other.

Episcopalians will prefer their form of government as the best,
but must concede the validity of the non-Episcopal ministry.

Baptists, while holding fast to the primitive mode of immersion
must allow pouring or affusion to be legitimate baptism.

Variety in the
Chnroh of the
Future.

THE WORLD S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

619

ill

•<

Protestants will cease to regard the pope as the anti-Christ pre-
dicted by St. Paul and St. John, and will acknowledge him as the
legitimate head of the Roman church, while the pope ought to recog-
nize the respective rights and privileges of the Greek patriarchs and
evangelical bishops and pastors.

Those who prefer to worship God in the forms of a stated liturgy
ought not to deny others the equal right of free prayer as the spirit
moves them. Even the silent worship of the Quakers has Scripture au-
thority, for there was "a silence in heaven for the spaccof half an hour."
Doctrinal differences will be the most difficult to adjust. When
two dogmas flatly contradict each other, the one denying what the
other asserts, one or the other, or 'both, must be wrong. Truth
excludes error and admits of no compromise.

But truth is many sided and all sided and is reflected in different
colors. The creeds of Christendom, as already remarked, agree in the
essential articles of faith and their differences refer either to minor
points or represent only various aspects of truth and supplement one
another.

Calvinists and Arminians are both right, the former in maintain-
ing the sovereignty of God, the latter in maintaining the freedom and
moral responsibility of man, but they are both wrong, when they deny
one or the other of these two truths, which are equally important,
although we may not be able to reconcile them satisfactorily. The
conflicting theories on the Lord's Supper which have caused the
bitterest controversies among medieval schoolmen and Protestant
reformers turn, after all, only on the mode of Christ's presence, while
all admit the essential fact that lie is spiritually and really present and
pi-itaken of by believers as the Bread of Life from heaven. Even the
two chief differences between Romanists and Protestants concerning
Scripture and tradition as rules of faith, and concerning faith and
good works, as conditions of justification, admit of an adjustment by a
better understanding of the nature and relationship of Scripture and
tradition, of faith and works. The difference is no greater than that
between St. Paul and St. James in their teaching on justification, and
yet the epistles of both stand side by side in the same canon of Holy
Scripture.

We must remember that the dogmas of the church are earthly
vessels for heavenly treasures, or imperfect human definitions of divine
truths, and may be j)roved by better statements with the advance of
knowledge. Our theological systems are but dim rays of the sun of truth
which illuminates the universe. Truth first, doctrine next, dogma last.
The reunion of the entire Catholic churc , Greek and Roman, with
the Protestant churches will require such a cstatement of all the con-
troverted points by both parties as shall remove misrepresentations,
neutralize the anathemas pronounced upon imaginary heresies, and
show the way to harmony in a broader, higher, and deeper conscious-
ness in God's truth and God's love.

In the heat of controversy, and in the struggle for supremacy, the

Doctrinal
UifferencM.

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ControTortod
Points.

^mmmm

lfl\l\

1, <>

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620

Traditional
Orthodoxy.

r/i^i? IVORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

contending parties mutually misrepresented each other's views, put
them in the most unfavorable light, and perverted partial truths into
unmixed errors. Like hostile armies engaged in battle, they aimed at
the destruction of the enemy. Protestants, in their confessions of faith
and polemical works, denounced the pope as the "anti-Christ," the pa-
pists as "idolaters," the Roman mass as an "accursed idolatry," and
the Roman church as " the synagogue of Satan " and "the Babylonian
harlot" — all in perfect honesty, on the ground of certain misunderstood

gassages of St. Paul and St. John, and especially of the mysterious
look of Revelation, whose references to the persecutions of pagan
Roine were directly or indirectly applied to papal Rome. Rome an-
swered by bloody persecutions; the Council of Trent closed with a
double anathema on all Protcsant heretics, and the pope annually re-
peats the curse in the holy week, when all Christians should humbly and
penitently meet around the cross on which the Saviour died for the sins
of the whole world.

When these hostile armies, after a long struggle for supremacy
without success, shall come together for the settlement of terms of
peace, they will be animated by a spirit of conciliation and single de-
votion to the honor of the great head of the church, who is the divine
concord of all human discords.

The whole system of traditional orthodo.xy, Greek, Latin and
Protestant, must progress, or it will be left behind the age and lose its
hold on thinking men. The church must keep pace with civilization,
adjust herself to the modern conditions of religious and political free-
dom and accept the established results of Biblical and historical criti-
cism and natural science. God speaks in history and science as well
as in the Bible and the church, and He cannot contradict Himself.
Truth is sovereign and must and will prevail over all ignorance, error
and prejudice.

Church history has undergone of late a great change, partly in
consequence of the discovery of lost documents and deeper research,
partly on account of the standpoint of the historian and the new spirit
in which history is written.

Many documents on which theories and usages were built have
been abandoned as untenable even by Roman Catholic scholars. Wo
mention the legend of the literal composition of the Apostles' Creed by
the apostles, and of the origin of the creed which was attributed to
Athanasius, though it di.i not appear till four centuries after his death;
the fiction of Constant'.nc's donation, the apocryphal letters of pseudo-
Ignatius, of pseudo- Clement, of pseudo-Isidorus, and other post-
apostolic and medie\al falsifications of history, which were universally
believed till the time ot the reformation, and even down to the eight-
eenth century.

Genuine history is being rewritten from the standpoint of impartial
truth and justice. If facts are found to contravene a cherished theory,
all the worse for the theory; for facts are truths, and truth is of God,
uhile theories are of men.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

621

Formerly church history was made a mere appendix to systematic
theology, or abused and perverted for polemic purposes. The older
historians, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, searched ancient and
medieval history for weapons to defeat their opponents and to estab-
lish their own exclusive claims. F"lacius, the first learned Protestant
historian, saw nothing but anti-Ciiristian darkness in the Middle Ages,
with the exception of a few scattered "testes veritatis," and described
the Roman church from the fifth to the sixteenth century as the great
apostacy of prophecy. But modern Protestant historians, following
the example of Neander, who is called "the father of church history,"
regard the Middle Ages as the period of the conversion and the civili-
zation of the barbarians, as a necessary link between ancient and mod-
ern Christianity, and as the cradle of the reformation.

On the other hand, the opposite type of historiography, repre-
sented by Cardinal Baronius, traced the papacy to the beginning of
the Christian era, maintained its identity through all ages, and de-
nounced the reformers as arch-heretics and the reformation as the foul
source of revolution, war and infidelity, and of all the evils of modern
society. But the impartial scholars of the Roman Catholic church
now admit the necessity of the reformation, the pure and unselfish
motives of tlie reformers, and the beneficial efforts of their labors
upon their own church.

A great change of spirit has also taken place among the historians
of the different IVotestant denominations. Tlie early Lutheran ab-
horrence of Zwinglianism and Calvinism has disappeared from the
[)est Lutheran manuals of church history. The bitterness between
Prelatists and Puritans, Calvinists and Arminians, Baptists and Pcedo-
Baptists, has given way to a calm and just appreciation.

The impartial historian can find no ideal church in any age. It
was a high priest in Aaron's line which crucified the Saviour; a Judas
was among the apostles; all sorts of sins amoiij; cluirch nicMiibers are
rebuked in the l^pistles of the New Tcstanuiit; there were "many
antiCiirists" in the age of St. John. an(' 'irre have been many since,
even in the temple ot God. Nearly all tli aches iiave acted as perse-
cutors when they had a chance, if not by (ire and sword, at least by
niisre|)resentation, vituperation and abuse. For these and all other
sins they should repent in dust and ashes. One onlv is pure and
spotless, the great head of the church, who redeemed it with His
precio-s blood.

But the historian finds, on the other hand, in every age and in
every church, the footprints of Christ, the abundant manifesta ions of
His spirit, and a slow but sure progress toward that idea, church
which St. Paul describes as "the fullness of Him who fiUeth all
in all."

The study of church history, like travel in foreign lands, destro\ s
prejudice, enlarges the horizon, liberalizes the mind, and m ens
charity. Palestine, by its eloquent ruins, serves as a commentary on
the life of Christ, and has not inaptly been called " the Fifth Gospel."

Pennine Hin-
tory.

rfrT

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622

T//E IVORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

' ? M 1

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The Charch
in the Middle
Ages.

'is
5

So also the history of the church furnishes the key to unlock the
meaning of the church in all its ages and branches.

The study of history, "with malice toward none, but with charity
for all," will bring the denominations closer together in an humble
recognition of their defects and a grateful praise for the good which
the same spirit has wrought in them and through them.

Imporl.int changes have also taken place in traditional opinions
and practices once deemed pious and orthodox.

The church in the Middle Ages first condemned the philosophy of
Aristotle, but at last turned it into a powerful ally in the defense of
her doctrines, and so gave to the world the Summa of Thomas
Aquinas and the Commedia of Dante, who regarded the great Stag-
arite as a forerunner of Christ, as a philosophical John the Baptist.
Luther, likewise, in his wrath against scholastic theology, condemned
"the accursed heathen Aristotle," but Melanchthon judged differently,
and Protestant scholarship has long since settled upon a just es-
timate.

Gregory VII, Innocent III, and other popes of the Middle Ages
claimed and exercised the power, as vicars of Christ, to depose kings,
to absolve subjects from their oath of allegiance, and to lay whole na-
tions under the interdict for the disobedience of an individual. But no
pope would presume to do such a thing now, nor would any Catholic
king or nation tolerate it for a moment.

The strange mythical notion of the ancient fathers that the Chris-
tian redemption was the payment of a debt due to the devil, who had
a claim upon men since the fall of Adam, but had forfeited it by the
crucifixion, was abandoned after Anselm had published the more
rational theory of a vicarious atonement in discharge of a debt due
to God.

The un-Christian and horrible doctrine that all unbaptized infants
who never committed any actual transgression are damned forever
and ever prevailed for centuries under the authority of the great and
holy Augustin, but has lost its hold even upon those divines who de-
fend the necessity of water baptism for salvation. Even high Angli-
cans and strict Calvinists admit that all children dying in infancy
are saved.

The equally un-Christian and fearful theory and practice of relig-
ious compulsion and persecution by fire and sword, first mildly sug-
gested by the same Augustin and then formulated by the master theo-
logian of the Middle Ages (Thomas A(]uinas), who deemed a heretic,
or murderer of the soul, more worthy ol death than a murderer of the
body, has given way at last to the theory and practice of toleration
and liberty.

The delusion of witchcraft, which extended even to Puritan New
England and has cost almost as many victims as the tribunals of the
inquisition, has disappeared from all Christian nations forever.

. A few words about the relation of the church to natural and phys-
ical science.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

623

W -.

Protestants and Catholics alike unanimously rejected the Coperni-
can astronomy as a heresy fatal to the geocentric account of the crea-
tion in Genesis, but after a ceniury of opposition, which culminated in
the condemnation of Galileo by the Roman inquisition under Urban
VIII, they have adopted it without a dissenting voice and "the earth
still moves."

Similar concessions will be made to modern geology and biology
when they have passed the stage of conjecture and reached an agree-
ment as to facts. The Bible does not determine the age of the earth
or man and leaves a large margin for difference of opinion even on
purely exegetical grounds. The theory of the evolution of animal life,
far from contradicting the fact of creation, presupposes it, for every
evolution must have a beginning, and this can only be accounted for
by an infinite intelligence and creative will. God's power and wisdom
are even more wonderful in the gradual process of evolution.

The theory of historical development, which corresponds to the
theory of physical evolution, and preceded it, was first denounced by
orthodox divines (within my own recollection) as a dangerous error
leading to infidelity, but is now adopted by every historian, and is in-
dorsed by Christ Himself in the twin parables of the mustard seed tnd
the leaven. " First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in
the ear;" this is the order of the unfolding of the Christian life, both
in the individual and the church. But there is another law of develop-
ment no less important, which may be called the law of creative head-
ships. Every important intellectual and religious movement begins
with a towering personality which cannot be explained from ante-
cedents, but marks a new epoch.

The Bible, we must all acknowledge, is not, and never claimed to
be, a guide of chronology, astronomy, geology, or any other science,
but solely a book of religion, a rule of faith and practice, a guide to
holy living and dying. There is, therefore, no room for a conflict be-
tween the Bible and science, faith and reason, authority and freedom,
the church and civilization.

Before the reunion of Christendom can be accomplished, we must
expect providential events, new pentecosts, new reformations — as great
as any that have gone before. The twentieth century has marvelous
surprises in store for the church and the world, which may surpass
even those of the nineteenth. History now moves with telegraphic
speed, and may accomplish the work of years in a single day. The
modern inventions of the steamboat, the telegraph, the power of
electricity, the progress of science and of international law (which
regulates commerce by land and by sea and will in due time make an
end of war), link all the civilized nations into one vast brotherhood.

Let us consider some of the moral means by which a similar
affiliation and consolidation of the different churches may be hastened:

The cultivation of an irenic and Evangelical-Catholic spirit in the
personal intercourse with our fellow Christians of other denominations.
VVe must meet them on a common rather than on disputed grounds,

('onceBsioDn
to Geology ami
Biology.

j 4

III

For thr Con-
solidHtioa of
Churches.

WWl

Mi!

624

T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

uionary work.

i I

and assume that they are as honest and earnest as we in the pursuit
of truth. We must make allowance for differences in education and
surroundings, which to a large extent account for differences of opin-
ion. Courtesy and kindness conciliate, while suspicion excites
irritation and attack. Controversy will never cease, but the golden
rule of the most polemic among the apostles, to " speak the truth in
love," cannot be too often repeated. Nor should we forget the
seraphic description of love, which the same apostle commends above
all other gifts and the tongues of men and angels, yea, even above
faith and hope.

Co-operation in Christian and philanthropic work draws men to-
gether and promotes their mutual confidence and regard. Faith
without works is dead. Sentiment and talk without union are idle
without actual manifestation in works of charity and philanthropy.

Missionary societies should at once come to a definite agreement
Union of of- Prohibiting all mutual interference in their efforts to spread the Gospel
fort in MiB- at homc and abroad. Every missionary of the cross should wish and
pray for the prosperity of all other missionaries, and lend a helping
hand in trouble. What then? Only that in every way, whether in
pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and therein I rejoice, yea,
and will rejoice.

It is preposterous, yea, wicked, to trouble the minds of the
heathen or of the Roman Catholic with our domestic quarrels, and to
plant half a dozen rival churches in small towns where one or two
would suffice, thus saving men and means. Unfortunately, the secta-
rian spirit and mistaken zeal for peculiar views and customs very ma-
terially interfere with the success of our vast expenditures and efforts
for the conversion of the world.

The study of church history has already been mentioned as an
important means of correcting sectarian prejudices and increasing mut
ual appreciation. The .study of symbolic or comparative theology is
one of the most important branches of history in this respect, espe-
cially in our country, where professors of all the creeds of Christendom
meet in daily contact, and should become thoroughly acquainted with
one another.

We welcome to the reunion of Christendom all denominations
which have followed the Divine Master and have done His work. Let
us forgive and forget their many sins and errors and remember only
their virtues and merits.

The Greek church is a glorious church, for in her language have
come down to us the oracles of God, the .Scptuagint, the Gospels and
Epistles; hers are the early confessors and martyrs, the Christian
fathers, bishops, patriarchs and emperors; hers the immortal »vritings
of Origen, Eusebius,. y\thanasius and Chrysostom; hers the CEcumen-
ical councils and the Nicene creed, which can never die.

The- Latin church is a glorious church; for she carried the treas-
ures of Christian and classical literature over the gulf of the migra-
tion of nations, and preserved order in the chaos of civil wars; she

ursuit
m and

opin-
ixcites
jolden
uth in
et the

above

THE WORLUS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

fi25

was the alma mater of the barbarians of Europe; she turned painted
savages into civilized beings, and worshipers of idols into worshipers
of Christ; she built up the colossal structures of the papal theocracy,
the cathedrals and the universities; she produced the profound sys-
tems of scholastic and mystic theology; she stimulated and patronized
the renaissance, the printing press and the discovery of a new world;
she still stands, like an immovable rock, bearing witness to the funda-
mental truths and facts of our holy religion, and to the catholicity,
unity, unbroken continuity, and independence of the church; and she
is as zealous as ever in missionary enterprise and self-denying works
of Christian charity.

We hail the reformation which redeemed us from the yoke of spirit-
ual despotism, and secured us religious liberty, the most precious of
all liberties, and made the Bible in every language a book for all
classes and conditions of men.

The Evangelical Lutheran church, the first-born daughter of the
reformation, is a glorious church, for she set the word of God above
the traditions of men, and bore witness to the comforting truth of jus-
tification by faith; she struck the keynote to thousands of sweet hymns
in praise of the Redeemer; she is boldly and reverently investigating
the problems of faith and philosophy, and is constantly making valu-
able additions to theological lore.

The Evangelical Reformed church is a glorious church, for she
carried reformation from the Alps and lakes of .Switzerland "to the
end of the West" (to use the words of the Roman Clement about St.
Paul); she furnished more martyrs of conscience in France and the
Netherlands alone than any other church, even during the first three
centuries; she educated heroic races, like the Huguenots, the Dutch,
the Puritans, the Covenanters, the Pilgrim P'athers, who by the fear of
God were raised above the fear of tyrants, and lived and died for the
advancement of civil and religious liberty; she is rich in learning and
good works of faith; she keeps pace with all true progress; she grapples
with the problems and evils of modern society, and she sends the Gos-
pel to the ends of the earth.

The I'lpiscopal church, of England, the most churchly of the
reformed family, is a glorious church, for she gave to the English-
speaking world the best version of the Holy Scriptures and the best
prayer book; she preserved the order and dignity of the ministry and
public worship; she nursed the knowledge and love of antiquity and
enriched the treasury of Christian literature, and by the Anglo-Catholic
revival under the moral, intellectual and poetic leadership of three
shining lights of Oxford — Pusey, Newman and Keble — she infused new
life into her institutions and customs and prepared the way for a better
understanding between Anglicanism and Romanism.

The Presbyterian church, of Scotland, the most flourishing daughter
of Geneva — as John Knox, " who never feared the face of man," was
the most faithful disciple of Calvin — is a glorious church, for she turned
a barren country into a garden, and raised a poor and semi-barbarous

Glor
Churclic

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Olorioas So-
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people to a level with the richest and most intelligent nations; she
diffused the knowledge of the Bible and a love of the kirk in the huts
of the peasants as well as the palaces of the noblemen; she has always
stood up for church order and discipline, for the rights of the laity, and
first and last for the crown rights of King Jesus, which are above all
earthly crowns, even that of the proudest monarch in whose dominion
the sun never sets.

The Congregational church is a glorious church, for she has taught
the principle and proved the capacity of congregational independence
and self-government based upon a living faith in Christ, without
diminishing the effect of voluntary co-operation in the Master's serv-
ice; and has laid the foundation of New England, with its literary and
theological institutions and high social culture.

The Baptist church is a glorious church, for she has borne, and still
bears, testimony to the primitive mode of baptism, to the purity of the
congregation, to the separation of church and state, and the liberty of
conscience; and has given to the world the " Pilgrim's Progress," of
Bunyan, such preachers as Robert Hall and Charles H. Spurgeon, and
such missionaries as Carey and Judson.

The Methodist church, the church of John Wesley, Charles Wesley
and George Whitefield — three of the best and most apostolic English-
men, abounding in useful labors, the first as a ruler and organizer, the
second as a hymnist, the third as an evangelist — is a glorious church,
for she produced the greatest religious revival since the day of pente-
cost; she preaches a free and full salvation to all; she is never afraid to
fight the devil and she is hopefully and cheerfully marching on, in
both hemispheres, as an army of conquest.

The Society of Friends, though one of the smallest tribes in Israel,
is a glorious society, for it has borne witness to the Inner Light which
" lighteth every man that cometh into the world;" it has proved the
superiority of the Spirit over all forms; it has done noble service in
promoting tolerance and liberty, in prison reform, the emancipation
of slaves and other works of Christian philanthropy.

The Brotherhood of the Moravians, founded by Count Zinzendorf,
a true nobleman of nature and of grace, is a glorious brotherhood, for
it is the pioneer of heathen missions, and of Christian union among
Protestant churches. It was like an oasis in the desert of German
rationalism at home, while its missionaries went forth to the lowest
savages in distant lands to bring them to Christ, I beheld with won-
der and admiration a venerable Moravian couple devoting their lives
to the care of hopeless lepers in the vicinity of Jerusalem.

Nor should we forget the services of many who are accounted
heretics.

The Waldenses were witnesses of a pure and simple faith in times
of superstition, and having outlived many bloody persecutions, are now
missionaries among the descendants of their persecutors.

The Anabaptists and Socinians, who were so cruelly treated in the
sixteenth century by Protestants and Romanists alike, were the first tu

i. t

THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

627

trinitarian faith of
a protest against

raise their voice for religious liberty and the voluntary principle in
religion,

Unitarianism is a serious departure from the
orthodox Christendom, but it did good service as
tritheism, and against a stiff, narrow and uncharitable orthodoxy. It
brought into prominence the human perfection of Christ's character
and illustrated the effect of His example in the noble lives and devo-
tional writings of such men as Channing and Martineau. It has also
given us some of our purest and sweetest poets, as Emerson, Bryant,
Longfellow and Lowell, whom all good men must honor and love for
their lofty moral tone.

Universalism may be condemned as a doctrine, but it has a right
to protest against a gross materialistic theory of hell with all its
Dantesque horrors, and against the once widely spread popular belief
that the overwhelming majority of the human race, including countless
millions of innocent infants, will forever perish. Nor shall we forget
that some of the greatest divines, from Origcn and Gregory of Nyssa,
down to Bengel and Schleiermacher, believed in, or hoped for, the
ultimate return of all rational creatures to the God of love, who created
them in His own image and for His own glory.

And coming down to the latest organization of Christian work,
which does not claim to be a church, but which is a help to all churches
— the Salvation Army — we hail it, in spite of its strange and abnormal
methods, as the most effective revival agency since the days of Wes-
ley and Whitefield: for it descends to the lowest depths of degradation
and misery, and brings the light and comfort of the Gospel to the
slums of our large cities. Let us thank God for the noble men and
women, who, under the inspiration of the love of Christ and unmindful
of hardship, ridicule and persecution, sacrifice their lives to the rescue
of the hopeless outcasts of society. Truly these good Samaritans are
an honor to the name of Christ and a benediction to a lost world.

There is room for all these and many other churches and societies
in the kingdom of God, whose height and depth and length and
breadth, variety and beauty, surpass human comprehension.

SalTBtion Ar-
my Effective.

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Tombs of Queen Taia, iSth Dynasty; King Menephtah, 19th Dynasty, (Exodus);

and Unknown.

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Xhe Present Outlook of Religions.

Paper by REV. GEORGE F. PENTECOST, of London, England.

HE center of the world's political power was

Rome, as it was the chief seat of the world's

religious philosophies. There was the throne

^j^^K^.^^^^^^- of the C:esars; there the Pantheon with its

r'^^^K/'A^^^^^B many p^ods; and there the famous schools uf

,, .-^__, ^^ _l^_^— J philosophy. There, also, was a small Christian

^ f^SK mJmjSSm church — composed of a few believinj^ Jews, a

lartjer number of poor frecdmen and slaves,
with here and there an "honorable" person
and some servants of C;esar's household — the
fame of whose faith had been spread abroad,
until I'aul, whose habit it was never to build on
another man's foundation, came to desire
greatly to visit that church and himself gain
some fruit also in the world's ca]>ital. lie had often intended to visit
Rome, but had been hindered. So, for the present, he betakes himself
to his pen and informs these Christians of his desire and purpose and
anticipates his work in person by writing the most massi\e exposition
of the Gospel which the Christian church [)ossesses. This I'Lpistle has
been rightly designated the Magna Charta of the Christian faith. It
is tertainly an unfolding of the doctrines of Christ. It is an Epistle in
which alone may be found every fundamental of our faith and
practice.

In visiting Rome, the world's seat of empire, religion and learning,
what hope had Paul of gaining a hearing for the Gospel of the Crucified
One? What rational hope was there that he could successfully com-
pete with the triple power of Rome and win men and women to Christ
by means of the foolishness of preaching Christ and Mini crucified?

How could he hope to win even the common people from the age
f 1 old religions of the heathen world, which still held the masses in
th'. shackles of superstition; how overcome the aristocratic influence
of the philosophers, who still dominated the cultured portion of the
empire; and especially how could he hope to exalt into supreme
power the Gospel of Christ, under the very throne from whose authority
went forth the sentence of death against Christ Himself, at the same

629

Panl'H Epie
do to the R(i
muns.

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Liberty
Fraedom.

and

630

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

time branding Him as an impostor and traitor? All these things were,
no doubt, in Paul's mind, and gave color to this ringing declaration:
"I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God
unto salvation to every one that bclicvcth."

Here is sublime faith and courage in what seemed to the world a
madman's dream. His reasons for his faith are crowded into this
single sentence, in which he contrasts God's power with the powers of
the world. Here is a universal good, offered in competition with
those philosophies which are kept exclusively for men of wealth,
culture, and leisure and which, at best, were cold speculative theories.

In respect of the conquest of the world, or what remains of it
among those nations to which the preachers of the Gospel have gone
forth, we are occupying much the same standpoint as did Paul. Wc
are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, and are ready to preach it
and vindicate it in the face of all the world by every reason which
appeals alike to the intellect, heart and the conscience.

The powers of the world do not daunt us; nor are we ashamed to
dispute with the wise men and scribes of the schools, nor to contend
with the darkest superstition, which enthralls the minds of millions
yet unenlightened by the cross of Christ. In this regard it is a great
privilege for us Christians to meet face to face in this parliament the
representatives of many ancient religions and equally ancient philoso-
phies; to give to them a reason for the faith and hope that is in us,
and show them the grounds upon which wc base our contention that
Christianity is the only possible universal religion, as it is certainly
the only complete and God-given revelation.

Happily, there is in this great country no political power to hinder
us or make us afraid to worship God according to the dictates of our
own conscience. Demanding absolute liberty for ourselves, we are no
less strenuous in our demand that they of other faiths shall enjoy the
like freedom.

When Paul declared, " I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ,"
he meant to say, "There is nothing in the Gospel of Christ which
causes me to blush or drop my eyes in the face of any man or of all men.
I do not have to apologize for believing the Gospel or preaching it, as
if there were anything in it or about it that cannot bear the closest
scrutiny from every point of view; either respecting its historical basis
of fact, its divine rationality, its ethical system or its power to be-
stow salvation upon man. The more light that can be brought to
bear upon the Gospel the less I am ashamed of it; the more closely it
is examined in all its parts the better pleased I will be. I am ready
to come to Rome and in the presence of politicians, philosophers and
priests of superstitution open up and defend the Gospel of Christ."
The word translated " ashamed " also bears the meaning of being
" disappointed," as in Romans, v, 5.

That is to say, Paul's position is this: " Feeble and foolish as the
wise men of this world may deem the Gospel of Christ, great as are the
forces, political, religious and philosophical, arrayed against it, I am

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

081

not fearful of the final outcome of the conflict of Christianity with the
religions and philosophies of paganism, nor, indeed, with the strong
arm of the world's political power. The Gospel of Christ is founded
upon a rock, and made one with its foundation, so that not even the
gates of death shall prevail against it. The power of God is greater
than all possible opposing powers. All power has been given into the
hands of Jesus Christ, for the propagation and defense of His gospel,
and to give eternal life to as many as believe in Him."

Let us now give our attention to the first of these propositions, " I
am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ."

We are not ashamed of its antiquity. Some of the religions of
the Roman Empire boasted of great antiquity. Indeed, they based
their religions on myths whose fancied existence antedated history.
This is an easy way to secure antiquity for any faith. There are those
among us today, who will tell you that, as compared with their faiths,
Christianity is but as the infant of days. The i3rahma will tell us that
for four thousand years his Aryan ancestors have worshiped the
Indian triad on the banks of the Ganges and at Jumna; that the holy
city of Benares was the flourishing seat of their faith before Abraham
left Ur of the Chaldees, and that it has had an unbroken municipality
ever since. Peculiarly destitute of the historical sense, millions of
years are as easily managed by the orientals as decades are with us.
Claiming eternity for their Buddhas and their Puranic heroes, they
easily antedate all other faiths by this convenient method.

In our prosaic century, however, these magnificent claims for an
antiquity which antedates historic times by millions of years go for
nothing.

On the other hand, Christianity is peculiarly buttressed by historic
facts. We are often charged by orientals with being the propagators
of a modern faith, because, by our own claims, Jesus Christ did not
appear until the comparatively recent time of two millenniums ago.
The Hindu faith was then already hoary with age. But Christianity
does not date from the birth of Christ. Christ crucified two thousand
years ago was only the culmination in time, and to our sense, of a
revelation already ages old.

Abraham believed in Christ and rejoiced to see His day approach-
ing. Christ was believed on in the wilderness when Moses was bring-
ing his children of Israel out of Egypt; for "the Gospel was preached
to them as well as to us." Nay, we need only to read the first simple
records of our historic faith to learn that no sooner did man sin and
fall from communion in righteousness with God, and ere there was yet
a man born unto the world, than God gave to the primeval pair a
promise of salvation through Christ. Since that day faith and hope in
Christ, "the seed of the woman" who should deliver the world from
sin, like two mighty torches have been held aloft by prophet, sage
and psalmist, flinging their bright prophetic rays down the vista of the
ages until they were gathered up in and flung out again upon the whole
world in fullness of glory by the coming of Him who is the True Light
that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

Not Ashamed,

^- \\

632

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

'I '

I : !

If this statement is deemed to be overdrawn we are prepared to
compare the literature of Christianity with that of all ot'.^r religions,
I mean its foundation literature, and trace back, step by step, checking
it vvi*:h historical records of the pa t, written in books with the pen,
graven in the rock, and contaiiied in monumental ruins cither above
ground or under the mounds of past ages. But we claim no revela-
tion given before the age of our race, and put forth no myth which
antedates the history of earth and man. As far back as history goes
the records of our faith arc found. Every turn of the archaeologist's
spade confirms the truth of them. In this respect we are not ashamed
of the GospeU Its historical antiquity stands unrivaled among the
religions of the world.

We arc not ashamed of its prophetic character. This point I have
almost anticipated by a remark just now made, yet it is worth while to
devote a sentence more to it. Christ's appearante in this world nine-
teen centuries ago was not an unexpected event. For centuries, even
from the beginning of man's spiritual need. He had b.'en looked
and longed for, foretold in a hundred predictions, uttered l»y prophets
of many ages and of different types of mind and in man/ .ountries;
gazed upon in spiritual vision, and sung forth by psalmi; cs of many
centuries; His coming is set in symbol and sacrifice, in type and cere-
mony. An entire nation, whose wonderful people are still xattered
among all nations, hac its origin, development and marvelous
history in the hope of His coming.

Therefore says Paul, " I am a servant of Jesus Christ, separated
unto the Gospel of God, which He had afore promised by His holy
prophets in the Scriptures, concerning H'sSon, Jesus Christ, our Lord,
which was made of the seed of David, accordi;ig to the flesh, and
declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of
holiness by the resurrection of the dead."

Every detail of His advent was predictt-I ages before He came;
every circumstance and characteristic of His ministry was the subject
of prophecy. His resur* action predicted the spread of His Gospel
among all nations foretold. In this respect the Gospel stands without
a rival upon the face of the world.

The heroes of the world's religions have bi en either myths or un-
RorpeBof the looked-for lucu springing up among their fellows, for whom their
ionX' ^ '"^' disci[)les neither looked nor were prepared. Who prophesied the com-
ing of Confuciu?, or Zoroaster, or Krishna, or Buddha? Moreover,
none of these heroes or leaders of men were in any sense saviours.
They were, at best teachers, throwing their followers back upon them-
selves to work out their own salvation as they best might. Jesus stands
Cin an entirely different platform, declaring Himself to be the way, the
truth and the life. And so at His birth the angels heralded: " For
unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour which shall
be unto all people."

Christianit)' is not belief in a doctrine nor primarily a life work,
but it consists in a living union with a living Saviour.

THE WORLUS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

633

If we consult the Bibles of the world's religions we find the same
absence of pathetic sequence. There is, indeed, growth of a kind seen
in the ancient Scriptures of the Hindus, but no living evolution from
pathetic seed to fruitful branch of promises fulfilled. The great truth
of Christianity alone appealed to previous promises and prophecies.
In every development of fact and doctrine in the Christian religion
this is the appeal made, "according to the Scriptures," or "as God had
afore promised," or "thus it is written and thus it behooved." Chris-
tianity was planted a jjromise in the soil of human nature so soon as
man appeared on the earth, and has grown steadily without check or
deviation until this mighty tree of life has spread its branches through-
out the world and lifted them high uj) against the sky. The natural-
ists tell us that the topmu..t leaf on the outermost branch of any tree
may be traced backward and downward by a living fiber until it finds
its beginning in the roots deep under the ground. So it is with the
facts and doctrines of Christianity. The tree of life in the paradise of
God, as seen in the Revelation, sends its living threads downward
through the writings of apostles and j)rophcts until we unearth them
in the garden of Kden.

We are not ashameil of the divine author of Christianity.
Whether we consider the character of Jehovah-God of the Old Testa-
ment, or of the Jesus-God of the New Testament, there is nothing in
either that suffers by the highest ethical criticism which may be
applied to them. In the Old Testament, from the beginning, God pro-
claims Himself in love, holiness, righteousness, truth and mercy. One
passage out of hundreds will suffice for an illustration of this. When
God gave to Rloses the tables of stone, on which He had written
His law, He "descended in a cloud and stood with him there and
proclaimed the name," tliat is, the character of God. " And the Lord
passed before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful
and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keep-
ing mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,
and that will by no means clear the guilty."

We might well challenge comparison to this passage, in which
God reveals His character, from the pages of any religious writing or
philosophical speculation e.xtant in the world. As concerning Jesus,
the incarnate God of the New Testament — "holy, harmless, undefiled
and separate from sinners," " touched with every feeling of our
infirmity," and "tempted in all points like as we, yet without sin," the
" friend of publicans and sinners " coming into the world to seek and
save that which was lost, to call sinners rather than righteous men to
repentance — He stands without a peer among men or gods.

The moral glory of His character lifts Him head and shoulders
above that of all men or beings, ideal or real, with which we are
acquainted. Nineteen centuries of study have only served to inciease
His glory and confirm and deepen His divine human influence over
men; even His worst enemies are among the first to lay at His feet a
tribute to His greatness, goodness and glory. He is, indeed, in the

Tlio Divine
A u t h o r of
Christianity.

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634

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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Highest idod-
el of Religion.

language of a distinguished Hindu gentleman and scholar, uttered in
my presence in the old Mahratta city of Poona and before an audience
of a thousand of his Brahmanical fellows, "the peerless Christ."

To compare Him to any of the gods worshiped by the Hindus is
to mock both them and Him; to compare Him with any of the great
religious teachers and philosophers of the world, who, while not claim-
ing for themselves divinity, are put forth by their followers as the
highest and brightest examples of human wisdom and character, is
only to dazzle their wisdom, dwarf their character, and reveal their
thousand and sometimes nameless thoughts in the resplendent bright-
ness of His glory.

Before Jesus came into the world it was the custom of religious
men to create an ideal character upon which to model life. No such
ideal character ever satisfied the demands of the moral consciousness
of the ancient world. Since Jesus came no further attempt has been
made to idealize human nature, for one is here whose moral glory
shines and glows upon the pages of the Gospels with a brightness and
perfection which leaves room only for admiration, wonder and wor-
ship.

It is the moral glory of character that has compelled the homage
of those even who blindly reject His supernatural origin, compelling
flippant Strauss to say: "Jesus represents within the sphere of religion
the culminating point, beyond which posterity can never go, yea,
which it cannot even equal, He remains the highest model of religion
within the reach of our thought and no perfect piety is possible with-
out His presence in the heart."

Renan says: "Whatsoever may be the surprises of the future,
Jesus will never be surpassed. His worship will grow young without
ceasing. All ages will proclaim that among the sons of men there is
none born greater than Jesus." Goethe, the father of the modern
school of high culture, in one of his utterances expres.ses the convic-
tion " that the human mind, no matter how much it may advance in
intellectual culture and the extent and depth of the knowledge of
nature, will never transcend the high moral culture of Christianity as
it shines and glows in the canonical Gospels." Napoleon, the Great,
declared: "I search in vain in history to find one equal to Jesus
Christ or anything which can approach the Gospel. Neither history,
nor humanity, nor the ages, nor nature afford me anything with which
I am able to compare or by which to explain it."

These are not the testimonies of devoted but prejudiced disciples
of Jesus and Christianity, but the voluntary testimony of men who
could do naught else, though they rejected Him as their personal Sa-
viour. Why is it that "rationalism today cannot look at Him closely
except on its knees?" Simply because of the infinite perfection and
moral glory of His character, which stamps itself upon all His teaching,
and without which the demands which He makes upon His disciples to
follow Him and to believe unhesitatingly all His words would have
long ago been repudiated by the world. There is no such discrepancy

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

685

between the teachings of Jesus and the character of Jesus as is gen-
erally manifest between the teachings of Hinsua in the Gita and the
character of Hinsua as set forth in the Parana,

We are not ashamed of the ethical basis of the Gospel. Without
denying that there is to be found ethical teaching of great beauty in
the non-Christian religions of the world, it is still true that these re-
ligions lay their stress upon their cults rather than upon moral culture.
Among most of them there is a striking divorce between religion and
morals, if, indeed, these are ever found joined together. But in the
Gospel we find that the final test of Christianity is in its power to re-
generate and sanctify man.

The moral basis of Christianity may be found throughout the
Scriptures; but for the sake of brevity we take only two examples:

The first is that code of righteousness revealed by God to Moses,
and which we commonly speak of as the ten commandments. It is
strikingly significant that this wonderful moral law was communicated
at a period when ethical truth among the then existing nations was at
its lowest point and the morals of the people lower than the teaching.
Where did Moses get these words? Not from Egypt, nor from the
desert where for forty years he lived. They were written by the
finger of God and given to him.

God halted the Israelites, to declare to them not only His character,
but to lay down for them a law of righteousness in the keeping of
which there was life and in the disregard of which there was death.
With the exception of the single commandment in respect to the Sab-
bath day, consecrated to the worship of God, every one of them bears
directly on personal morality and righteousness. We need not stop to
discuss the unmeasured superiority of these ten words to any code of
morals which up to that time the world had ever known. Nor need we
do more than remark that, after nearly four thousand years, tested by
every intervening age and the most rigid criticism which the advanc-
ing moral sense of man (largely developed by the power of this very
law), these words still stand unrivaled. Who has ever proposed an
amendment either by addition or elimination to this matchless moral
code?

Passing from the Old Testament to the New, we have only to call
attention to the Sermon on the Mount. These of Jesus spoken to His
disciples are but the transfiguration of the ten words given by God to
Moses. Jesus declared that He came not to relax or destroy the moral
teachings of either the law or the prophets, but to fulfill them. There-
fore, in speaking 'o His disciples He first ratified the ancient code and
then expounded i'.. In the law we see the trunk of a tree, but in the
Gospel the Tree of Life from its base upward is unfolded. The Ser-
mon on the Mount digged up its very roots and exposed the hidden
life to view. The law deals with actions; the Sermon on the Mount
with character. We may be permitted to make the same remark of
these wonderful words of Jesus that we did respecting the ten com-
mandments: Who has ever assumed to revise the Sermon on the

Hermon on
the Mount.

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

mW-

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Clear Liffht
of Midday Rev-
elation.

Mount in order to eliminate that which is not good or add to it that
which it lacked in the way of moral teaching? And may we not ask
where can there be found in religious literature a code of morals with
which this Sermon on the Mount may be compared ? It has been urged
against this claim that Jesus was not altogether an original teacher;
that some, if not many, of His most beautiful sayings are to be founil
in the writings of most ancient teachers. Notably, it has been declared
that the beautiful maxim of Christ known as the golden rule was bor-
rowed by Jesus from some religious predecessor. But even a casual
comparison of the sayings of Christ with those of other teachers will
show a vast difference. Truths partially uttered of old, when taken up
and stated by our Saviour, are lifted out of the dark and negative sur-
roundings into their positive and unselfish fullness. They are energized
and filled with the fullness of His own life, henceforth going forward
unfettered to their mission of rcgenernting the world of fallen human-
ity. Is it that the truths, or partial truths, spoken by the ancients, dead
and powerless for ages, were raised to life and given to the world with
all the fresliness and power of an original revelation from God in the
lips of Jesus? How is ittliat, while hardly anybody besides the scholar
knows of these sayings of the ancient, every child knows and feels the
power of the Golden Rule of Jesus? Is it not because one class of
maxims contains but partial or half truths, while the sayings of Jesus
are the truth and that Jesus embodied them in His own light?

But, beyond the ethical teachings of Christ, which are without
question far in advance of all statements which the work! had ever
had, and which stand today upon the outermost confines of possible
statement, Jesus has brought to us a revelation of God Himself, not
only as to the fact of His being, but as to His nature and the love and
grace of His purpose towartl men. Moreover, He has shown in us
what we are ourselves, from whence we are fallen, and unto what the
purpose of God designs to lift us, together with all the necessary truth
concerning human sin; how it is to lie put away and man set free from
its intolerable guilt and bondage. Besides this, again, the misery of
death is unfolded, while life and immortality are brought to light. All
these (juestions have been matters of philosophical inquiry, albeit the
inquiry has confessedly been made in the dark. The latest utterances
from scientific headquarters have declared that concerning them
science is agnostic, without knowledge or the power to know. But
Jesus handletl these mighty questions with a master's hand and floods
them with the clear light of midday revelation.

\Ve are not ashamed of its doctrines or salvation. The Gospel is
the power of God unto salvation. For our present purpose I may
mention these followin^.^: Incarnation, atonement, regeneration and
resurrection. It will be observed that these great doctrines are all in-
separably associated with facts and life. In other words, Christianity
is a history, a doctrine and a life. History, back of its doctrine, doc-
trine growing out of its history, and life springing from these. The
final test of the truth of the history and the doctrine is the life which
r^jsults from them. Let me briefly summarize these;

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

(537

By the incarnation, roughly speaking, we mean that revelation
which God made of Himself in Jesus Christ. All natural religions and
philosophies show us man seeking after God if happily he may find
II im, but here only do we see God seeking after man. The incarna-
tion shows us not only God seeking after man, but identifying Himself
with man; not simply acting in grace toward him, but by taking his
very nature into union with Himself, and by that union crowning him
with glory and honor. Originally made lower than the angels, we see
Him in Christ, carried through every stage of existence and seated at
last at the right hand of God.

The incarnation shows us what God's thought was in His creation
— the broken image of God as seen in man is more than restored in
Christ, who is the express image of the Father — the demonstration of
God'scharacterand the very brightness of His glory. This not only in
respect of the risen and glorified Christ, but of the man Christ Jesus as
He lived and moved among men. What shall we say of that match-
loss life, its jjurity, its power, and its divine benevolence? Do men
scoff at the miracles of mercy wrought by Christ as being fables and
inventions of the religious imagination? Do they compare them with
the fabulous and mythical stories of the gods and heroes of the orient?
When preaching to the educated iMiglish gentlemen of India I was
often confronted with the statement that "the gods and heroes of
India wrought more and greater miracles than Jesus; they, too, fed
the multitudes, opened the eyes of the blind, and healed the sick."
When I asked for the proof they had none to give except the Puranic
stories.

When they in turn challenged me for proof I simply said: "Look
around you, even here in India. The reported miracles of your gods
r.nd heroes stand only in stories, but each miracle of Christ was a liv-
ing seed of power and love planted in human nature and has sprung
up and flourished again, bringing forth after its kind wherever the
(iospel is preached. Who cares for the lepers; who for the sick and
the blind, the deaf and the maimed? Till Christ came to India these
were left to die without care or help, but now every miracle of Christ
is perpetuated in some hospital devoted to the care and cure of those
who are in like case with the sufferers whom Christ healed."

This is the difference between the fables of the ancients and the
living wonders wrought by the living Christ. He Himself, the em-
l)odimcnt of righteousness, love, pity, tenderness, gentleness, patience
and all heavenly helpfulness, being the greatest miracle of all — Jesus
among men, as we see Him in the gospels, is (iod's image restored to
us, and through Him acting in grace toward men.

"Sir," said an old gray-haired Brahman to mc one day, "I am a
Hindu and always shall be, but I cannot help loving Him. The world
never knew the like of Him before. When I think of Him I am
ashamed of our gods."

In the doctrine of atonement we see the solution of one of the
oldest and most stressful questions of the human mind. How God

Miracles
Morcy.

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Attitude of
<}od toward
Biuners.

may still "be just and yet the justifier of the ungodly." How in for-
giving transgression, iniquity and sin, He establishes and magnifies the
law.

This is the very heart of the Gospel. Here is no doctrine of ven-
geance exacted by a vindictive God, but the voluntary sacrifice which
eternal love makes, to win and bring back to God a lost son, who has
by sin come under just condemnation. Here is another statement of
the same great doctrine by the same apostle: "But now the righteous-
ness of God, which isby faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them
that believe ; for there is no difference ; for all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a
propitiation through faith and His blood; to declare His righteousness
for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God,
that He might be just and yet the justifier of him that believeth in
Jesus."

In connection with this righteousness for us by Jesus Christ there
is a righteousness in us by regeneration, wrought by the Holy Ghost,
so that every saved man becomes a new creature in Christ. Thus, with
righteousnesss imparted freely by grace and righteousness imparted
freely through faith by the holy spirit of God, man stands free
from sin and its penalties and is panoplied with a new spiritual
nature. He is enabled not only to apprehend an ideal character
of holiness, but to attain to such a character through the further
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. By the Gospel, man,
a wanderer and alien from God and an enemy by wicked works, be-
comes a son filled with the mind of Christ, living and walking in full-
est fellowship with God and with man.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead has solved the
problem of immortality, not by argument, but by demonstration, and
has guaranteed to us a like immortality, not of the soul but of the
whole man; spirit, soul and body; for even these bodies of ours, now
humiliated and dishonored by sin, and too often yielding themselves
instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, shall be changed and fash-
ioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working of that
mighty power that worketh in us by Jesus Christ. Here is a salvation,
not only for a surviving spirit, but for the whole man. The body is not a
vile encasement of matter essentially gross and sinful, to be gotten rid
of, but a temple to be purged of its defilement and become the dwell-
ing place and instrument of the regenerated spirit of man and the per-
manent tabernacle of God.

In these great central doctrines of the Gospel we have a true
knowledge of God, peace for our conscience, new strength for our
moral responsibilities and an assured victory over death, by an immor-
tality which reaches beyond the grave into the infinite future, not an
absorption into the original God, not an extinction in eternal uncon-
sciousness. This goal is not reached by a series of transmigrations
almost endless in extent; but at a bound when the summons comes for

mmmmmmm

77IE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

us to depart and be with Christ, which is far better, and in the subse-
quent resurrection and translation of the body. In the proclamation
and defense of these doctrines no matter in presence of what audience,
or in debate, whom for antagonists, we are not ashamed of the
Gospel.

The unity of God and of the race, and the consequent brother-
hood of man, as suggested in Paul's great speech on Mar's Hill, is a
statement that causes us to blush of shame, and I may say that it is a
teaching unique in Christianity. It is not found in the Hindu Bud-
dhistic Bible. The unknown God whom those two superstitious Athe-
nians worshiped is our God, who "hath made of one blood all nations
of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined
the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation, that
they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after Him and find
Him, though He be not far from any one of us. Christ, the Son of
God and of Man, in His incarnation, joined Himself to the race by a
clean dissent from Adam, so that His salvation has introduced broth-
erhood in the highest and best sense into the unity of race relation-
ship. A brotherhood real in every respect, making every man equal,
before God, with every other man, and placing woman where she be-
longs, at the man's side, neither slave nor inferior, but companion, wife
and helpmate.

While it thus equalizes all men before God it recognizes those
necessary and inevitable distinctions which must needs be among men
in order to the development and consecration of the human family. In
these human relations, all sanctified by the in dwelling spirit of Christ,
the believer gives due honor to all men, from the station, place and
calling wherewith he is called. The master must remember that the
servant is also the free man of Christ, and the servant must remember
that in the service that he renders to his earthly master he is honoring
God. The wife is obedient to her husband, and the husband must
reverence and love his wife as his own body. Children must obey
their parents in the Lord, and the parent must see to it that he does
not provoke his son to wrath by any unjust use of his parental power.
The poor must discharge their service to the rich patiently, giving due
and honest labor for due and honest wages, and the rich must look to
it that they do not keep back the laborer's hire, nor grind the faces of
the poor, for God is their avenger and wiV exact it of them.

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DistinctioDH.

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Religion Essentially Characteristic of
Humanity. \'

Paper by REV. LYMAN ABBOTT, D. D., of New York.

.« ! I

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Religion the
Mother, Not tlia
ChUd.

O adequately elucidate the meaning of this
phrase, which has been given me as my title,
and to attempt to demonstrate the truth which
it expresses wou'd require a wealth of schol-
arship which I do not possess and a length of
time which it is impossible shall be accorded
to any one topic on such an occasion as this.
I shall not occupy your time in any words of
introduction or peroration, nor shall I at-
tempt the truth of the proposition which I
have been asked to speak to. I shall simply
endeavor, in a series of statements, to eluci-
date and interpret, and, in some small meas-
ure, apply it.

Religion then — and you will pardon me if
I speak in dogmatic phraseology: lam giving you my convictions,
and it will be egotistic, as well as needless, fur me to interpolate con-
tinually "this is what I think" — religion is essential to humanity. It
is not a something or a somewhat external to man. It is an essential
life of man. It is not a something apart from him which has been im-
posed upon him by priest or hierarchies here or anywhere. It is not
a fungus growth that docs not belong to his nature. The power, the
baneful power of superstition lies in the very fact that man is religious
and that his religious nature, inherent in him, has been too often
played upon by evil or ignorant men for base or selfish purposes.
But this does not contradict the truth that religion itself is an essen-
tial integral part of his own inherent nature. Religion is not a some-
thing or a somewhat which has been conferred upon him by any cultus,
by any hierarchy, by any set of religious teachers. It has not been
handed down from the past to him.

Religion is the mother of all religions, not the child. The white
city at yonder end of Chicago is not the parent of architecture; archi-

640

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Rev. Lyman Abbott, D. D. New York.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

(U3

tecturc is the parent of the white city. And tlie temples and the
priests and the rituals that cover this round j^lohe of ours have not
niaile religion; they have been born i>f the religion that is inherent in
the soul. Religion is not the excepticnal ^ift of exceptional geniuses.
It is not what men have sometimes thouj^ht [joetry or art or music to
be, a thinji that belonj^s to a favond few j^reat men. It is the univer-
sal characteristic t)f liumanit)' It belongs to man as man. Religion
is not a sowiewhat that has been conferred upon him by any super-
natural act of irresistible ^raci-, either upon an elect few or an elect
many. .Still less is it a somewhat that has been conferred upon a few,
so that the many, strive never so hard to cont<jrm their lives to the
lif;ht of nature, unless aided by some supernatural cm* extraordinary
acts of t,nace, can never attain to it. Religion belongs to man and is
inherent in man.

If 1 ma)- Ije alloweil to use the terminology of our own theology,
it is not conferred upon man in redemption, it is conferred up(jn man in
creation. It was not first brought into existence at Mount .Sinai; it
was not first brought into existence at IJethk hem. Christ came not
to create religion, but to develop the religi(jn that was already in the
human soul In the beginning (lod breathed the breath of life into
man, and into every man, and all men ha\e soimthing of that divine
breath in them. They may stiile it, they may ret use to obey that to
which it calls them, but still it is in them They are chiKlren of Ciod
whether they know it or know it not. i\iul to their God they are
drawn by a power like that which draws the earth to the sun.

Religion, that is, the power of percei\ing the Infinite and the
Internal, is a characteristic of man, as man. M.in is a wonderlul
machine. This btxlyof his is, I suppose, the most mar\ clous mechan-
ism in the world. Man is an animal, linked to the animal race by his
instincts, his appetites, his i)assions, his social nature. lie has all that
the animal possesses, only in a higher and larger ilegree; but he is
more than a machine; he is more than an animal. 1 le is linked to more
than the earth from which he was formed; he is more than the animal
from which he was [)rotluced; lie is linked to the Divine and the Eter-
nal. He has in him a faith, a hope, and love -a faith which, if it does
not always see the Intinite, at all events always tries to see the Infinite,
groping after Ilim if happily he may find Him; a hope which, if it be
sometimes elusive, nevertheless beckons him on to higher and higher
achievements in character and in condition; a love which, l)eginning
in the cradle, binding him to his mother, widens in ever Ijroadening
circles as life enlarges, including the children of the home, the vil-
lagers, the tribe, the nation, at last reaching out and taking in the whole
human race, and in all of this learning that there is a sSU larger life in
which we live and move and have our being, toward whicli we tend
and by which we are fed and are inspired.

Max Midler has defined religion — I quote from memory, but I believe
I quote with substantial accuracy — as a perception of such a manifesta-
tion of tiie Infinite as produces an effect upon the moral character and

hermit in .Man

(Ui

TJIE WORLirS COXCRESS OF KELIGIONS.

Ciiimpity to
PiTot'ivH tho
Inliniti',

conduct of man It is not merely the moral character and conduct:
That is ethics. It is not merely a perception of the Infinite: That is
thcolojf)-. It is such a perception of the Infinite as produces an influ-
ence on the moral character and coiuliict of man: I hat is relij^ion.

]M\- proposition then is this, that in every man there is an iidu-rent
capacitN'so to perceive the Inthiiteaiul to every man on this rounil ^dohe
i)f ours (iod has so manifesteil Himself in nature and in inward experi-
ence, as that, takinj^ that manifestation on the one hand and a power of
perception on the other, the moral character and the conduct of man,
if he follows the lij-jhl that he receives, will l)e steadily improved and
enhuLjed and emiched in his upward proj^ress to the Infmite and the
I'.ternal. Man is conscious of himself and he is conscious of the world
within himself. 1 ie is conscious of a perception that l)rinj.;s him in
touch u ith the outer world, lie is conscious of reason l)\' wiiich he
sees the nlation of thiiiL;s. lie is conscious of emotions, feelin^^s ot
hope, of tear, ol lo\e. I Ie is conscious of will, of resoUe, of purposi-.
SonjctiuKs painfull)' conscious of resolves that lia\e luen hrokcn.
Sometimes t^l.idly conscious of resoUes that have hi-en kept. Ami in
all of this life he is conscious of these things; that he is a perceiving,
thinking, feeling, willing creature.

lie is also conscious of the world outside of himself. A world of
form, of color, of material, of phenomena. They are borne in upon
him by his perceiving faculties. And he is also conscious of a relation
between himself, this thiid<ing, willing creature that he is, and this
outward world that impinges upon him. lie is conscious that the
fragratice of the rose gives hin> pleasure, ami the fragrance of the bone-
boiling establishment docs not give him pleasure, lie is conscious
tiiat fire warms him, and he is conscious that fire burns and stings him.
He is conscious of hunger; he is conscious t)f the satisfaction that
comes through the feeding of himself when hungr>'. lie is brought
into perpetual contact with this outwartl world, so he becomes con-
scious of three things:

I'irst, himself; second, the not-self; third, the relation between
himself and this not-self. • And this relationship is forced u|)on him
by every movement of his life. It begins with the cradle and does not
end until the gra\e. Life is i)erpetually an impinging upon him. lie
himself is coerced whether he will or whether he will not, to ascertain
what is the rclati<jnship, the true, the right, the just, the accurate rela-
tionship between this thinking, feeling creature that he calls self and
this outward and material and phenomenal world in the midst of which
he lives.

In the pursuit of this iiupiiry he begins by attributing to all the
phenomena that impinges upon him the continuous life that is within
him. I Ie thinks that all things are themselves persons. I Ie very soon
learns from his grouping together of this outward phenomena differ-
ently. He groups them in classes, he produces them in |)rovinces, he
becomes polytheistic. He goes but a very little way through life
before he learns there is a larger unity of life than at first he thought.

THE WORLrrS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

(54.')

i;i diffcr-
inccs, he

lie learns that all nhcnomcna of life are bound together in some one
coinmun IxmuI. lie learns that hehind all the pheiionieiia of nature
there is a cause; that behind the apparent tlu-re is the real, behind the
shadow there is the substance, beiiind the traiisitdiy there is the eter-
nal. The old teaelurs (tf the old relij^ddu, the old teaihers of the Jap-
anese religion, they, as well as the old teachers of the Hebrew religion,
did see that truth which llerbert S|)encer has put in axiomatic form
in these later days: "Midst all msstiries by which wc are surrounded,
nothing is more certain than that we are in tlu' presence of an infinite
and eternal energy from which all things proceed."

Now he begins to study this energ\', for the success of ids life, the
well being of his life here, even if there were no hereafter, depends on
his understanding what are his relations, not oid\' to the related i)he-
nomena of lifi- but to the iid'mite and eternal energy from which all
these plu-nomena spring. Aiul in the study of this i-nergy he very
soon discovers that it is an intellectual enirg\-. All the phenomena of ^n |i>,,ri,.H
life have behiiul them thousjlit relations. The world has not hai)i)ened; ("iiihincil in
life is not a chapter of nun- accidents; tlu' universe is not a heap of
disjecta meiid)ra; there is a uiut\' which makes life what it is. It is
summed up in the ver>' word b)' which we endeaxor to describe all
things, "L'lu \'erse," all lorces cond)inetl in one.

The nlation of these phenomena one to the other he seeks to learn.
lie talks (d' laws and forces. Science is not merely the gathering of
phenomena hen- and there; science is the disco\ery of the relations
which exist between phenomena and which have existed through
eternity. The scientist does not create those relations; he discovers
them. I le does not make tlu- laws, he tiiuls them. .Science is a thought
of man trying to I'md the divine reality that is bt-hind all this transitori-
ness. .Science is the thiid<ing of the thoughts of (iod after him. lie
perceives art, the relations of beaut\' in form, in color, in music. He
endeavors to discover what are those relations of beauty in form, in
art, in color, lie does not create them; he iliscovers them. They
existed before he came u|)on the stage, and they will continue to exist
if by some eataclasm all humanity should be swept off the stage. And
in this search for beaut) he funis there, too, that he has percei\ed the
infinite. Hach knocks at one door and out there issues one form of
music. Mo/art another, Mendelssohn another, Heethoven another,
Wagner another; each one interprets something of the beautx* that lies
wrapt up in the possibility of sound, and still the march goes on, still
the doors sw ing open, still the notes come tri|)ping out, still the music
grows and grows and grows, and will grow while eternity goes on, for
\\\ music we are searching for the infinite and eternal whether we know
it or know it not.

lie perceives, however, not only the oulwanl world of things. lie
perceives an outward world t)f sentient beings like himself. He sees
about him his fellowmen, that they also perceive, that they also
reason, that they also hope and fear and love and hate, that they also
resolve and break their resolves and keep their resolutions. He sees

HtMircti for
tlicMpiiutifulin
Art.

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that he is but one of the fjreat company marching alonjr the same higli-
way out of the j^rcat unknown in the past toward the same great un-
known goal in the future; and he finds, lie discerns, that there is a unit
in this humanity. I'"irst.he sees it iii the famih, then in the tribes, then
in the nations, and last of all in the whole race. If there were no unit
in the human race, there could be no history. History is not the mere
Uniu'dTo'eth- "<'i''''it ion of things that ha\ e happened, history is the evolutit)n of
«r. the progress of a united race, coming from the egg into the fullficdged

bird of the future. There could be no i)olitical economy n there weru
no unit in the human race, no science, no religion, no nothing. Wc
are not a mere set of disintegrated, separate pi<v;es of sand in one
great heap which we are building up to be blown asu uler. All hu-
manity is united together In- unmistakable tics; united with a |)ower
that far transcends the local temple, the temple of tribes or nations or
creeds or circumstances. And we thus di'^cern that, as there is back
of all the material phenomena an ethical culture, so there is back of
all moral phenomena moral culture.

ilistorx', political economy, sociology, the whole course of tie
development of tlici human race is a witness that there is not only an
infinite l)ut an eternal energy from which all things proceeil, but an
infinite and eternal moral energy from which all human life proceeds,
and in which all human life in its last analysis has its unifying element.
Vital man is compelletl to study what this bond of union is. I le must
know what are the right ri'latioiishii)s between. himself and his frllow-
meii. If he fails, all sorts of distresses and calamities come up.in him.
lie must find out what are the right relationships between
employer and employeil, what are the right relatioiishijjs between
govirnor and governed, what are tlu' right reliitioiisliij)s bitwein
parent and children. Again, he does not make them, but finds out
what they are. Let coiigri'ss, with a po>'.er of thirty millions of people
bL'hind it, enact slavery in the .American constitution; let the thirty
millions sa\', "We will make a law that the blacks shall be the hewers
of wood ami the drawers of watir, and the white men shall be serveil
by them," and the law that congress makes, with thirty millions of
people behind it, infringes against the divine, eternal and infinite law
of human liberty, and it goes down with one great clash and is buried
forever.

.So man is compelled by the very nature of his social and civil
organization to seek for an infinite and eternal behind humanity, an
infinite and eternal behind the material and behind the a'sthetic. Un-
consciously he has been seeking for the divine, but he awaits the con-
sciousness, lie knows that there is a divine somewhat, an eternal
somewhat, an infinite somewhat, an ideal .-somewhat, if you like, behind
all material and behind all spiritual phenomena, and his emotions are
stirretl toward that somewhat, stirred to awe, stirred to fear, stirred to
reverence, stirred to curiosity, but stirred. .So with temple and with
worship, and with ritual and with priest, he endeavors consciously to
jcarn who and what this somewhat is who draws him in his moral reso-

1,'i

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

047

lutions to his fcllowman, who speaks tlic inward voice of li^liteoiis-
ness in the conscience of tlie individual.

Thus we ^et out of relij^ion n li_i,dons — rcli^io is that vary with
one anotiicr, accordiiiLj as curiositx' or fear or hope or the ethical ele-
ment or the ])ersonal reverence jiredominates. Religious curiosity
wants to know a'A;iit the iiifiniti! and eternal, and it ^ives us creeds
,ind theoloj^ies; the relij^ion of feir ,L;ives us the sacriticial s_\stein. with
its atonements aid prointiatioiis; the ieli!;"ion of hope expects some
reward or reco:iipense from the ^reat Infinite, and ex])resses itself in UcliKiuos
services :»•'<! fjifts, with the ex'pectatioii of rewards here or in Kome ''""""'tj-
eij'siwm hereafter. Then there is the religion wiiich, alth(niL;;h it can
never learn the nature of the law-iji\er, still i^oes on tryinij to under-
stand the nature of His laws; and, tlnall\', the relit^ion which more or
less clearly sees behind all this that there is One who is the ideal of
humanity, the Iiifinite and l"",ti-rnal . '"r of humanity, and therefore
reveres and worshi|)s, ami last of all le.Miis to |(,\e

If, in this very brief sumniar\-, I have carried you with me, you
will see that the object of man's search is not merely reliLjioii; he is
seekini^ to know the infinite and the eternal, not merely the priests
and the hierarchies, iU)t nu'rel\- the men aiul women, with their serv-
ices, and their rituals, and their pra\'er-l)ooks, but the whole current Tt>n(ipnc>' of
■iiul tendency of human life is a search for the iiifmite and the di\ ine. Huimin Life.
.\I1 science, all art, all sociolot^y, all business, all government, as well
as all worship, is in the last analysis an endeavor to comprehend the
meaning of tiie tj^reat words honesty, justice, truth, pity, mercy, lovi*
hi v.iin does the atheist or the agnostic try to stop our search to know
the intlnite and eternal-, in vain does he tell us it is a useless ipiest.
Still ue press on and must press on. The incentive is in ourselves,
and nothing can i)lot it out of us am! still leave us men and women.

(iod made us out of I limself ami (iod c.ills us back to Himself.
It would be easier to kill the appetite of man and let us feed i)y
merely shovelini; in carbon as into a furnaci'; it would l)e easier to
blot ambition out of man and to consign him to endless and nerveless
content; easier to blot love out of man and banish him to live the life
of a eunuch in the w iideniess than to blot out of the soul of man those
desires and aspirations which knit him to the infinite and the eternal,
ijive him love for his fellowinen and nverence for (iod. In vain does
the phiU)sopher of the barnyanl sa\' to the ei^t;, "\'ou are made of ejj;^:^;
\ou always were an e^i;; you alwa\s will be an esj^tj; don't try to be
anything but an e;j;t;." The chicken pecks ami pecks until he break.s
the shell ami comes out to the sunlight of the world.

We welcome here today, in this most cosmopolitan city of the
most cosmopolitan race on the Ljlobe, the representatives of all the
various forms of religious life, from east to west and north to south.
We are ^lad to welcome tlu-m We ,ire ij;lad to beliexe thatthe)-, as wc
have been seekinij to know something more and better of the Divine
from whicii we issue, of the Divine to which we are returning. We are
glad to liear the ines.sagc they have to bring to us. We are glad to

ill.

i^- \

'■ill; .

rpf=

648

T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

A-

I
. i

1 ill

■y

•

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tiaJiliy but' the human handiwork.

C hrist.

:1m

'•JiiJi

Stll

know what thoy 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 the exponent, the apologist, or the defender
of Christianity In it there have been the blemishes and mars of the

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 selfishly 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 another; a better understanding of what we are and what we
mean to be, that we may fasliion 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 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? We have found the Christ and loved
Him and revered Him and accepted Him, for nowhere else, in no
other prophet, have we found the moral relations of men better repre-
sented than in the Golden Rule, "Do unto others that which you
would ha\e others do unto you." We do not think that He fvunishcs
the only ideal that the world has ever had. We recognize the voice
of Clod in all prophets and in all time. But we (\> think we ha\e
found in this Christ, in His i)atience, in His courage, in His heroism, in
His self-sacrifice, in His unbounded mercy and I()\ c an ideal that trans-
cends all other ideals written by the pen of poet, painted by the brush
of artists, or graved into the life of human history.

We do iu)t think that (jod 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 (iod in ail times and in all ages Hut we believe no other
revelation transcends and none other etpials 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 other of the manifestations
of the religious life of the world All religions are the result of man's
seeking after (iod. If what I have portraj-ed to you this morning so
imperfectly has any truth in it, the whole human race seeks to know its
eternal and di\ine l-'ather. 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 arc seek-
ing Him. He is not iui unknown. Iiiding Himself behind a veil impen-
etrable. He is not a Heing dwelling in the eternal silence; He is a
speaking, revealiug, inc.iniate (iod. He is not an absolute justice, sit-

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS O,^ RELIGIONS.

649

ting on the throne of the universe and bringi.ifr 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
sometimes misrepresented our own faith rcspcctingthisChrist. Perhaps,
in our metaphysical definitions, wc have sometimes been too anxious
to be accurate and too little anxioiKs 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. Wc push the door open and go in.
Through that doorCiod enters intohuman life; through that doorhuman-
ity enters into the Di\ine life; man seeking after God, the incarnate
God seeking after man; the ciul in that great future after life's troubled
tlream shall be o'er, and wc shall awake satisfied because we awake in
His likeness.

To Awake in
HiH LikeneBG.

it;

AV \

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m< i:

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If; n

MM!.:)

Rev. E. L. Rcxford, D. D., Boston, Mass.

Yhe Religious jntent.

Paper by REV. E. L. REXFORD, D. D., of Boston.

ENERABLE BROTHERS: By the lead-
ing of that beneficent providence which
has always attended the fortunes of men,
we are broui^ht to this most significant
hour in the iiistory of religious fellow-
ship, if, indeed, it be not the most signif- ^|^^
icant hour in the history of the religious ni.ni

Parlia-

H Most

development of the world. What event H.'.uHtAwl!?*
in the earlier or the later centuries has

ever transcended or even closely ap-
proached in its import the meeting of
this assembly? What day in all the frag-
mentary annals of good will ever wit-
nessed a fraternity so manifold or a con-
gress whose constituency was so essen-
tially cosmopolitan? This is a larger
I'entecost, in whicii a greater variety of

f)eople than of old are telling in their varit)us
anguage, custom and achievement of the
wonderful works and ways of God. The lunperor Akbar, in over-
reaching the special limits of his chosen sect that he might pay a fit-
ting tribute to the spirit of religion in its several forms, displayed a
noble catholicity of spirit, but, unsupported by the popular sympathies
of his age, his generosity was largely personal anil resulted in no rep-
resentative movement.

We have luul our national and international evangelical alliances
among Christians, and likewise our national and international Young
iMen's Christian Associations, with assemblies filling the largest halls
of luirope and America; but these fellowships have embraced only a
slight diversity of ojjinions and practices in one division of the relig-
i U3 world, while larger numbers of even fellow Christians have been
excluded. The portals of the Divine Kingdom have been held but
slightly ajar by such untrained Christian hands, while it has been left
to lie mightier spirit of this day to throw those gates wide open and
to bid every sincere worshiper in all the world, of whatever name or

051

iDUB Ueveio|>
meat.

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052

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

True Worship.

■ :/■ I i

[■\ IT'

II "I

form, "Welcome in the jijrcat and all inclusive name of God, the com-
mon Father of all souls."

This is a day and an occasion sacred to the sincere spirit in man,
and it is devoutly to be hoped that, out of its {generosity and its justice,
a new and self-vindicatin<^ definition of true and false religion, of true
and false worship, may appear. I would that we might all confess
that a sincere worshi|) anywhere and everywhere in the world is a true-
worship, while an insincere worship anywhere and everywhere is a
false worship before God and man. The unwritten but dominant creed
of this hour 1 assume to be, that whatever worshiper in all the world
bends before The Best he knows, and walks true to the purest light that
shines for him, has access to the highest blessings of heaven; while the
false hearted and insincere man, whatever his creed or form may be,
has equal access, if not to the flames, then at least the dust and ashes
and darkness of hell.

I doubt if, at any period very long anterior to this, such an as-
sembly could have iieen convened. Those great aggregations of the
world's interest at Paris and London and I'hiladelphia had no such
feature. Men sought to have the world's activity as completely repre-
sented in those expositions as possible, but no man had the courage
or the inclination to suggest a scheme so daring as that of a congress
of religions. This achievement was left to the closing years of a won-
derful century wherein a mightier spirit seems swaying the lives of
men to higher issues, at a time when the very Gods seem crowning
the^Km^"^* "* '^" ^'**-' <^h'L"trines of the past with the imperial dogma of the solidarity
of the race. The time-spirit has largel\' concjuered, though we cannot
close our ears entirely to the sullen cry of a baffled aiul retreating
anger, charged with the accusation that the whole import of this con-
gress is that of intulelity to tin; only divine and infallible religion.
Kvery man is the trui helie\er, himself being the judge, while nobody
is the tri'.e beliewr if somebotl)' else is [)crmitted to ilecide. I am not
willing to stand u ithin the limits of my sect or party and from thence
judge of the world. 1 prefer rather to stand in the world as a part of
it, and from thence judge of m>- party or sect, and even of that great
religious division of the world's faith and life in which my lot has
fcillen. There is no separableness in the providence of that infinite Hcing
\vh(.) is over all and through and in u-^ .ill.

The primar\- fact or condition which justifies this congress in the
nminds of all revctent and rational men is that, among all Nincere wor-
■sfcipers of all ages and lands, the religious intent has always Ijci ii the
same. Hriefix , but broatUy stated, that intent has beei\ to establish
more ad\ antageous relations between the worshiper and the l)eing or
beings worshiped. The reverse of this is practically unthinkable. To
substitute any other motive would be impossible. This one fact lies at
the foundation of e\ery religious structure in the world. Here is the
basis of (lur fellowsliip. Claude Lorraine once said that the most im-
portant thing for a landscape ])ainter to know is where to sit ilown in
order to command a full and fair view ot e\cry determining feature in

r*rim*ry Pdct

of the <'oQ-

♦tress.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

H53

the landscape. Such a rule must be essential in art, but it is not less
imperative in the treatment of that spectacle which reliijion presents
to us in its wide fields, and this observation point of the identity of the
religious intent of all the world commands permanent features of every
religion in the history of mankind.

.Some men stanil aloof and scorn and scoff the thought that there
is any possible relation between their religion and that of widely
diverse types, but this anchor will hold amid all the tempests of relig-
ious wrath that nuiy rage. And after these stiu'ms of vituperation
shall have spent their fury, and editors shall have written leading arti-
cles, and archbishops and sultans shall have predicted dire calamities,
it will be fountl that the religious world, as well .as the scientific and
the commercial, is in the relentless grasp of a di\ine purpose that will
not let the pi'o])lc separate in the ileep places of their lives.

Men in the Ksser stages of development have been alienated in
their religion .ind by their religion, as if they had been thrust upon
this earth from worlds created 1)>' hostile gods fore\er at war with each
other and whose children should le<jfitimatel\- fis/ht in the names of

eir parent deities.

If the histor\- of religion in this world could

have commeiicetl with tiie monotheistic conception, the bitter chap-
ters of alienation would ha\t' been omitted. Hut histor)' could not
begin on that high le\el in a world where iiumanity was destined, to ■
work out its own saKatioii. not onl>' with fear and with trembling but
with strife and sorrow and vast misapprehension, from an almost help-
less ignorance to the freedom and grace of self-poised and masterful
souls.

The infinite wisdom of this universe seems to have decreed that
man shall haw a great part in the noble task of making himself. A
human being fashioned and com[)leted l)\' a foreign [)ower could never
be what man has already become by his failures ami Ids successes in
the struggle to win the best results of character. A diadem made of
the celestial jewels b)- the combined skill of ,'dt the angels in heaven
could not comi)are with, that crown which the human being himself
shall create by his own heroic and |)ersistent determination to wrest
\ictor\' from defeat, success from failure the determination to pluck
the truth out of its ni\'sterious disguises, and at last to "think God's
thoughts after 1 lim."

It has bi en a difficult problem for the interpreters of man to
solve -this f.ict of frailty and imperfection in the hands of a perfect
l)eit\-. Man was created perfect 1)\- the perfect (iod, but he fell from
that high, original estate and thus became the poor creature he is.

rile distance between the first bliiul and helpless groping after
God willi its characteristic griefs, failures aiul failings aiul the intel-
ligent coiiii)rehension of (iod and man and religion and dut\" and the
fellowship of toda\' is alnu)st ama/ing, and \'et, in all the tragic
fhougli e\er brightening way, there is no point v\here the line of suc-

cession hreaks o

ff.

(jod's v\orking is by development, and we have only to look into

Alipnatptl in
thoir ReliKion.

f n

•TO

654

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

!>rw

(trowth
Beligiuii.

Perw)nftl
fallibility.

In.

iwi]

the magic white city to see that man's work follows the same law
and method. Not a single excellence is there that has not had its
imperfection that it might be even as perfect as it is. Not a science
exists today in all its beautiful adaptations that was not an offensive
vulgarism at an earlier day. And religion shall we say of it that
here is a fact in human life that reverses in its movement and method
all the human and divine ways with everything else? If there be one
pre-eminent fact in the history of religion, that fact is the growth of
religion. There is no religion in the world, if it be a living religion,
that is today what it was one, two or ten centuries ago. The Christian
religion is not today what it was five centuries ago in the thought of
the people, and what the religion or anything else is in the actual
thought of the people that the tiling practically is.

And if this great exposition is wanting in one of the most signifi-
cant exhibits conceivable, it is a hall that should contain a historic
illustration of religion. Max IMiiller would be one of the few men who
could arrange the order of such a hall. And who could visit it without
feeling a great uplift of faith and love and joy that we have been what
we have and have become what we are? I expect that this suggestion
of an evolutionary unity of religion may disturb some classes of men,
but you shall see no man in all the retreating centuries performing his
. de\ otions with whatever tragic or forbidding accompaniment without
saying and being compelled to say: "That man might have been my-
self, or I might have been as he and should have been had I lived in
his country and been educated as he was." It is quite too superficial
for us to suppose that this great Spirit bestowed His blessings on the
score of the geography and the centuries.

Personal infallibility is not yet attained by any one, inasmuch as
personal fortunes are related to the infinite, and that sense of a linger-
ing weakness which must be felt by all men must ally them with the
world-wide necessity of a rugged and persistent sympathy. The world
has been wounded by fragments of truth, whereas no man can ever be
wounded by an entire truth. A detached truth fallen even from
heaven would be voiceless, but relate it to the economy of God's pur-
poses and immediately it becomes vocal. It bears in its joyous or its
tremulous tones the varying fortunes of every soul that G(k1 has made,
and it tells the story of the Divine .Spirit working in and for all. And
if the various and multiplied systems of theology had been written
while the theologians were looking in the faces of their human brothers,
many a judgment and confusion would have been greatly modified. If
one hand had written while the other clasped a human hand the ver-
dict would have been changed. The Word made flesh, or the Divine
Spirit set forth in human form and fashion, gleaming out from human
faces becomes very tender and very considerate, while the mere
theories of men lay no check upon those severities of judgment which
have shattered this human world and rent it asunder in the name of
religion.

Back to the primal unity, where man appears as a child of God,

God,

rilK WORLD'S COA'GRKSS OF RK/.HJ/ONS.

14- ->

before he is a Christian or Jew, Hraliman or Hudclliist. Mohammedan
or Parsce, Confucian, Tauist, or auyht beside, back U) this must we j^o
if we will be loyal to our kind and loyal to that imperishable relii^ion
that is born of human souls in contact with the spirit. Hack to this,
and thence we must follow the strui^^irle of the Infinite child upward
alonfj his perilous ascent tluouj^h the societies' weary centuries to the
ineffable lii,dit and Ljlory that await him, led bv the patient hand of
God.

I am perfectly well aware that this idea of relicjious unity, and at
the base reli<^ious identit)-, must tiifht its way thrt)ui;h the j^reat fields
of religious traditions if it will i^ain recoijnition fields preoccupied
and bristliuir with inveterate hostilit)-. it must meet the warlike array
of "special providences," and "di\ ine elections," and "sacred books,"
and "revelations," and "inspirations," and "the chosen people," and
"sacraments," and "inlallibilities," and institutionalisms of nameless
and munberless kinds; but it is not timiil.and it has resources of Ljreat
endurance. Who will sa\' that any man e\er sincerely chose any
religion for any other than a t^ooil purpose? It is incredible. And
before the spectacle of an immortal soul seeking' lor anil communing
with its God, all hostilities must pause. No missile- must be discharged.
All the angers and fmies must await on that mood and lact of wor-
ship; for an immortal soul, talking with (iod, is gre.iter than a king.
And while we wait in this divine silence, let us read the profound and
befitting word which heaven has vouchsafed to the people of the Ori-
ent, ami which has been preserved to us through the ages in one of
the ".Sacred books of the Mast." The great tU'it)' said to the iiupiiring
Arduna, concerning the many forms of worship: "Whichever form of
deity any worshiper desires to worship, with faith, to that form I render
hi.s faith steady Possessed of that faith, he seeks to propitiate the
deity in that form, and he obtains from it those beneficial things which
he desires, though they are really given by me " ( Bhagavad Gita,
Chap, vii).

If we could duly regard the charitable philosophy of such a word
the hostilities wouKl ne\er be resumed. No ruthless haml shall justly
destroy any form of deit\-, while yet it arrests the reverent mind and
the heart of man. There is only one being in the world who may
legitimately destroy an idol, ami that being is the one who has wor-
shiped it. He alone can tell when it has ceased to be of service. And
assuredly the Great .Spirit who works through all forms and who makes
all things His ministers can make the rudest image a medium through
which He will approach His child.

There is no plea of "revelation" or ])rovidencc" or "the sacred
book" that may not be interpreted in perfect accord with this greater
plea of the religious unity of maid'cind. Nothing is a revelation till
its meaning is discovered. God's revclatit>ns are made to the world by
man's discovery of God's meaning to the world. Revelation by dis-
covery is the eternal law. The " sacred books" of the world, instead
of being a revelation from God, are the records of a revelation or the

Resourcos of
( iroat Kndur-
anct).

1 '1

III '.

1 ,;

■;;?

\ i

HoO

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

I •

IN I

Bookless Re-
ligion.

record of the hunican undcrstandinfj of what (lod has done. Not a
truth of life in any or all the holy books was ever written till it had
been experienced. Not all the nieaninjj of any preat soul in life has
ever been set down in words. The divine "Word" was made flesh; it
was not niatle a book. And all the holy books of the world must fall
short of that holiest experience of the soul in communion with God.

Max IMiiller says that what the world needs is a "bookless relig-
ion," It is precisely this bookless religion that the world already has,
but does not realize it as it should. There is, I repeat, an experience
in human souls that lies deeper than the conviction of any book — a
rclifrious sense, a holy ecstacy that no book can create or describe.
The book does not create the religion; the religion creates the book.
We should have religion left if all the books should perish. The eter-
nal emphasis must be placed upon that living spirit that lies back of
all Bibles, back of all institutions, and is the eternal reality forever dis-
coverable, but never completely discovered. There is not a piece of
mechanism in all this Columbian l^xposition that does not owe its
defectiveness to a nearer approach to the idea which God concealed in
the mechanical laws of the universe. The revelation came through
somebody's discovery of it, and the same law holds good from the
dust beneath our feet to the star dust of all the heavens, from the
trembling of a forest leaf to the trembling ecstasies of the immortal
soul.

The "special providences" that pleaded by those who are unwill-
ing to take their places in the common ranksof men, are wholly admis-
sible if it be meant that the specialties are created from the human
side. The "divine election" is on the human side, and today it largely
means the right of any man to elect himself to the highest ofifices in
the kingdom of God. This is a noble doctrine of election; but, to
place the electing mind on the divine side and to say that the com-
mon Father elects some and rejects others, forgets some and remem-
bers others in the sense of finality, is to proclaim a Fatherhood little
needed on this earth. Because I am a Christian and my brother is a
Buddhist is not construed by me as a proof that God loves me better
than He does him. I am not willing to be so victimized by love. He
is no more cursed by such divine forgetfulness than I am by such
capricious remembrance. Let the specialties a.id let love be one, and
our faith remains in their eternal benignity.

And the great religious teachers and founders of the world — have
they not secured their immortal places in the love and generation of
mankind by teaching the people how to find and use this large benefi-
cence of Heaven? They have not created; they have discovered what
existed before. Some have revealed more, others less, but all have
revealed some truth of God by helping the world to see. They have
asked nothing for themselves as finalities. They have lived and taught
and suffered and died and risen again. That they might bring us to
themselves? No; but that they might bring earth to God. "God's
consciousness," to borrow a noble word from Calcutta, has been the

THE WORLD'S CONUKESS OF RELIGIONS,

Whl

goal of them all. It is still before all nations. There in the distance
— is it so j;reat? — is the mountain of the Lord, rising before us into the
serene and the cloudless heavens.

Let all the kingdoms and nations and religions of the world vie with
cnch other in t'le rapidity of the divine ascent. Let them cast off the
burdens and break the chains which retard their progress. Our fel-
lowship will be closer as we approach the radiant summits and there,
on the heights, we shall be one in love and one in light, for God the
infinite life is there, "of Whom and through Whom and to Whom are
all things, and to Whom be the glory forever."

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Certainties \n Religion.

Paper by JOSEPH COOK, of Boston.

,? i

Morality and
Beligion.

T is no more wonderful that we .should live again
than that we should live at all. It is less won-
derful that we should continue to live than that
we have begun to live. And even the most
determined and superficial skeptic knows that
we 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 Akkabar in the
land of the Ganges, the hundred names of God.
Let us beware how we lightly as.se rt that we
are glad that those names are one. How many
of us are ready for immediate, total, irreversi-
ble self-surrender to God as both Saviour and
Lord? Only such of us as are thus ready can call
ourselves ia any deep sense religious. I care not
what name you give to God if )ou mean by II im a spirit omnipresent,
eternal, omnipotent, infinite in holiness and every other operation.
Who is ready for co-operation with such a God in life and death and
beyond death? Only ho 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 jouof two characters who con-
ceived for each other supreme affection as soon as they met. "At the
first glance they have changed eyes," he says. The truly religious
man is one who has "changed eyes" with God under some one or
another of I lis hundred names. It follows from this dennition of relig-
ion and as a certainty dependent on the unalterable nature of things
that only he who has clianged eyes with God can look into His face
in peace. 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 ten thou.sand isles of the sea.

What is the distinction between morality and religion, and how
can the latter be shown by the scientific metho I to be a necessity to

(558

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

659

the peace of the soul? And now, though I do not undervalue moral-
ity and the philanthropies, I purpose to speak of the strategic cer-
tainties of religions from the point of view of comparative religion.
First, from the very center of the human heart and in the presence of
all th^ hundred names of God, conscience demands that what ought
to be should 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 voice,
"thou oughtest" is religion Merely calculating, selfish obedience to
that still, small voice saves no man.

This is the first commandment oT absolute science: "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 capacity 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 irreversi-
bly 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 wc choose
we love, but conscience reveals a holy person, the author of the moral
law, and conscience demands that this law should not only be obeyed
but loved, and that the holy person should be not only obeyed but
loved, This is the unalterable demand of an unalterable 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 unalterable 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 gladness. Morality is
the obedience of selfish slavishne^ i. Only religion, therefore, and not
mere morality, can harmonize the soul with the nature of things, A

That Still,
Small Voicii-

Self>8nrroiu
der to (iod.

LoTe uf God
Required.

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rjIE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

<"prt aint y
Koiindod uu
Tnitli.

dclitjht in obedience is not only a part of religion but is necessary to
peace in God's presence. A reiij^ion consisting in the obedience of
gladness is, therefore, scientifically knt)\vn to be according to the
nature of things. It will not be tomorrow or the day after that these
jiropositions will cease to be scientifically certain. Out of them
multitudinous inferences How as Niagaras from the brink of God's
palm. Demosthenes once matle the remark that every address should
begin with an uncontrovertible proposition. Now it is a certainty, and
my topic makes my keynote a word of certainty, that a litth. while
ago we were not in the world and a little while hence we shall be here no
longer. Lincoln, Garfield, Seward, Grant, Heecher, Gough, ICmerson,
Longfellow, Tennyson, Lord lieaconsfield, George Kliot, Carlyle — 1
know not how many Mahomcts — are gone, and we are going. These
are certainties that will endure in the four continents and on the isles
of the sea.

Till tlie heavens are old, and the stars are cold,
And the leaves of the judgment hook 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 certainty, 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 rec-
ord of sin in an irreversible past. How am I to be harmonized viith
that unescapable environment? Here is Lady Macbeth. See how she
rubs her hands :

Out, damned spot! Will these hands ne'er he clean?

All the iierfunus 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 i)arliament of religions. [Applause.]

I beg you not to applaud, because if there is a topic of more
supreme importance than any other it is the topic I am now introduc-
ing. 1 speak now to the branch of those skeptics which are not rep-
resented here, and I ask who can wash Lady 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 Budilhism. Can you wash our red right
hands? So help me God, I mean to ask a question this afternoon 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 tdjsolutely self-cviilent truths, that

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

661

unless a mean is washed from the old sin and the guilt of mankind he
caimot be at peace in the presence of infinite holiness. [Applause.]

Old and blind Michael Angelo, in the Vatican, used to 5^0 to the
Torso, so-called — a fratjment of the art of antiquity — and he would feel
along the marvelous lines, chiseled in bygone ages, and tell his pupils
that thus and thus the study should be completed. I turn to every
faith on cartM, except Christianity, and I find every such faith a torso.
I beg pardon; 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 completed along the lines of the certainties of the ■^^^^^^ Deliver
religions themselves, they would go up and up and up to an assertion of tii« soui from
the necessity of the new purpose to deliver the soul from a life of sin '"' '
and of atonement, made of (iod'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 (lod, and it will be a harmoni(jus outline with Christianity There
is no peace anywluMc in the universe for a soul with bad intentions,
and 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 capaiile of changing eyes with (itxl, 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 beyonil death, will ever
deliver us from the necessity of good intentions to the peace of the
soul, with its environments, nor from exposure to penalt\- for delib-
eratel)' bad intentions. 1 hold that we not only cannot escape from
conscience and (iod and our records of sins, but that it is a certainty,
and a strategic certainty, that, except Christianity, there is no religion
under hea\en or among men that effectively provides for the peace of
the soul by its harmonization with this environment.

I am the servant of no clicjue or clan. For more than a quarter of
a century, if you will allow me this personal reference, it has been my
fortune to speak from an entirely independent platform, and quite as
much at liberty to change my course as the winil its direction; but I
maintain with a solemnity which I cannot express too stronglj', that it
is acertainty, and a strategic certainty, that tlie soul can have no intel- No p.micc

!• i iM -i. • 1 1- 1 r i.\ I t ■ li • A. ■ L Without (IiriB-

iigent peace until it is deliveretl trom tlie love of sin. It is a certainty, tianity.
anil a strategic certainty, that, except Christianity, there is no religion
known under heaven or among men that effectively provides for the
st)ul this joyful deliverance from the love of sin and the guilt of it.
It is a certainty, and a strategic certainty, that unless a man be born
of water, that is, delivered from the guilt of sin and of the spirit, that
is delivered from the love of sin, it is an impossibility in the very nature
of things for him to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Except a man be born again he cannot enter the kingdom of
heaven; a man cannot serve God and mammon. God cannot deny
Himself. Why, these cans and cants are touching the crags of cer-
tainty underlying the universe as well as the Scriptures, and it is these
crags of absolutely self-evident truth upon which I would plant the

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77/A" IVORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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Revelation in
the ArKumt'nt.

basis of .1 universal religion, ascertaining the necessity of the new
birth for our deliverance from the sin, and of an atonement for our
deliverance from the gi'i't "f it. I am not touching the sufficiency of
natural religion, but only its efficienc}-.

I hold that by mere reason we can ascertain the necessity of our
deliverance from the guilt of sin, but by mere reason it is difficult to
know how we are to be delivered " Plato," said Aristotle, once a stu-
dent under a great master, " 1 see how God may forgive some sins of
carelessness, but how He can forgive sins of deliberately bad intention
I cannot see, for I do not see how He ought to." [yXpplause. |

The murderer, the ravisher,the thief have bad intentions, but per-
haps, according to their light, those ancients have no more moral tur-
pitude than some bad intentions jou anil 1 have cherished Hut we
must keep peace with our faculties, with this record and with the (iod
who cannot deny Himself. I am afraid of my own faculties, (iod is in
them and behind tin ;n. He originated the plan of them. Vou must
stay with yourselves while jou continue to exist.

I believe there is good scientific i)roof of the immortality of the
soul if t)nly xou luring revelation into the argument; but without re^■e-
lation and with the l{ii)le shut I hold there is good reason for believing
that death does end all. I hold we were woven l)y some power not in
matter, that you ma\- tear uj) the web and not injure the matter. I
make a distinction between the two questions: " Does death end all?"
and " Is the soul immortal ?" I want every faculty at its best. .Shakes-
peare saitl: "Conscience is a thousand swords." John Wesley said:
" God is a thousand swords.' 1 low am I to keej) the peace with niyself,
my (iod. my record, except by looking on the cross until it is no cross
to bear the cross; excei)t by I)eholding (iod not merel\- as my Creator
but also as my .Savioin-, and being melted into the \ ision and made
glad to take Him as Lord also. | .\pplause. |

I bought a book full of the songs of aggressive evangelical relig-
ion and I found in this little book words which may be bitter iiuh;ed,
when eaten, but which, when full\' assimilated, will be sweet as hotiey.
I summarize my whole scheme of religion in these words, which you
may put on my tombstone:

Choose 1 must, and soon must choose
Hohness or lieaven lose.
If what heaven loves 1 hate,
Shut from me is heaven's yatc.

landless sin means endless woe.
Into endless sin I ^o.
If my soul from reason rent
Taken fr(jm sin its final bent.

,11 \

As the stream its channel j^roovcs,
And within that channel moves,
So does habit's deepest tide
Groove its l)ed and there al)ide.

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(Christianity as Interpreted by Literature.

Paper by REV. THEODORE T. MUNGER, D. D., of New Haven, Conn.

Hebrew
emture.

Lit-

IIl'lNCliristiiinity appeared in tlic world
it might have been rej^ardcd in two
ways: — as a force requiring embodi-
ment—something through which it
could work; or as a spirit seeking to
inform everything with which it
should come in contact.

It was both — a force and a spirit,
the objective and subjective of one
energy whose end was to subdue all
things to its own likeness. It was in-
evitable that Christianity as a con-
quering energy should lay hold of the
strong things in the world and use
them for itself. It was inevitable also
that as a spirit it should work, .spirit-
like, from within, secretly penetrating
into all things open to it, transforming
them by its mysterious alchemy into forces like
itself, drawing under and within itself govern-
ments, art, learning, science, literature and whatever else enters into
society as shaping and directing energy.

I am to speak of Christianity as interpreted by literature, or, more
accurately, upon the way in which Christianity has infused itself into
literature and used it for itself, making it a medium by which it con-
veys itself to the world.

We should never lose sight ot the fact that Christianity had its
roots in a full and varied literature. It was a literature rich and pro-
found in all departments e.xccpt philosophy The Jew was too primi-
tive and simple-minded as a thinker to analyze his thought or his na-
ture; but in history, in ethics, in imaginative fiction and in certain
forms of poetry, his literature well endures comparison with any that
can be named.

0U4

THh VORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

66B

It is somctimcri said that Christ left no book, and that lie did not
contemplate one; and so men {^o searchinfj around for the scat of
authority, locating it now in an infallible church, and now in Chris-
tain consciousness, and now in traditions and institutions; and, not
finding any or all of these sufficient, they turn on the bookless Christ,
and, as it were in defiance of Him, put together some biographical
sketches and sundry epistles, and formally declare them to be the
divinely constituted seat of authority.

Christ, indeed, left no book, but He was not, therefore, a bookless
Christ. His revelation was not so absolute as to cut Him off from the
literature of the past as somethin;^ upon which I le stood, nor from that
of the future as something whicli might embody Him. It is often leBM^chrirt?" '
made an object of study to find Christ in the Old Testament; it were
a more profitable study to find the Old Testament in Christ. His first
discourse begins with a quotation from it, and He dies with its words
upon His lips.

It is not necessary, and it would not be wholly true, to say that
the Hebrew scriptures gave shape and direction to Christ. He was
too unique, too original, too full of direct inspiration and vision to
justify such an assertion; but He stood upon them not as an authori-
tative guide in religion, but as illustrative of truth, as valuable for their
inspiring quality, and as full of signs of more truth and fuller grace.
His relation to them, using modern phrases, was literary and critical;
He emphasized, 1 le selected and passed over, taking what I le liked and
leaving what did not suit His purpose. They served to develop His
consciousness as the Messiah, but they did not govern or determine
that consciousness. We cannot think of Christ ai)art from this litera-
ture. It is not more true to say that it was full of Him than that He
was full of it.

Such being the case, we have a right to expect that Christ will go
on investing Ilimself in literature; that Christianity will robe itself in
great poems and masterpieces of composition as various at least as
those of Judaism, and as much greater as the new faith is greater than
the old. As inspiration it demands expression, and the expression will
take on the forms of the art it encounters and use it as its medium.
But, of itself, inspiration calls for the rhythmic flow and measured
cadence, even as the worlds are divinely built upon harmony and move
in orbits that "still sing to the young-eyed cherubim."

It was inevitable that a system so full of divine passion should call
out a full stream of lyric poetry; that a system involving the mysteries
of the universe and great cosmic processes should clothe them in subtle
dramas and majestic epics; that a system so profoundly involving the
nature of man should produce philosophy; that a religion based on
ethicsshould evoke treatises on human society; that a religion so closely
related to daily life should call out the various forms of literature that
discuss and depict life.

Enough or Christ's words are recorded to admit of classifying Him
in respect to literature. I speak to such as will understand me when I

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s;iy tliiil Christ Is to hi- put amoiiL,' tlu- poi-ts - not tlu- siii^nsof rhymes
nor till- huildi'is ol cpiis, l)iil those ulio sit' into the lieart of thiiij^s
i'liriHt iii'.M't. and leel the hreath ot the Spirit; siuli are the poets. It matters not
in wliat lorm Christ sptike; lie was )c't a |)()ct. lucry sentence will
hear llie tivst. I'ut the miseroseopi- ovi-r tliem and see how perfect
the)' are in struelure. l.as' sonr ear to them and hear how iaultUss is
their note. Cateh their spirit and feel how trne they are to the inner
meanini; of life, how full of (Jod, how keyed to eternity and its eternal
hymn of truth and !o\ e.

The Inst liter.iry iJroduets of (Miristianily. apart fnun those of its
founder, were the epistles of St. Tanl. It is dilVu iilt at presi-nt so to
separate them from the viiieration in which they are held as to look at
them in a fri-e and critical way. A prevailinj^ do^nna of inspiration
shuts us out from hoth their meaning- and their excellence as composi-
tions. Tluy arc not treatisis, but letters onemiiul pourini,' itself out
tt) others in a most human ua\' for hii;h ends. What freedom, the cur-
rent llowin|4 here and there, .is the mood swa\'s the main purpose, now
pressint;; steadil\' on hetwicn the hanks, now overllowin^ them, U^''"U
otf and comin;4 back, sometimes fori;(.'tlinL;" to return; careless, but
always noble; delicate but always firm and massi\e; ima,L,Mnative, but
alwaws natural; ()ri«.jinal, full of resource, ^ivinj^ off the o\erllow of his
thought ami still leaxini!; the fountain full, ofti-n prosaic and homely,
l)ut as often elo(|uent and o\ erw lu-lmiu^ in power; a roui,di, hearty and
careli'ss writer; but wlut ever wrote better or to Oetter pmpose?

I 1> isft-n to name Danti'. "tlu' spokesman of ten silent centurii-s."
as ta: .died him; the lirst, if not the greatest, name in CMiristian

litera'

1 he i>i\ine Conied\' regarded superticialK' is medie\al. but ;il the
bottom it is i>f all ai;es. It lias l\>r an a|)parent motive ()rilerof tin-
Koman Church, but by the very law of inspiration, which may be
iletined to be that which le.ids an author unconsciously to tr.inscend
his purpose, Dante condemned as a poet what he would have built up
as a son of the church, lie meant to be constructive; he was revolu-
tionary. l{y portra^iiif; the ideal he revealed the hopelessness of the
actual church, lie was full of errancy — political, ecclesiastic.d, theo-
logical— all easily separable frtuu the poet and the poem, but at bottom
he was thoroughly true and profoundly Christian. 1 le is to be regarded
as one calletl of Ciod to say to his age and to the world what had great
need of being said.

Dante's inspiration consists largely in the absoluteness of his
ethical and spiritual ])erceptions, and as such they are essentially
Christian. Greek in his formal treatment of penalt)', he goes beyond
the Greek and is distinctly Christian in his conception of (iod and of
sin. In the purgatory and j)ara(lise he enters a world unknown out-
side of Christian thought. In the Greek tragedies mistake is etpiiv-
alent to sin and crime, and it led to the same doom; but the Inferno
(with a few exceptions made in the interest of the church) contain^
only sinners.

THE WOKLiyS CONGRESS OE KEI.HilONS.

Tlic stroll^ point in iJantc is that he iii^raltcd into literature the
nur^atorial cliaraetcr of sin; 1 do not say the (h)^nia <»f pur^fatory.
VVhatever I'rotestant lheoh);^'y lias done witli this truth, protislant
literature has preserved it, and, next to love, made it the U^adin^
factor in its chief iina^^inative works. Sin and its reaction, pain eating
away the sin, purity and wisdonj throuj,di tlu: sufferinj^ (»f sin, sin and
its disclosure throu^di conscience what else do we tliid in the }^re;it
masterpieces of (ution and i)oetry, not, indei-d, with sl.ivish uniform-
ity, hut as ;i dominant thought. Hawthorne wrote of nothiu}^ else; it
^ives eternal freshness to his i)a^es. It runs like a ^(jlden thread
through the works of (ieorjfe I'.liot and makes them other than they
seem. The root idea of this conception (»f sin is humanity tin; chief
theme of modern literature as it is of ("hristianity; and it is the one
because it is the othi-r. This conception [)ervades literature because
Christianity imparted it.

In Dante it was settled that henceforth Christianity should have
literature for a mouthpiece. As the Renaissance and the Relormation
prepared the field one brinfj^in^f back learnin^^ aiul the other liberty —
(..'hristianity bej^an to vest itself in literary forms. We must look for
Christianity in liti:rature, not as thouf^h listeninj^ to one siiif^er after
another, but rather to the whole choir The fifth symphony cannot
be rendered by a violin or trumpet, but only by the whole orchestra.

The raiij^e is wide and lon^f. It reaclu's from Dante to VVIiitlier;
from Shakespeare to liurns and Hrownint^; from S|)encer to Loni(|el-
low and Lowell; from Cowper to .Shelley and W'orilsworth; from ^lil-
ton to Matthew Arnold; from Hiinyan to Hawthorne and Victor Hu^o
and Tolstoi; from Thomas u Kempis and I'ascal to Kant and Jona-
th.'in I'.d wards and Lessin^ and .Schleii-rmacher and Coleridj^e and
Maurice and Martineau aiul Robertson and Fairbairns; from Jeremy
Taylor ami .South and Harrow and the Cambridge IMatonists to Mmer-
son and Amiel and Carlyde; from liacon to Liitze; from yXddison and
Johnson to Goethe and .Scott and Thackeray and Dickens and Georj^e
Kliot.

Christianity is a wide thinff, and nothing that is human is alien to
it; nor is it possible that any i)roduct of a single mind can more than
hint at that wliich comprises the whole order and movement of the
world Christ is more than a Judean slain on Calvary; Christ is
humanity as it is evolving under the power and pjrace of God, and
any book touched by the inspiration of this fact belon5.^s to Christian
literature. Take the plays of Shakespeare, there is hardly anythin^f
in them that is obviously Christian. .Still they are Christian, because
they are so thoroughly on thj side of humanity. How full of freedom;
what a sense of man as a responsible a^ent; what conscience and truth
and honor, what charity and mercy and justice; what reverence for
man and how well clothed is he in the human virtues, and what a
stronjjf, hopeful spirit, despite the agnostic note heard now and then,
but amply redeemed and counteracted by the general tenor.

Something of the same sort might be said of Goethe. Gocthp is

Hinlli)- DiiMi.

iiiiiiil
TIkiiikIiI of

Slink«H|)<>ar«
i>n thti Hiiio of
IJumanity.

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668

T/ZH: WORLD'S CONGRESS OF KEUG/ONS.

to be regarded as one in whom Christianity won a victory and he ren-
dered it the weightiest service by checking; two powerful iMtluences
which, however corrective and witiiin limits useful, were pressinjj un-
duly upon the faith and even threutenin^j its existence — the infidelity
of Voltaire and the naturalism of Rousseau. Goethe set his hard
German sense and loftier insjjiration against these poisoning and
undermininj^ influences, insisting' on reverence, and assertinjj a doctrine
of nature that embraced will and spirit and niatle them the sources of
conduct, (joethe also rendered Christianity an inestimable service in
destroyinjj the medieval conception of the world a . a piece of mechan-
ism anil of Goil as an "external world-Architect" — conceptions that had
come in throu{fh the Latin th'olojfy, or rather had been fostered by it.

The Christian value of an author is not to be determined by the
riiriHtian fullness of his Christian assertion. There is, of course, immense value
Aiithl'r! " **" in the ^reat, jiositive, full-statured believers like Dante and Hacon and
Milton and lirowninjr. ]iut Christianity is all the while in need of two
things— correction of its mistakes and perversions, and tlevelopment in
the direction of its univ sality. None can do these two things so well
as those who are partia^y outsiders. An earnest skeptic is often the
best man to find the obsiured path of faith.

Hut if a iloubter is often a {jood teacher and critic of Christianity,
much more is it true that it is often developed and carried alonjf its
proper lines, not more by tliose who are within than by those who
stand on the bountlary and cover both sides. Milton, though a great
teacher of Christian ethics in his prose writings, did nothing to enlarge
the domain of Christian belief or to better theological thinking in an
age when it sadly needed improvement; but Goethe taught Christian-
ity to think scientifically, and prepared the way for it to include
modern science. So of .Shelley and Matthew Arnold and Kmer.son
and the group of Germans rei)resented by Lessingand Herder, authors
who, with their Hellenistic tendencies, represent a phase of thought
and life which undoubtedly is to be brought within the infolding scope
of Christianit)'; and no one can do it so well as those modern (ireeks.

No one illustrates this point better than Matthew Arnold. He
has not a very lovely look with his bishop-baiting and rough handling
of dissent. Hut there is something worthier and broader in the man,
as is shown in the fact that the subject of his best sonnet, "East
London," was a dissenting preacher.

Like others of this class of teachers, he calls attention to over-
borne or undeveloped truth, fhcre is no doubt the church has relied
too exclusively upon the miracles; Arnold reminds it that the sub-
stance of Christianity does not consist of miracles. It had come to wor-
ship the Hible as a fetich, and to fill it with all sorts of magical mean-
ings and forced dogmas, the false and nearly fatal fruit of the reforma-
tion. Arnold dealt the superstition a heavy blow that undoubtedly
strained the faith of many, but it is with such violence that the kingdom
of heaven is brought in. When God lets loose a thinker in the world
there is always a good deal of destruction. Such teachers must be

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

CGI)

vviiLchcd while they are listened to. We, ourselves, must be critics
when we read a critic.

In tracing; our subject historically, it is interestiiiff to note a certain
projj[ress Ktr order of development, esi)ecially in the poets, in the treat-
ment of Christianity at the hands of literature.

In Chaucer and Shakespeare we have a broad, ethical conception
of it, free both from dof^ma and ecclesiasticism. The formei mildly
rebuked the evils and follies of the church, but stooil for the plain and
simple virtues, and ^ave a picture of a parish minister which no
modern conception has superseded The latter denied nothinj^,
asserted nothing concerning either church or ilo^Mua. keepinjf in the
higher region of life, but it was life permeated with tne humanity and
freedom of CMiristi.inity. Milton more than half defeated his magnifi-
cent geniusby weii^Iiting it with a mechanical theologj-.

The later poets seldom forego their birthright of spiritual vision.
C't)wper verged in the same tlirection, but ^ 'ed himself by the
humanity he wove into his verse, a clear and almost new note in the
w«)rld's music. Hut the poets who followed him, closing up the last
century and covering the first of this, served Christianit)' chiefly by
protesting against the theology in which it was ensnared. The services
rendered to the faith by such poets as Burns and liyron and Shelley
and VV'lIiam Jilake is very great. It is no longer in order to apologize
for lines which all wish had not been written. It were more in order
to recjuire apology from the theology which called out the satire of
Hums, and from the ecclesiasticism that provoked the young Shelley
even to atheism; the poet was not the real atheist.

If Christianity is a spirit that seeks io inform everything with
which it comes in contact, the process has that clear and growing
illustration in the poets of the century. In one way or another — some
in negative, but more in positive ways — they have striven to enthrone
love in man and for m.in as the supreme law, and they have found this
law in God, who works in righteousness for its fulfillment. The roll
might be called from Wordsworth and Coleridge down to Whittier, and
but few would need to be counted out,

The marked examples are Tennyson and Browning, and of the
two I think Tennyson is the clearer. Speaking roughly, and taking
his work as a whole, I regard it as more thoroughly informed with
Christianity than that of any other master in literature. I do not
forget the overwhelming positiveness of Browning, whose faith is the
very evidence of things unseen and whose hope is like a contagion.
It is this very positiveness that removes him a little way from us; it is
high and we cannot quite attain to it. Tennyson, on the contrary,
speaks on the level of our finite hearts, believes and doubts with us,
debates the problems of faith with us, and such victories as he wins
are also ours. Browning leaves us behind as he storms his way into
the heaven of his unclouded hope, but Tennyson stays with us in a
world which, being such as it is, is never without a shadow. The more
clearly we see the eternal the more deeply are we enshrouded in the
finite.

Tlio Latpr
PoptH" H|)irit.
uiil ViHiun.

Tennyson and
RrowniDK an
KsainpleM.

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The nio'-t interesting fact in connection with our subject is the
thorough dmcussion Christianity is now undergoing in literature, and
Tennyson is the undoubted leader in the debate. It is not only in tlu-
highest form of literary art, but it is based on the latest and fullest
science. He turns evolution into faith and makes it the ground of hope.

It is not in tlie "In Memoriam," however, but in the Idyls that wc
have his fullest e.plication of Christianity. These Idyls are sermons
or treatises; they deal with all sins, faults, graces, virtues, character
in all its phases and forms and processes put under a conception of
Christ which nineteen centuries have evolved plus the insight of the
poet.

The value of these restatements of Christianity, especially by the
poets, is beyond estimate. They are tiie real defenders of the faith,
the ))rophets and priests, whose succession never fails. Leslie Stephen
Keni i).'f..n.i- writes an enticing plea for agnosticism, and seems to sweep the uni-
.THoftiuFaitii. verse clean of faith and God; we read Tennyson's "Higher Panthe-
ism," "The Two Voices," "In Memoriam," or lirowning's ".Saul,"
" Death in the Desert." or Wordsworth's odes on Immortality ami
Duty, or Whittier's " My Psalm," and the plea for agnosticism fades
out. In some way it seems truer and better to believe.

Such prophets never cease, though their coming is uncertain. In
the years just gone three have " lost tiiemsclves in the light " they saw
so clearly, and the succession will not fail. So long as a century can
produce such interpreters of Christianity as Tennyson and Browning
and Whittier, it will not vanish from the earth.

It will be seen that I have simply touched a few points of a sub-
ject too large and widespreading to be brought within an hour's space.
To amend for so scanty treatment, I will briefly enumerate the chief
ways in which literature becomes the interpreter of Christianity.

Literature interjirets Christianity correctly for the plain reason
that both are keyed to the spirit. The inspiration of high literature is
Wuyti in which that of truth; it reveals the nature and meaning of things, which is
ri^ the office of the spirit that takes the things of Christ and shows theui
unto us even as the poet interprets life — two similar and sympathetic
processes.

Literature, with few exceptions — all inspired literature — stands
squarely upon humanity and insists upon it on ethical grounds and for
ethical encls, and this is essential Christianity.

Literature in its highest forms is unworldly. It is a protest against
the worldly temper, the worklly motive, the worldly habit. It appeals
to tilt spiritual and the invisible; it readily allies itself with all the
greater Christian truths and hopes and becomes their mouthpiece.

The greater literature is prophetic and optimistic. Its keynote is,
"All is well," and it accords with the Christian secret, " Behold, 1
make all things new."

Literature, in its higher ranges, is the correction of poor thinking
— that which is crude, extravagant, superstitious, haril, one-sided.
This is especially true in the realm of theological thought.

Literiiturt
terprets (
tianity.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS.

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The theology of the west, with the western passion for clearness
and immediate effectiveness, is nieciumical and prosaic; it pleases the
ordinary mind, and therefore a democratic age insists on it; it is a good
tool for priestcraft; it is easily defended by formal logic, but it does
not satisfy the thinker and it is abhorrent to the poet. Hence,
thoroughly as it has swayed the occidental world, it has never com-
mandec' the assent of the choicest occidental minds. Hence the long
line of mystics, through whom lies the true continuity of Christian
theology, always verging upon poetry and often reaching it. A the-
ology that insists on a transcendent God, who sits above the world and
spins the thread of its affairs as a spinner at a wheel, that holds to
such a conception of God because it involves the simplest of several
perplexing propositions; that resents immanence as involving panthe-
ism; that makes two catalogues — the natural and the supernatural —
and puts everything it can uiulerstaiul into one list and everything it
. cannot understand into the other, and then makes faith turn upon
accepting this division, such a theology does not command the assent
of those minds who e.xpress themselves in literature; the poet, the
man of genius, the broad and universal thinker pass it by; they stand
too near God to be deceived by such renderings uf Mis truth. All the
while, in every age, these children of light have made their jM'otest,
and it is through them that the chief gains in theological thought have
been secureil.

For the most part, the greater names in literature have been true
to Christ, and it is the Christ in them that has corrected theology, re-
deeming it from dogmatism and making it capable of belief, not clear,
perhaps, but profound.

the W('«t.

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Looked nt
from a ("hriHt-
ian Standpoint.

§tudy of the §acred B^o^^ of the
\Yorld as Literature.

Paper by PROF. MILTON S. TERRY, D. D., of Evanston, lU.

HERE have been and probably yet exist some
is<»latetl tribes of men who imagine that the
sun rises and sets for their sole benefit. They
occupy, perchance, a lonely island far from
the routes of ocean travel, and have no
thought that the sounding waters about their
island homes arc at the same time washing
beautiful corals and precious pearls on other
shores. We say: How circumscribed their
vision; how narrow their world! Ikit the
same maybe said of anyone who is so circum-
scribed by the conditions of race and language
in which he has been reared that he has no
knowledge or appreciation of lands, nations,
^_,^■ ^^i^m^^ religions and litera<^ures which differ from

his own. 1 am a Christian, and must needs look at things from a
Christian point of view, lint 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 (ireek, who traversed the roaring seas, touched many
a foreign shore and observed the habitations and customs of many
men. Will they be likely to discard the recently deciphereil Accadian
hymns and Assyrian penitential psalms? Is it jirobable that men who
can devote studious years to the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle will
care nothing about the invocations of the old Persian Avesta, the
Vedic hymns, the doctrines of Huddha and the maxims of Confucius?
Nay, T repeat it, I am a Christian; therefore, I think there is nothing
human or divine in any literature of the world that I can afford to
ignore. My own New Testament scriptures enjoin the following
words as a solemn commandment:

"Whatever things are true, whatever things are worthy of honor,
whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are

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Prof. Milton S. Terry, D. D., Evanston, 111.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

676

lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and
if there be any praise exercise reason upon these things" (Phil, iv, 8).
My task is to speak of the "sacred books of the world" as so much
various literature. And I must at the ver" outset acknowledge my
inability to treat such a broad subject with anything like comprehen-
sive thoroughness. And had I the requisite knowledge and ability,
the time at my disposal would forbid. I can only glance at some no-
table characteristics of this varied literature, and call attention to some
few things which are worthy of protracted study.

I commence with a quotation from the treatise of the old Chinese „ „ ,
1 ., , T 'f 1 I • 1 • • r rower Hack

philosopher Lao Isze, where he gives utterance to his conception oi of all Phenom-
the Infinite. lie seems to be struggling in thought with the great ®'"'"
power which is back of all phenomena, and seeking to set forth the
idea which possesses him so that others ma)' grasp it. His book is
known as the Tao-teh-king, and is devoted to the praise of what the
author calls his Tao. The twenty-fifth chapter, as translated by John
Chalmers, reads thus:

"There was something chaotic in nature which existed before
heaven and earth. It was still. It was void. It stood alone and was
not changed It pervadetl everywhere and was not endangered. It
maybe regarded as the mother of the universe I know not its name,
but give it the title of Tao. If I am forced to make a name for it I
say it is Great ; being great, I say that it passes away; passing away,
1 say that it is far off; being far off, I say that it returns. Now, Tao is
great, heaven is great, earth is great, a king is great. In the universe
there are four greatnesses and a king is one of them. Man takes his
law from the earth; the earth titkes its law from heaven; heaven takes
its law from Tao, and Tao takes its law from what it is in itself."

"Now it is not the theology of this passage nor its cosmology that
we put forward, but rather its grand poetic concepts. Here is the pro-
duction of an ancient sage, born six hundred years before the Christian Production
*era. He had no Pentateuch or Ilexateuch to enlighten him; no Isaiah to ^ieSt^° '^"'
prophesy to him; no V'edic songs addressed to the deities of earth
and sea and air; no pilgrim fron. any other nation to tell him of the
thoughts and things of other lands. But like a poet reared under other
skies, he felt"

•'A presence tliat tlisturbed him with the joy
Of elevate;' tlioughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deej)ly interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man —
A motion of a spirit that impels
All thinking things."

.Students of Lao Tsze's book have tried to express his idea of Tao
by other terms. It has been called the Supreme Reason, the Universal
Soul, the Eternal Idea, the Nameless Void, Mother of Being and
Pvssence of Things. But the very mystery that attaches to the word
becomes an element of power in the literary features of the book.

i! V.

676

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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Old Scandi.
uavian Houk.

That suggestiveness of something great and yet intangible, a some-
thing that awes and impresses and yet eludes our grasp, is recognized
by all great writers and critics as a conspicuous element in the master-
pieces of literature.

I have purposely chcaen this passage from the old Chinese book
since it affords a subject for comparison in other sacred books. Most
religions have some theory or poem of creation, and I select next the
famous hymn of Creation from the Rigveda (Bk. lo, ch. 129). It is
not by any means the most beautiful specimen of the Vedic hymns,
but it shows how an ancient Indian poet thought and spoke of the
mysterious origin of things. He looked out on a mist-wrapt ocean of
being, and his soul was filled with strong desire to know its secrets.

"Then there was nothing being nor not-being;
The atmosphere was not, nor sky above it.
What covered all? And where? By what protected?
Was there the fathomless abyss of waters?

When neither death nor deathlessness existed;
Of day and night there was yet no distinction.
Alone that one breathed calmly, self-supported,
Other than it was none, nor aught ubove it.

Darkness there was at first in darkness hidden;
This universe was undistinguished water.
That which is void and emptiness lay hidden,
Alone by power of fervor was developed.

Then for the first time there arose desire.
Which was the primal germ of mind, within it.
And sages, searching in their lieart, discovered
In nothing the connecting bond of being.

Who is it knows? Who here can tell us surely
From what and how this universe has risen?
And whether not till after it the pods lived?
VVho, then, can know from what it has arisen?

The source from which this universe has risen
And whether it was made, or uncreated.
He only knows, who from the highest heaven
Rules— the all-seeing Lord— or does not He know?"

One naturally compares with these poetic speculations the begin-
ning of Ovid's Metamorphoses, where we have a Roman poet's concep-
tion of the original chaos, a rude and confused mass of water, earth
and air, all void of light, out of which "God and kindly nature" pro-
duced the visible order of beauty of the world. The old Scandina-
vians had also, in their sacred book, "The Elder Edda," a song of the
prophetess, who told the story of creation:
"In that far age when Ymir lived,

And there was neither land nor sea,

Earth there was not nor lofty heaven;

A yawning deep but verdure none.

Until lior's sons the spheres upheaved,

And formed the mighty midgard round;

Then bright the sun shone on the cliffs,

And green the ground became with plants."

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

677

I need not quote, but only allude to, the Chaldean account of crea-
tion, recently deciphered from the monuments, and the opening chap-
ter of the book of Genesis, which contains what modern scholars arc
given to calling the "Hebrew poem of Creation." In this we have the
sublime but vivid picture of God creating the heavens and the earth
and all their contents and living tribes in six days and resting the
seventh day and blessing it.

As theologians we naturally study these theosophic poems with
reference to their origin and relationship. But we now call attention
to the place they hold in the sacred literatures of the world. Each com-
position bears the marks of an individual genius. He may, and prob-
ably 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 crea-
tion exhibit a world-wide taste and tendency to cast in poetic form
the profoundest thoughts which busy the human soul.

I turn now to that great collection of ancient Indian songs known
as the Rigveda. As a body of sacred literature, it is especially ex-
pressive of a childlike intuition of nature. The hymns are addressed
to various gods of earth and air and the bright heaven beyond, but
owing to their great diversity of date and authorship they vary much
in value and interest. By the side of some splendid productions of
gifted authors we find many tiresome and uninteresting compositions.
It is believed by those best competent to ji' Ige that m the oldest
hymns we have a picture of an original and piimitive life of men just
as it may be imagined to have, sprung forth fresh and exultant from
the bosom of nature Popular songs always embody numerous facts
in the life of a people, and .so these Vcdic hymns reveal to us the
ancient Aryans at the time wiien they entered India, far back beyond
the beginnings of authentic history They were not the first occupants
of that country, but entered it by the same northwestern passes where
Alexander led his victorious armies more than two thousand years
theieafter. The Indus and the rivers of the Punjab water the fair
fields where the action of the Vedas is laid. The people cultivated
the soil and were rich in flocks and herds But they were also a race
of mighty warriors, and with apparently the best good conscience
prayed and struggled to enrich themselves with the spoil of the ene-
mies. All these things find expression in the Vedic songs, and a pop-
ular use of them implies an ardent worship of nature.

The principal earthgod,to whom very many hymns are addressed,
is Agni, the god of fire. His proper home is heaven, they say, but he
has come down as a representative of other gods to bring light and
comfort to the dwellings of men His births arc without number, and
the vivid poetical concept of their nature is seen in the idea that he
lies concealed in the soft wood, and when two stick..- are rubbed to-
gether Agni springs forth in gleaming brightness and devours the
sticks which were his parents. He is also botn amid the rains of
heaven and comes down as lightning to the earth

Chaldean Ac-
coant of Crea-
tion.

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The Rigveda.

678

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

To the
of Fire.

God

( !l

Take the foUowinjr as a fair specimen of many hymns of praise
addressed to the god of fire:

"O, Agni, graciously accept this wood which I offer thee, and this
my service, and listen to my songs. Herewith we worship thee, O,
Agni, thou high-born, thou conqueror of horses, thou son of power.
With songs we worship thee who lovcst song, who givest riches antl
art Lord thereof. He thou to us of wealth the Lord and giver, O,
wise and powerful one; and drive away from us the enemies Give us
rains out of heaven, thou inexhaustible one; give us our food and
drinks a thousand fold. To him who praises thee and seeks thy help,
draw near, O, youngest messenger and noblest priest of the gt)ds, draw
near through song. C). thou wise Agni, wisely thou goest forth between
gods and men, a friendly messenger between the two. Thou wise and
honored one, occult, perform the sacrificial service and seat thyself
upon this sacred grass."

As Agni is the principal deity of the earth, so is Indra of the air.
He is the god of the clear blue sky. the air space, whence come the fer-
tilizing rains. The numerous poems addressed to him abound in images
which are said to be especially forcible to such as have live<l some time
in India antl watched the phenomena of the changing seasons there.
The clouds are conceived as the covering of hostile demons, who hide
the sun, darken the worKl and holil back the heavenly waters from the
thirsty earth. It is Indra's glory that he alone is able to vancpiish
those dreadful demons. All the other gods shrink back from the roar-
ing monsters, but Indra, armed with his fatal thunderbolt, smites them
with rapid lightning strokes, ruins their power, jiierces their covering
of clouds and releases the waters which then fall in copious showers to
bless the earth. In other hymns the demons are conceived as having
stolen the reservoirs of water and hidden them away in the caverns of
the mountains. liut Indra pursues them thither, splits the mountains
with his thunderbolt and sets them at liberty again. Such a powerful
deity is also naturally worshiped as the god of battle. He is always
fighting and never fails to concjuer in the end. Hence he is the ideal
hero whom th*^ warrior trusts and adores.

"On liim all men must call amid the battle;
He, hif^h adored, alone has power to succor.
The man who offers him ]irayers and libations.
Him Indra's arm heljjs forward in his goings."

With Indra other divinities of the air realm are associated, as
Vata, the god of the wind, who arises in the early morning to drink
the soma juice and lead in the dawn; Rudra's sons, the Maruts, gods
of the thunderstorm. Where in all the realm of lyric poetry can be
found compositions more charming than the Vedic hymns to Aurora,
the goddess of the dawn? She opens the gates of day, drives away
darkness, clears a pathway on the misty mountain tops and sweeps
along in glowing brightness with her white steeds and beautiful chariot.
All nature springs to life as she approaches, and beasts and birds and
men go forth with joy.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUGIONS.

G79

The sacred scriptures of Buddhism comprise three immense col-
lections known as the Tripitaka, or " three baskets." One of these con-
tains the discourses of Buddha, another treats of doctrines and meta- tmp BuddhiBt
physics, and another is devoted to ethics and discipline. In bulk these TripiUka.
writinjfs 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 manu-
sc.'ipt. Hut as Buddhism spread and triumphed mightily in southern
and eastern Asia, its sacred books have be«>n translated into Pali,
Burmese, Siamese, Tibetan, Chinese and other Asiatic tongues. The
Tibetan edition of the Tripitaka fills about 325 folio volumes. ICvery
important tribe or nation which has adopted Buddhism appears to
have a more or less complete lUitUlhist literature of its own. But all
this literature, so vast that one lifetime seems insufficient to explore it
thorouj^hiy, revolves about a comparatively few and simple doctrines.
First we have the four sublime verities: First, all existence, being
subject to change and decay, is evil; second, the source of all this evil
is desire; third, desire and the evil which follows it may be made to
cease; fourth, there is a fixed and certain way by which to attain ex-
emption from -Ul evil. Next after these verities are the doctrines of
the eightft)ld path: First, right belief; second, right judgment; third,
right utterance, fourth, right motives; fifth, right occupation; sixth,
right obedience; seventh, right memory, and eighth, right meditation.
Then we have further, five commandments: First, do not kill; second,
do not steal, third, do not lie; fourth, do not become intoxicated;
fifth, do not commit adultery. The following passage is a specimen of
the tone and style of Buddha's discourses:

"The best of ways is the eightfold; the best of truths the four
words; the best of virtues passionlessness; the best of men he who has
eyes to see. This is the way; there is no other that leads to the puri-
fying of intelligence. Go on this way. K\'erything else is the deceit
of the tenipter. If you go on this way you will make an end of pain.
The way was preached by me., when I had understood the thorns of
the flesh. You yourself must make an effort. The Buddha is only a
preacher. The thoughtful that enter this way are freed from the
bondage of the tempter. All created things perish; he who knows this
becomes passive in pain; this is the way to purity. All created things
are grief and pain; he who knows and does fhis becomes passive in
pain, this is the way that leads to purity."

We who are reared under a western civilization can see little that
is attractive in the writings of Buddhism. The genius of Edwin Ar-
nold has set the story of the chief doctrines of Buddha in a brilliant
dress in his poem of the "Light of Asia;" but the Buddhist script-
ures as specimens of literature are as far removed from that poem as
the Talmud from the Hebrew Psalter. Here and there a nugget of
gold may be discovered, but the reader must pay for it by laborious
toiling through vast spaces of tedious metaphysics and legend. It is

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Buri'lhiBm.

680

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worthy of note that, as Christianity originated among the Jews, but has
had its chief triuini)hs among the Gentiles, so Huddhism originated
among the Hindus, but has won most of its adherents among other
tribes and nations.

Glance with me now a moment at the sacred books of Confucian-
ism, which is par excellence the religion of the Chinese empire. Hut
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 worshi[) of the past. The
Chinese classics comprise the five King and the four Shu. The latter,
SBcmi Hooks however, are the worksof Confucius's discijjles, and hold not the rank
l»m. "** ""'"*• 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 canon-
ical 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 extending over seventeen
centuries, from about 2357 H. C. to C27 H. C, and is believed to be the
oldest of all the Chinese Hible, 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. The following is a
fair example of the odes used in connection with the worship of an-
cestors. A j'oung king, feeling his responsibilities, would fain follow
the example of his father, and prays to him for help:

"I take counsel, at the beginning of my rule,
How can I follow the example of my shrived father?
Ah! far-reaching were his plans,
And I am not able to carry them out.
However I endeavor to reach to them
My continuation of them will be all deflected.
I am a little child,

Unequal to the many difficulties of the state.
Having taken his place, I will look for him to go up and come down in

the court,
To ascend and descend in the house.
Admirable art thou, O, great Father;
Condescend to preserve and enlighten me."

It has been widely maintained and with much show of reason, that
Confucianism is at best a .system of ethics and political economy rather
than a religion. Many a wise maxim, many a noble precejit may be
cited from the sacred books, but the whole system logically resolves
itself into one of worldly wisdom rather than of spiritual life. Con-
fucius says:

"When I was fifteen years old I longed for wisdom. At thirty my
mind was fixed in pursuit of it At forty I saw certain principles
clearly. At fifty I understood the rule given by heaven. At sixty
everything I heard I easily understood. At seventy the desires of my
heart no longer transgressed the law."

In passing now from sacred literatures of the far cast to those of

Ode to an An-
eestor.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

OSl

the west, I linger for a moment over tlic religious writings of the
ancient Babylonians ana the Persians. Who has not heard of Zoroaster
and the Zend-Avesta? But the monuments of the great valley of the
Tigris and Euphrates have in recent years disclosed a still more
ancient literature. The old Akkadian and Assyrian hymns might be
collected into a volume which would perhaps rival the Veda in inter-
est, if not in value. I can only take time to cite an old Akkadian
hymn to the setting sun, which seems to have been a portion of the
Babylonian ritual:

"O sun, in the middle of the sky, at thy setting,
May the bri^jht gates welcome thee favorably;
May the door of heaven be docile to thee;
May the god director, thy faithful messenger, mark the way.
In Ebara, seat of thy royalty, he makes thy greatness shine for thee.
May the morn, thy beloved spouse, come to meet thee with joy;
May thy heart rest in peace;
May the glory of thy godhead remain with thee.
Powerful hero, O sun! shine gloriously.
Lord of Kbara, direct thy foot liglitly in thy road,
() sun, in making thy way, take the path marked for thy rays.
Thou art the Lonl of judgments over all nations."

As for the sacred scriptures of the Parsecs, the Avesta, it may be
said that few remains of antiquity arc of much greater interest to the
student of history and religion, liut these records of the old Iranian
faith have suffered sadly by time and the revolutions of the empire.
One who has made them a special life study observes: "As the Par-
sees 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 inonuments 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 collection, taken together, is mainly of the nature of a
prayer book or ritual.

We pass now to the land of Egypt, and notice that mysterious
compilation of myth and legend, and words of hope and fear, now
commonly known as the "Book of the Dead." It exists in a great
number of manuscripts recovered from Egyptian tombs, and many
chapters are inscribed upon coffins, mummies, sepulchral wrappings,
statues and walls of tombs. Some of the tombs contain exactly
the same characters, or follow the same arrangement. The text is ac-
cordingly very corrupt. The writing was not, in fact, intended for
mortal eyes, but to be buried with the dead, and the prayers are, for
the most part, language supposed to be used by the departed in their
progress through the under world. We can, therefore, hardly expect
to find in this strange book anything that will greatly interest us as
literature. Its value is in the knowledge it supplies of the ancient
Egyptian faith. The blessed dead are supposed to have the use of all
their limbs, and to eat and drink, and to enjoy an existence similar to

that which thev had known on earth. But they are not confined to
44

Old Akkadian
Uymn.

e«2

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

li !

The Moham
luedaa BibW.

Wonls of Sir
William Jones,

any one locality, or to any one form of existence. They have the
range of the entire universe in every shape and form which they de-
sire. We find in one chapter an account of the terrible nature of cer-
tain divinities and localities which the deceased must encounter. This
before gigantic and venomous serpents, gods with names significant of
death and destruction, waters and atmospheres of flames. lUit none
of these prevail over him; he passes through all things without harm,
and lives in peace with the fearful gods who presiile over these abodes.
The following is a specimen of invocat'ons to be used in passing
through such dangers:

"O Ra, in thine egg, radiant in thy disk shining forth from the hori-
zon, swimming over the steel firmament, sailing over the pillars of Shu:
thou who hast no second among the gods, who produced the winils by
the flames of thy mouth and who enlightencst the worlds with thy
splendors, save the departed from that god whose nature is a mystery
and whose eyebrows are as the arms of the balance on the night when
Aanit was weighed."

The Mohammedan Bible is a comparatively modern book. It is a
question whether its author ever learned to read or write, lie dictateti
his revelations to his disciples and they wrote them on date leaves,
bits of parchment, tablets of white stone and shoulder blades of sheep.
After the prophet's death the different fragments were collected and
arranged according to the length of the chapters, beginning with the
longest and ending with the shortest. As a volume of sacred litera-
ture the Koran is deficient in those elements of independence and
originality which are noticeable in the sacred books of the other great
religions of the world. It is a tedious book to read. It is full of repe-
tition and seems incapable of happy translation into any other lan-
guage. Its crowning glory is its glowing Arabic diction. Mohammed
himself insisted that the marvelous excellence of his book was a stanil-
ing proof of its superhuman origin. "If men and genii," sa\s he,
"united thcrnselves together to bring the like of the Koran they coiiul
not bring the like, though they should back each other up."

In view of the limit of my space and time, I purposed to omit pai-
ticular notice of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. The New Tes-
tament is a unique book, or set of books, and the gospels and epistles
constitute a peculiar literature. But as a body of rich and various
literature these writings arc surpassed by the .Scriptures ol the OKI
Testament. In giving the palm to the sacred books of the Hebrews,
I will simply add the words of Sir William Jones, written on a blank
leaf of his bible. That that distinguished scholar was a most com-
petent critic and judge none will dispute He wrote:

"I am of opinion that this volumo, independently of its divine
origin, contains more true sublimity, more exquisite beauty, more pure
morality, more important history and finer strains of poetry and elo-
quence than can be collected from all other books in whatever age
or language they may have been written."

divine

,«i..

Rev. A. H. Lewis, D. D., Plainfield, N. J.

1^ I

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1 he Divine Element in the \^eekly
f^est Day.

Paper by REV. A. H. LEWIS, D. D., Plainfield, N. J.

)Uk» d , - ^

the

itally

time-, .iiul iRiicc ol uic uickl)' rest cliiy, is vital
connected with the developim-nt ol itlit^ion in individual life and in
the world. History is an organic unity. No event is isolated; nothi::;^
is fortuitous. Go<l is constantly settlinjf (juestions and dcterniininjf
issues throu^^h events. There is no i)oint on uliieli (iod has more
clearly utteretl His verdicts throuj;h history than on the question of
the divine eleifieiit in the \veekl\- rest day. lie e.\|)ressed them in the
spiritual ik-arth and disaster which hli^dited ancient Israel, when the
nation turneil away from doin^^ the divine will in reLjard to the
sacred day. ivich sacceeding century has rcite'-nted these verdicts
and diMiioiistrated the fact that those who disregard the divine element
in the .Sabbath j^athcr ruin. When the falsehood which says, "No day
is sacred," became retrnant in the early history of Christianity, spiritual

canker and decay fastened on the church like a deadly funpfus. When
this same falsehood ripened in the French revolution, God thundt.cd
forth His verdict aj^ain, hif^h above the smoke and din of national
suicide. At this hour, in luirope and America, in Paris and Chicago,

685

OwJ'h Vi-rdicl
ia Cluar.

|i:'.

686

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

the clouds of divine retribution are gathering, many-voiced, rebuking
human disregard for sacred time. The slight regard which the world
pays to these verdicts is as foolish as it is futile and ruinous. Facts do
not cease because men ignore them. Divine decisions are not removed
because men invent new theories to show that they ought to be erro-
neous. God and truth outlive man's ignorance and his experiments in
disobedience.

The weekly rest day is not an accident in human history. It is

not a superficial and temporary phenomenon. It springs from the in-

Not an Acci- l^^J'dt philosophy of time and from man's relation to God through it.

dentinHuman Duration is an immediate attribute of God. It is an essential charac-
iBtoo-. teristic of the self-e.xisting deity. He is inconceivable without it.

"Time" is measured duration in which man has being. Herein is it
true that men "live, move and have their being" with and within God.
He is forever in touch with His children tiirough this environment of
duration as definitely as the atmos])here is in touch with their physical
bodies. Existence within this attribute of God is not subject to man's
volition. V\'e cannot remove ourselves from continuous living contact
with Him, even though we refuse to commune with Him through love
and obedience. On the other hand, the loving soul cannot hold com-
munion with God without this medium of time; and such are the de-
mands of life on earth that sacred time must be definite in amount and
must recur at definite periods. This is doubly true because men are
social beings, and social worship and united service are essential fac-
tors in all religions.

In accordance with these fundamental principles and demands we

find that the idea of sacred time, in some of its many forms, is universal.

It varies with religious ancl social development and with monotheistic

Idea of Sa. and polytheistic tendencies. The supreme expression of this idea is

Universal. '* found in the week, a divinely appointed cycle of time, measured, iden-
tified and preserved by the Sabl)ath. It is not a week, but the week; a
uniform and sacred multiple of days, which has endured, unvariantand
identical, from the prehistoric jjcriod to the present hour All other
divisions of time are markeil wholly by the planets, or are so con-
nected with them as to be variable, through needful adjustment to tlie
natural order of things. Imperfect imitations of the week, like the
"nundine" of the Romans, and the intercalated lunar weeks of the
Assyrians, serve only to emphasize the supernatural and divine order
of the week.

The weekly rest day and the week are the special representatives
of God, nwL of "creation" simply, but of the universal Father, Creator,
Helper and Redeemer; the All in All; '^he Ever-living and Ever-loving
One. .Springing from such uni\ersal facts, and continuing according
to such divine philosophy, the week and the weekly rest tlay are inte-
gral factors in the eternal fitness of things. The foundations of relig-
ious life are imperiled when this truth is disregarded ■ - assailed. The
consciousness of God's ever-abiding nearness to men is the foundation
of true religion.

:i!

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

687

Philology is a department of history. Language is embalmed
thought. It is an archaeological museum of crystallized facts. It gives
unerring testimony concerning the habits and practices of men in all
ages. Names are among the most enduring elements of language.
The existence of a name is proof that the thing existed as early or
earlier than the name. Thus the so-called " dead languages " preserve
the life of the people who have passed away. Nautical terms in a
language show that it belonged to a seafaring race. If a language be
filled with the names of agriculliiral implements, we know that those
who spoke it were tillers of the soil, even though the land they inhab-
ited be now a desert. Under this universal law of philology the identity
of the week in its present order is placed beyond question.

A table of days carefully prepared by Dr. W. M. Jones, of London,
assisted by other eminent scholars, shows that the week as we now
have it exists in all the principal languages and dialects of the world.
This philological chain encircles the globe, includes all races of men ^ phUologi.
and covers the entire historic period. It proves that infinite wisdom cal Chain,
provided from the earliest time and as an essential part of the divine
order of creation the weekly rest day, by which alone the universal
week is measured. Thus God ordained to keep constantly in touch
with men through this sacred attribute of Himself within which His
children exist.

Heing founded in the divine order and created to meet a universal
demand, linking earth and heaven as God's especial representative,
the Sabbath and the week have a supreme value in all human affairs.
Hut this value is fundamentally and pre-eminently religious. Rest
from ordinary world!)- affairs is a subordinate idea. It has little value
except as a means to iiighcr spiritual and religious ends. The bless-
ings which come to the physical side of life through rest are much,
mainly or only, when rest comes through religious sentiment. Irre-
ligious leisure insures holidayism and dissipation. These defeat all
higher results. Hut when men give the .Sabbath to rest, because it
is God's day, because of reverence for Him and that they may commune
with Him, all their higher interests are served. Spiritual intercourse
and acquaintance with God are the first and supreme results. Wor-
ship and religious instruction follow.

Under the behest of religion the ordinary' duties of life, its cares
and perplexities are really set aside, not simply refrained from. Such
a rest day promotes all that is best; it is not merely a time for physical
inaction. It raises men into companionship with God and with good.
It is not burdened with hair-splitting distinctions about what is
worldly, what may be done, or what may not be done. Not "Thou
shalt not do," but "I delight to do Thy will, O God." is its language.

Nothing less than sacred time can meet such demands. Sacred
places and sacred shrines cannot come to them as time does. They
are too far removed from God and too local as to men. They cannot
speak to the soul as time speaks. .Sacred hours are God's unfolding
presence, lifting the soul and holding it in heavenly converse. Social

Talne of the
Sabbath.

688

THK WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

\ \

\ i

worship comes only through specified time. Religious intercourse
among men, whereby each stimulates the other's faith and aids the
other's devotion, is an inevitable result of sacred time and is unattain-
able without it. .Sacred time cultivates religious life by spiritual com-
munion, by wholesome instruction and by healthful, spiritual sur-
roundings. It preserves and develops religious life by continual
recurrence.

God drops out of mind when the practical recognition of sacred
time ceases. The religious sense and religious tendencies disappear
when the consciousness of God's presence is lost. On the other hand,
all that is holiest and best springs into life and develops into beauty
when men realize that God is constantly near them. The sense of
personal obligation, awakened by the consciousness of God's pres-
ence, lies at the foundation of religious life and of worship. God's
day is a perfect symbol of His presence, of His enfolding and redeem-
ing love. The lesser blessings which come to men through sacred
time need not be catalogued here, but it must be remembered that
these do not come except through sacred time, and that the results
which flow from irreligious idleness ar-^ curses rather than blessings.
Holidayism is removed from Sabbatlnsm.

An adequate conception of the problems which surround the Sab-
bath question will not be obtained unless we consider some things
which prevent these higher views from being adopted. I'^irst among
which 8ur- hindrances is the failure to recognize duration as an attribute of God,
bath'ouMUQn? ^^^'^ hence the .Sabbath and the week, as necessary parts of the divine
and everlasting order of things. Without a recognition of the fact
that sacred time, as God's representative, is a necessary result of the
primal and fundamental relations between God and His creatures, there
is no adequate basis for a religious rest day, nor for any permanent
conception of sacred time. If time is but the accident of man's earthly
existence, Sabbatlnsm sinks to the plane of a tenijjorary ceremony, or
a passing rite born of momentary choice, or personal desire. Such a
conception is too low to awaken conscience or to cultivate spiritual life.
The absence of this higher conception is the source of the present
vvidesj)read non-religious holidayism, with its long catalogue of evils;
evils which jierpetuate the falsehood — "Let us eat and drink, for to-
morrow we die."

Any conception of the weekly rest day which docs not recognize
it as God's representative in human life, and as growing out of the
universal relations which men sustain to Him, as earthly, sensuous and
fatal to religion. Conscience finds no congenial soil in such low
ground. Growth heavenward cannot take root in the falsehood which
separates the Sabbath from God and from the life to come. There
can be no religious rest day without conscience. There is no con-
science where God's authority is not. God has written this verdict on
every page of history.

Another great hindrance is interposed when men emphasize and
exalt the importance of physical rest as the reason for maintaining Sab-

'*««*r^

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

(585)

bath observance This is done because the divine element is unrecog-
nized, and in turn the divine element is obscured in proportion as
physical rest is crowded to the front. This reverses the true order. It
places the lowest, highest. It exalts the material and temporary above
the spiritual and eternal. When the physical needs are made prom-
inent, the spiritual perceptions are benumbed and clouded. Upon such
a basis the obligation to rest is determined by the extent of weariness,
and the manner of resting by the kind of weariness. This de-sabbatizcs
the rest day and destroys the religious foundation which alone can
uphold it. Let it be repeated; irreligious resting at the best is holi-
dayism. It usually sinks to dissipation and debauchery.

Another decided hindrance to the recognition of the divine ele-
ment in the weekly rest day is reliance on the civil law for the enforce-
ment of its observance. This point is worthy of far more careful and
scientific consideration than it has yet received. The vital divine cle-
ment in the weekly rest day is eliminated when it is made a " civil
institution." The verdict of history on this point is unmistakable,
uniform and imperative. Any argument is deceptive and destructive
if it places the rest day on a par with those civil institutions that spring
from the relations which men sustain to each other in organized so-
ciety. The fundamental difference is so great that the same treatment
cannot be accorded to each. Civil institutions spring from earthly
relations between men. Hut, an we have seen, duration is so essentially
an attribute of (iod, that man's relations to it and to God are relations
supremely religious. Hence it is that when civil authority is made the
ground, or the prominent grountl of obligation to observe the weekly
rest day, the question ceases to be a religious one. It is taken out of
the realm of conscience and of spiritual relations, and put on an
equality with things human and temporary. This brings ruin, and
nothing good can be built thereon by any sort of indirection, or by
compromise.

Men inevitably cease to keep the Godward side of the question
in sight, when "the law of the land" is presented as the main point of
contact. The ultimate appeal is not to C;esar, but to God; to con-
science, not to congress. Here is the fatal weakness of "modern
Sabbath reform." History sustains these conclusions with one voice.
No weekly rest day was ever religiously or sacredly kept under the
authority of the civil law alone. On the contrary, the religious cle-
ment is always destroyed by the supposed protection of civil law.
When conscience, springing from the recognition of the divine element
is wanting, nothing higher than holidayism can be reached. The
weekly rest day loses its sacredness and its power to uplift and bless
whenever divine authority and the sanctity which follows therefrom
are separated from it.

Another of the higher elements which enter into the weekly rest
day must be noticed here. The Sabbath is the prophecy of everlast-
ing and perfected rest in the life to come. Heavenly life is the second the
stage in the existence of redeemed men. Secure in the consciousness ^'"°*'

Physical Reet
and fciabbath
Observance.

Civil E n-
fore c m e n t a
Hindrance.

Pro

phecy of
Life to

i V

1 :'.

690

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Type and
Promine of
Eternal Rest.

Conclasiu n h
Reached.

i'(il

< ■ !:■

of immortality, religion is always looking forward to a better time
beyond. Visions of this eternal Sabbath, untouched by care, undimmed
by sorrow and filled with delightsome rest, are a part of universal relig-
ion. These arc not baseless dreams. They arc the most real of real-
ities. Spiritual vision sees them in part while awaiting the hour of
their fuller revelation. Karthly Sabbaths arc the type and the promise
of eternal rest. They arc pulse throbs from God's heart of love, which
speed along the artcri«.\s of our immortalit)', assuring us of the rest
which rcmaincth for God's children close beyond the veil that but
thinly intervenes between the loving soul and the fair city of eternal
light and joy. Hence it is, that the Sabbath is not sacred because its
observance is commanded. Its observance is commanded because it
is intrinsically sacred. It was not created at Sinai, but Sinai was made
glorious by the presence of Ilim from whom time anil eternity proceed,
and who there rc-announccd this representative of Himself and of His
continued presence among men. A fountain of religion opened to
satisfy man's spiritual nature, it is far more than a "memorial of crea-
tion." It is God's accredited ambassador at the court of humanity,
always saying to men, "God is your Father, your Preserver, your Spir-
itual Head, the Hearer of your burdens, the Healer of your sorrows;
living in Him your salvation is secured and your joy co-eternal with
your immortality."

Before passing to consider a still broader and possible result than
men have yet considered, it maybe well to repeat the conclusions al-
ready reached.

(a) Duration, eternity, is the attribute of Deity. Time is meas-
ured duration, within which man exists and by means of which he is
forever living, moving and being in Ciod. It is the divine invoiucrum
within which man is created and developed.

( b ) The week, created and bounded In- the .Sabbath, is a universal,
perduring, divine cycle of time, onlaineil to keep (iod in mind and to
draw men into spiritual communion with Ilim. Its order and identity
are coeijual with history and the human race.

(c) The weekly rest day cannot ser\e the ends for which it was
created on any other than a religious Ijasis. That basis is revealed by
divine command, divine example ap J human needs, all springing from
man's relation to God, to time an'", to eternity. Christ's prece[)ts and
example repeated and intensifici God's example and commandment,
while His sacrifice magnified rnd re-established the divine law.

(d) Our restless, overw rked age cries out with deep and religious
longings for the blessings of the di\inely ordained religious rest day.
All nations and all individuals need these blessings to lead them heav-
enward and to lift them into spiritual childship and communion with
the Father and Redeemer of all.

(e) Reliance upon lower considerations and earth-born motives
increases existing evils, prevents religious development, obscures the
G 'ard side of the question, and delays genuine reform. The clos-
ing decade of the nineteenth century has fully entered a world-wide

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

691

transition in religious thought, and hence of the Sabbath question. It
is too early to say in detail what the final readjustment will bring.

As men rise to this higher, this true conception of time, of the
week and of the Sabbath, and come to observe it — not as a form, a cere-
mony, a something to be done, but in recognition of their existence
with and within the Divine One — it is not too much to hope that uni-
versal Sabbatism, religious .Sabbatism, according to God's command-
ment, to continue Sabbatism is neither long nor unnatural. It is rather
legitimate and ought to be expected. Some could have approached
this in all ages; but the masses are yet far from it, main!)- because the
treatment of the Sabbath question since the third century of the Caris-
tian era has obscured or destroyed the idea of sacred time. Real Sab-
batism cannot be attained on any ground lower than religious and spir-
itual rest. So long as men think of the Sabbath as a temporary insti-
tution, belonging to one " dispensation," or to one people, the higher
conception will not be reached even in theory, mucii less in fact. Men
must also rise above the idea that legislation, divine or human, creates
or can preserve the Sabbatli. They must rather learn that the Sabbath
is a part of the eternal order of things, as essential an element of true
religion as the sun is of the solar system. It is older than any legisla-
tion and permanent beyond all changes, national or dispensational.

When men rightly ajiprehend the divine element in the weekly
rest day, they do not need the law of the land nor the fiat of the church
to induce obedience to this blessed provision of their existence, which
answers their "crjing out for (iod." Until they do apprehend this
higher idea, little value is gained and true Sabbatism is unknown.

VVh.'it is the final conclusion? It is plain and radical. Since the
nature of tlie Sabbath is funtlamcntally religious, all considerations as to
authority, manner of observance and future character must be remand-
ed to the reahu of religion. (Conscientious regard for it as divinely or-
dained, sacred to (iod and therefore laden with blessings for men is
the only basis for its continuance. It is not an element of ceremonial-
ism to be performed for sake of a ritual. It is not part of a "legal
system" to be obeyed under fear of punishment, nor is it to be kept as
a ground (jf salvation. It is not a passing feature of ecclesiasticism, to
be, or not to be, as men may chance to ordain.

Furthermore, and pre-eminently, it is not a civil institution to be
enforced by penalties enjoined by jurisprudence It rises far above
all these. It reaches deeper than any of these It is an integral part
of the relation which God's immortal children sustain to Him within time
and throughout eternity.

The "morning stars" sang at its birth and the ".Sous of God"
answered with glad hallelujahs. That chorus yet welcomes each soul,
redeemed through divine love, as it passes from earth's weariness to
heaven's rest, to the true "Nirvana," the everlasting Sabbath in which
the world's greater parliament of religions is yet to convene, to go no
more out forever and ever.

Final
clueion.

(■ on-

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Mosque of El-Azhar in Cairo.

l 'i

Man's Place in fsjature.

Paper by PROF. A. B. BRUCE, of Glasgow.

'\T is man? A century ago our pious
randfathcrs would have replied:
The lord and king of creation." The
itest science has not dethroned him.
he evolutionary theory as to the
genesis of things confesses that man
is at the head of creation as we know
it. It not on!)- confesses this truth, it
proves it, sets it on a foundation of
scientific cirtainty, making man ap-
pear the consummation and crown of
the evolutionary process in that part
oi the universe with which it is our
power to become thoroughly ac-
quainted.

It is not quiie a settled matter that
man is out and out the chd(U)f evolu-
That he is the product of evolution on the
animal side of his nature is now all but universally
acknowledged. i\ny dispute still outstanding re-
lates to the psychical aspect of his being to his intellect and his con-
science. It is on this side admittedly that man's tlistinction lies and
that he stands furthest apart from the lower animal creation. Many
are mclined to abide by the position of Russell Wallace, who re-
stricted the application of evolution in the case of man to his bodily
organization. Vet, on the other hanil, for one wlu) is mainly concerned
for the religious significance of man's position in the unixerse, the
interest by no means lies exclusively on the more conserx'ative and
cautious side of the question. Making man t)ut and out the child of
evolution, if it can be done, without sacrifice of essential truths, has
its advantages for the cause of theism. On this view the process of
evolution becomes an absolutely universal mother of creation, whereof
man in his entire being is the highest and final product. .And what
we gain from this conception is the right to interpret the whole pro-
cess by its end. By putting man in his highest nature apart from the

093

Process
Evolution

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All that is

Uiicli«8t in

Man.

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PrimitiTe Man.

694

T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

process and rcfrardinfr him in that respect as the creature of an im-
mediate divine atjcncy, we lose this ri^ht. In reason and conscience
outside the great movement, he is neither explained by it nor docs he
explain it in turn. Hut bring him soul as well as body within the
movement and we have a right to point to all that is highest in him anil
say: This is what was aimed at all along; this is the goal toward
which the age-long process of Genesis was marching, even toward the
evolution of mind and spirit under the guidance of reason and will.

Provisionally, therefore, we may venture to accept the evolution-
ary account of man all along the line. That means that we regard
man physically as shown by similarity of anatomical structure, con-
nected with the family of apes and by the successive stages through
which he passes in the embryonic period of his history betraying kin-
ship with the whole lower animal world. It means, further, that we
regard man intellectually as evolved from the rudiments of reason
traceable in the brute creation The contrast is so great that the
growth of the higher out of the lower seems incredible. Man thinks
and plans, the brute acts by blind instinct. Man forms highly abstract
concepts, the brute is capable at most of forming what has been called
"precepts." spontaneous associations of similar objects so as to be able
to distinguish between a stone and a loaf, between water and rock, so
as to avoid tr\ing to eat a stone or to dive into a rock; "implicit,
unperceived abstractions " Once more; man speaks, the brute, at
most, can only make significant signs. How far the human animal has
outstripped his humbler brothers!

liut great advances can be made by very small steps if sufficient
time be given. And there was plenty of time, according to the geol-
ogists. Man has been in existence since the ice age say two hundred
and fifty thousand years. .Surely, within that period, precepts might
slowly pass into concepts, and inarticulate sounds into articulate
words! The dawn of reason inaugurates the crude beginning of lan-
guage, and the use of language in turn stimulates the further develop-
ment of reason. Of course, we are not to conceive of primitive man as
speaking in highly developed language, as .Sanskrit or (ireek; perhaps
for a long time he could not speak at all, but a man in body, he
remained a mere animal in the use of signs. And even after the epoch
of speech ca.ne the evolution of language, proceeding at a very slow
rate of movement. A word at first represented a whole sentence.
Then the parts of speech were slowly differentiated, the prone un first,
but in so leisurely a way that it took perhajis a few thousands of years
to learn to say "1."

.Such is the account of the evolution of intellect given by experts,
and we accept it jirovisionally as in substance correct. \\\ accept,
further, the evolution of morality. And that means that the sense of
duty and moral conduct have been evolved out of elements ' raceable
in the brute creation, such as the instinct of self-preservatiot , natural
care of young and the social disposition characteristic of tlv ; ant, the
bee and the beaver.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS

mfy

An important factor in raising ethics from the animal to the human
level was, of course, reason. Reason looks to the future and forms an
idea of life as a whole and to develop the prudence which can sacrifice
present pleasure for ultimate gain. Another important factor was the
prolongation of the period of infancy, upon which Mr. Fiske has rightly
aid emphasis. This depth and purity of parental and filial affections
aid the foundation of that great nursery of goodness, the family,
"inally, out of the social instinct, as real a part of human nature as the
instinct of self-preservation, came the power and disfjosition to appre-
ciate tlie claims of the community and to sacrifice the interests of the
individual to the interests of tlie tribe, the nation or the race.

Such is man's place in nature, according to modern science — wholly
the child of evolution, its highest product hitherto, and to all appear-
ance the highest producible. If man had not been, it would not have
been worth while, for the lower world would not have come into exist-
ence. This is how the theist must view the matter. He must regard
the sub-human universe in the light of an instrument to be used, in
subservience to the ends of the moral and spiritual universe and created
by God for that purpose. The Agnostics can evade this conclusion
by regarding the evolution of the universe as an absolutely necessary
ard aimless process which cannot but be, has no conscious reason for
being, no purpose toarri\eat any particular destination, but moves on
blindly in obedience to mechanical law. If it arrive at length at man,
why, then says the materialist, we can only conclude that it is in the
nature of mechanics to produce in the long run mind, and of motion
to be permuted ultimately into thought. Fo.* us this theorjis once for
all impossible. \Vc must believe in God, Maker of heaven and earth.
And believing in llini we look for a plan in His work.

It is worthy of note here, how far from being out of date is the
view of man's relation to (iod given in the Hebrew writings. liy ab-
staining from all elaborate cosmogony and confining attention to the
purely religious aspects of the world, the Scriptures have given a rep-
resentation which, for simple dignity and essential trust, leave little to
be desired: "God said, let us make man in our own image." This is
a flash of direct insight and "inspiration," not an inference from scien-
tific knowledge of the exact method of creation. It is, however, asso-
ciated with the perception that man's place in the world is one of lord-
ship. In both cases, the Hebrew prophet by religious intuition grasped
truths which our nineteenth century science has only confirmed. Man
is lord, therefore God is manlike. The point that needs emphasizing
today is not that man is like (iod, but that God is like man, for it is
(iod. His being and nature that we long to know, and we welcome any
legitimate avenue to this high knowledge. And man, by his place in
nature, is accredited to us as our surest, perhaps our sole source of
knowledge. And it confirms us in the use of this source to find that
ancient wisdom as represented by the Hebrew sage, to whom we owe
the story of Genesis, indirectly indorses our method by proclaiming
that in man we may see God's image.

The Hooial
luBtinot.

Ic Hie Image.

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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Men everywhere and always have conceived their Gods as man-
like. They have done so too often in most harmful ways, imputiiijj to
the Divine, human passions and vices. This, however iamc-ntablc and
pernicious, was inevitable. There is no effectual cure for it except the
growth of mankintl in its ethical ideal. The purification of relifjion will
keep step with the elevation of morality. From the abuses of the past
we must not rush to the conclusion that the notion of God beiii^j like
man is false, and tlie };reat thin^j is to ^'et rid of anthropomorphism, as
Mr, Fiske expressed it "theanthropomorphisation" of the ideaof God.
The desideratum rather is to conceive (iod not as like what man is, or
has been, in any staf^c of his moral development, but as like what man
will be when his moral development has reached its {growth. There
has been, indeed, a rudimentary likeness all along from the day when
man became, in the incipient degree, human. It is not necessary to
take the image of (lod ascribed to man in Genesis in too absolute a
sense. The likeness was in outline, in skeleton, in germ, in fruitful
possibilities rather than in realized fact. And what we have to do is to
interpret God through man, not in view of what man is, but of what
man has in him to bect)nie.

It is safe to say that (iod is what man always has been in germ, a
rational, free, moral personality. lUit it is nol safe to fill in the picture
of the divine personality by an indiscriminate imputation to God of
the very mixed contents of the average human personality. Our very
ideals are imperfect; how much more our realizations. Our theology
must be constructecl, therefore, on a basis of careful, impartial self-
In Advance criticism, casting aside as unfit material for building our .system not
ot Their Time, ^j^jy ^^jj ^j^,^j. ^^^^ |^^, traced to our baser nature, but even all in our

highest thoughts, feelings and aspirations that is due to the influence
of the time-spirit, or is merely an accident of the measure of civiliza-
tion reached in our social environment. The safest guides in theology
are always the men who are more or less disturbed because they are
in advance of their time; the men of prophetic spirit, who see lights
not yet above the horizon for average moral intelligence; who cherish
ideals regarded by the many as idle, mad dreams;,who, while afifirming
with emphasis the essential affinity of the divine with the human,
understand that even in that which is truly hunian, say in pardoning
grace, God's thoughts rise above man's as the heavens rise above the
earth.

On this view it would seem to follow that each age made its own
prophets to lead it in the way ot moral jirogress, and set before it ideals
in advance of those which had been the guiding lights in the past.
And yet it is possible that there may be prophets of bygone days
whose significance as teachers lias been by no means exhausted. This
may be claimed pre-eminently for Him whom Christians call their Lord.
I do not expect a time will ever come when men may say, we do not
need the teaching of Jesus any more. That time has certainly not
come yet. We have not got to the bottom of Christ's doctrine of God
and man, as related to each other as father and son. How beautifully

Need the

Teaching of

Jeena.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

He has therein set the great truths that God is manlike and man god-
like, making man at his best the emhlem of (iod, and at the worst the
object of God's love. All fathers are not what they ought to be, but
even the worst fathers have a crude iilea what a father should be; »nd,
howsoever bad a father may be, he will not give his hungry chiUl a
stone insteail of bread. Therefore, every father can know Go(l through
his own paternal conscience, and hope to be treated by the Divine
Father as he knows he ought hiniself to treat his children, And the
better fathers and mothers grow, the better they will know God. The-
ology will i)ecome more Christian as family affection flourishes. And
what a benefit it will be to mankinil when Christ's doctrine of father-
hood has been sincerely and universally accepted: Kvery man God's
son; therefore, every man under obligation to be godlike, that is, to be
a true man, self-respecting and worthy of respect. Kvery man God's
son; therefore, every man entitled to be treated with respect by fellow-
men, despite poverty, low birth, yea, even in spite of low character,
out of regard to possibilities in him. Carry out this programme and
away goes caste in India, England, America, everywhere, in every land
where men are supposed to ha\ e forfeited the rights of a man by birth,
by color, by poverty, by occupation; and where many have yet to learn
the simple truth quaintly stated by Jesus when He said, "Much is man
better than a sheep,"

Does the view of man as the crown of evolutionary process throw
any light on his eternal destiny? Docs it contain any promise of
immortality? Here one feels inclined to speak with bated breath. A
hope so august, so inconceivably great, makes the grasping hand of
faith tremble. We are tempted to exclaim, behold, we know not any-
thing. Yet, it is worthy of note that leading advocates of evolutionism
are among the most pronounced upholders of immortality. Mr. Kiske
says: "For my own part I believe h\ the immortality of the soul, not
in tho sense in which I accept the Ic.iionstrciblc proofs of a science, but
as a supreme act of faith in the reasonableness of God's work." He
cannot 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
Lc Conte writes; "Without spirit-immortality this beautiful cosmos,
which has been developing 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, signi-
fying nothing."

These utterances, of course, do not settle the question. But, con-
sidering whence they emanate, they may be taken at least as an
authoritative indication that the tenet of human immortality is con- Indication
gruous to, if it be not a necessary deduction from, the demonstrable
truths that man is the consummation of the great world-process, by
which the universe has been brought into being.

Leadins Ad-
vocates of E»o-
lutiumBin

Anthoritative

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The only
iiiK, (i row-
Art.

jy^usic, j^motion and |\/\orals.

Paper by REV. H. R. HAWEIS, of London.

Rev. H, R. Haweis, Loudon, Eng.

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

701

An
Basis.

Now let mc tell you that you have no business to spend much time or
money or interest upon any subject unless you can make out a con-
nection between the subject and morals and conduct and life; unless
you can give an art or occu])ation a particular ethical and moral
basis. You do spend a great deal of money upon music. You pay
fabulous prices to engage gigantic orchestras, you give a great deal
of your own time to music; it lays hold of you, it fascinates and en-
slaves you, yet perhaps you have to confess to yourself that you have
no real idea of the connect! n between music and the conduct of life.
An Italian professor said to me the other tlay, "Pray, what is the
connection between music and morals?" He then began to scoff a
little at the idea that music was anything but a pleasant way of whiling
away a little time, but he had no idea there was any connection be-
tween music and the conduct of life.

Now if, after today, any one asks you what is the connection
between music and morals, I will give it to you in a nutshell. This is
the connection: Music is the language of emotion. I suppose you
all admit that music has an extraordinary power over your feelings,
and therefore music is connected with emotion. Emotion is connected
with thought. Some kind of feeling or emotion underlies all thought,
which from moment to moment flits through your mind. Therefore
music is connected with thought. Thought is connected with action.
Most people think before they act— or are supposed to, at any rate,
and I must give you the benefit of the doubt. Thought is connected
with action, action deals with conduct, and the sphere of conduct is
connected with morals. Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, if music is
connected with emotion, and emotion is connected with thought, and
thought is connected with action, and action is connected with the
sphere of conduct, or with morals, things which are connected by the
same must be connected with one another, and therefore music must
be connected with morals.

Now, the real reason, the cogent reason why we have coupled all
these three worlds — music, emotion, morals— together, is because emo-
tion is coupled with morals. Y'ou will all admit that if your emotions
^r feelings were always wisely directed, life woulu be more free from
the disorders which disturb us. The great disorders of our age come our'Age"
not from the pos .ession of emotional feeling, but from its abuse, its
'nisdirection and the- bad use of it. Once discipline your emotions,
once get a good quantity of that steam power which we call feeling or
emotion and drive it in the right channel, and life becomes noble,
fertile and harmonious.

Well, then, if there is this close connection between emotion or
feeling antl the life, conduct or morals, what the connection between
emotion and morals is, that also must be the character of the connec-
tion between music, which is the art medium of emotion and morals.

Now, there are a great many people who will say: "After all, that
art which deals with emotions is less respectable than an art which
deals with thought." I might be led here to ask, "What is the con-

EHiicol

f i

Diaordws of

702

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS.

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Connection
Uotwwu Emo-
tion and
Thought.

Dears, Idle
Tears.

Nothing (Jood
Without Emo-
tion.

nection between emotion and thoucjlit?" Hut that woiiltl cany me too
far. In a word, I may say that thoutjjht without feeling is dead, beinij
alone. You may have a j^ood thout^ht, but if you have not tlie steam
power of emotion or feeling at the back of it, what will it do for you?
A steam en^nnc may be a very ^ood machine, but it must have the
steam. And so our life wants emotion or feelint^ before we can carry
out any of oiu' thoutjhts and aspirations. Indeed, strant^e is this won-
derful inner life of emotion with which music converses fu'st hand, most
intimately, without the meditation of thouj^hts t)r words. .St) stran<j^e
is this inward life of emotion, so ])owerful and important is it, that it
sometimes e\en transcends tliouLjht. We rise out of thouLjht into
emotion, for emotion not only ])recedes, it also Irauscentls thought;
emotion carries on and completes our otherwise incomplete thoui,dits
and aspirations. | A|)plause. |

Tell me, when iloes the actor culminate? When he is pourinj^
forth an ekx- •■<*" d'atribe? When he is titterin;^ the most f^lowin^
words of ShalvL s .^ No. But when all words fail him and when

he stands apart w iashint; e\-e and ([uiveriuLj lip and heavinif chest

and allows the impoLcnce of exhausted symbolism to e.\i)ress for him
the crisis of the inarticulate emotion. Then we say the actor is sub-
lime, and emotion has transcendetl thoiiLjht. | Applause. )

Now, why has emotion or feeliiii; j^ot a bad name? Ik-cause emo-
tion is so often misdirected, so often wasted, so often stantls for mere
^ush without sincerity; it has no tendenc)' to pass on into action.
Hence the ladies in Dickens wht) are carried home in a llood of tears
and a sedan chair are those who have the power of turnintj on the
water works at an)' moment. "Tears, idle tears." Tears which fall
easily and for no adequate cause. We do not respect them, for there
is no genuine emotion at their back. There are men who will swear to
you eternal friendship. Vou would tliink these men's feelins^s were at
the boiling i)oint, but when )'ou ask them to jjack their emotion with
one hundred dollars, you find that their emotion is of no use whatever.
That is the reason wh\- emotion has got a bad name.

But believe me, ladies and gentlemen, nothing good and true was
ever carried out in this World without emotit)n. The power of emo-
tion, aye, of em >tion through music, on politics and patriotism; the
power of emotion, a\e, emotion through music upon religion and
morals that, in a nutshell, will be the remaiiuler of my discourse.
What does a statesman do when he wants to carry a great measure
through our parliament or \v>\w house of representatives? Me stands
up and says, "I want to pass this law," but nob(Kly will attenil to him
in parliament. Then he goes stumping through the country; he goes
to the people and explains his measure to them, and at last he gets the
whole country in a ferment, and then he comes back to parliament or
to congress and sa\s: "(ientlemen, you see the people will have it.
Their voice is as the voice of many waters. It is as the roaring of the
ocean and as irresistible." And the government cannot oppose a law
which has the emotional feeling of the country back of it, and so the

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

703

law is j)asscd which they would not listen to before he had kindled
back of it the fire of emotion.

Wliy, I remember in your great civil war that Mr. Lincoln said that
Henry Ward Heecher was the greatest motive power lie had in the north.
[Great applause.] And why? Because he would go into a meeting
packed with southerners or with advocates of slavery and disunion, and
leave that meeting ranting and roaring for the liberation of the slaves
and the preservation of the union. (Applause.] That was the power
of emotion. And 1 remember very well, because I was in Italy at the
time, how when Garibaldi came there for the last time —that was the
third or fourth time he had come over at intervals to engage his peo-
ple in his great fight for the freedom of Italy; he devoted his life to
that mission — that he fired his people with patriotism, and it was noth-
ing but the steam power of feeling and emotion which carried that
great revolution for a united Italy. It may be true that Victor Emman-
uel was the brain and gave it its constitutional element, but it was
(iaribaldi who aroused the great emotional feeling, and Italy became
united because he lived and fought and fell.

Ami now the connection between the national music and emotion.
There has never been a great crisis in a nation's historx* without some
appropriate air, some appropriate march, which has been the voiceless
emotion of the people. I remember (iaribaldi's hymn. It expresses
the essence of the Italian movement. Look at all your jjatriotic songs.
Look at

John Brown's body lies a-moulderinj; in the ijround,
Hut his soul is niarchinjj on.

The feeling and action of a country passes into music. It is the
power of emotion through music upon politics and patriotism. I re-
member when Wagner, as a very young man, came over to England and
studied our national anthems. He said that the whole of the British
character lay in the first two bars of "Rule Britannia." It means get out
of the way; make room for me. It is John Bull elbowing through the
crowd. [Laughter and applause.]

And so your ".Star-Spangled Banner" has kindled so much unity

and patriotism. The profoundly religious nature of the Germans

comes forth in their jjatriot hymn, "God Save the lunperor." Our "God

Save the Queen" strikes the same note in a different way as "Rule

Britannia"—

Confound her enemies,
Frustrate their knavish tricks---

that is, in the same spirit as "Get out of my wa>-," which is enshrined
in the iiritish national anthem. This shows the connection between
emotion and music in politics and patriotism. It throws a great light
upon the wisdom of that statesman who said: "Let who will make the
laws of a people; let me make their national songs."

I see another gentleman is in charge of the topic " Religion and
Music," but it is quite impossible for nic to entirely exclude religion

steam-power
f f FeolinB.

704

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Olorol Nutare.

i f

from my lecture todaj', or the power of emotion throufrh music upon
rclif^ion aiul throui^h religion upon morals, for religion is that thing
which kindles and makes operative and irresistible the sway of the
moral nature. It is impossible, with this motto, "Music, Emotion and
Religion" for my text, to exclude the consideration of the effect of
music upon religion. I read that our Lord and His disciples, at a time
when words failed them and when their hearts were heavy, when all
Sway of the had been said and all had been done at that last supper — I read that,

il^tT>nl nliitt1t>n rill 1 T141t*'l

after they had sung a hymn, our Lord and the disciples went out into
the Mount of Olives. After Paul and Silas had been beaten and
thrust into a noisome dungeon, they forgot their pain and humiliation
and sang songs, sj)iritual psalms, in the night, and the prisoners heard
them. I read, in the history of the Christian church, when the great
creative and adaptive genius of Rome took possession of that mighty
spiritual movement and proceeded to evangelize the Roman empire,
that St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan in the third century, collected the
Greek odes and adapted certain of them for the Christian churches,
and that these scales were afterward revived by the great Pope Greg-
ory, who g e the Christian church the Gregorian chants, the first
elements ot emotion interpreted by music which appeared in the
Christian church.

It is difficult for us to overestimate the power of those crude scales,
although they seem harsh to our ears. It is difficult to realize the effect
l^roduced by Augustine and his monks when they landed in Great
Britain, chanting the ancient Gregorian chants. When the king gave
his partial adherence to the mission of Augustine, the saint turned
from the king and directed his course toward Canterbury, where he was
to be the first Christian archbishop.

Still, as he went along with his monks, they chanted one of the
Gregorian chants. That was his war-cry: [intoning]

"Turn away, O, Lord, Thy wrath from this city, and Thine anger
from its sin,"

That is a true Gregorian; those are the very words of Augustine.
And later on I shall remind you of both the passive and active func-
tions of the Christian church — passive, when the people sat still and
heard sweet anthems; active, when they broke out into hymns of
praise. Shall I tell j'ou of the great comfort which the church owes to
Luther, who stood up in his carriage as he approached the city of
Worms and sang his hymn, " Ein fester Ikirg ist unser Gott?" Shall I
tell you of others who have solaced their hours of solitude^by singing
hymns and spiritual psalms, and how at times hymn-singing in the
church was almost all the religion that the people had? The poor
Lollards, when afraid of preaching their doctrine, still sang, and
throughout the country the poor and uneducated people, if they could
not understand the subtleties of theological doctrine, still could sing
praise and make melody in their hearts. I remember how much I was
affected in passing through a little Welsh village some time ago at

of the

THE WORLDS CONCRESS OF RELIGIONS.

ro5

iiiirht, in the solitude of the Welsh hills, as I saw a little light in a cot-
lage, and as I came near 1 heard the voices of the children singing:

{esus, lover of my soul,
.et nie to Thy bosom fly.

And I thought how those little ones had gone to school and had
learned this hymn and had come home to evangelize their little remote
cottage and lift up the hearts of their pirents with the love of Jesus.
Why, the effects of a good hymn are incalculable. Wesley and White-
field, and the great hymn writers of the last century, and the sacred
laureate of the high chorch party, Keble, have all known and exerted
the power of religious song.

Here let me speak a word to the clergy, especially, if there are
such present. Do make your services congregational, and do not
let the organist "do" the people out of the hymns. Don't let him
gallop through them with his trained choir. Remind him that
he has his time with the anthems and the voluntaries, and that, when
the hymns come, it is the people's innings, and fair play is a jewel.
[Laughter and applause. J Hymns have an enormous power in knit-
ting together the religious elenionts of character. I never was so much
struck as in entering ICxeter hall one time when Messrs. Moody and
.Sankey were ruling the roost there. What did Mr. Moody do? He
knew his business. He sent an unobtrusive looking lady to the har-
monium and she began a hymn. There were only a few people in the
hall, but others kept dropping in anil they joined in the hymn; and by
the time they had got through on the twenty-fifth orthirtieth verse the
whole of the hall was in full cry. They were warmed up and enthusi-
astic, and then in comes Mr. Moody and he would play upon that vast
crowd like an old fiddle, l^elicve me, that emotion through music is
a great power in vitalizing and cementing and unifying the religious
aspirations of a large mixed congregation.

I now approach the last clause of my discourse. We have dis-
covered the elements of music. Modern music has been three or four
hundred years in existence, and that is about the time that every art
has taken to be thoroughly explored. After that, all its elements have
been discoveretl; there is no more to be discovered, properly speaking,
and all that remains is to apply it to the use, consolation and elevation
of mankind. We have reached that era of music, we are living in the
"golden age." It is difficult to imagine anything more complicated
than Wagner's score of Parsival, or the score of the Trilogy. We
have all these wondrous resources of the sound art placed at the dis-
posal of humanity for the first time. But there is a boundless future
in store for, music. We have not half explored its powers of good.

I say let the people have bands. Cultivate music in the home;
harmonize crowds with music. Let it be more and more the solace and
burden lifter of humanity; and, above all, let us learn that music is not
only a consolation, it not only has the power of expressing emotion,
of exciting emotion, but also the power of disciplining, controlling and
purifying emotion. When you listen to a great symphony of Beethoven
45

Effects of
Goud Hymn.

The Goldea
Age of Music.

H i

;';

H w^^

T \

ii'

]■

r()(5

rilE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

! ■

Most Siiiril-
iiiil tiT (Ik- ArU.

i I

you uiulcrcjo a process of divine restraint. Music is an immortal bene-
factor because it iUustrates the law of emotional restraint.

There is a fjjranil future fur music. Let it be noble and it will also
be restrained. When you listen to a symphony by lieethoven you
j)lace )'ourselves in the hands of a ^reat master. You hold your breath
in one place ami let it out in another; you have now to fjivc way in
one place and then you have to expand in another; it strikes the whole
jraniut of human feeling, from ^low and warmth tlown to severe
cxjiosure antl restraint. Musical sound provides a diagram for the
discipline, control and purification of the emotions. Music is the most
spiritual and latest born of the arts in this most material and skeptical
a^e; it is not only a consolation, but a kind of ministerin<^ an^el in the
heart, and it lifts us up and reminds us and restores in us the sublime
consciousness of our own immortalit\-. I'"or it is in listenintj to sweet and
noble strains of music that we feel lifted and raised above ourselves.
\Vc move about in worlds not realized; it is as the footfalls on the
threshold of another world. W'e breathe a hi<jher air. We stretch
forth the spiritual antenn.-e of our bein<if and touch the invisible, and in
still moments we have heard the soni^^s of the anj^els, and at chosen
seasons there comes a kind of open \ision. W'e have " seen white
presences among the hills."

Hence in a se.ison of calm weather,
'riumgli inland far we he,

Our souls have sij^ht of that immortal sea,
Which brouglu as hither.

il bene-

till also
kcn you
r breath
\vay in
e whole
) severe
I for the
he most
keptical

thi
iublitiK
cet am

Ives.
the
stretcli
d in

rse
on

chosen
n white

r,!f

Prof. J. P. Landis, D. D., Ph. D., Dayton, O.

;) !

5*.:];'

|4ow C^^ Philosophy Qive ^^id to the
Science of Religion?

Paper by PROF. J. P. LANDIS, D. D., Ph. D., of Dayton, Ohio.

CHLEIERMACHER defined religion as "a
sense of absolute dependence." But it in-
cludes more than this feeling, namely, the
apprehension of a supreme or at least a
superior being; that is, it includes knowl-
edge. Even in the feeling itself there is
more than a mere sense of dependence,
namely, reverence, fear, love. An eminent
philosophical Christian writer says: "Relig-
ion is the union of man with God, of the
finite with the infinite expressed in con-
scious love and reverence." James Free-
man Clarke, seeking for a simple and com-
prehensive expression, says: "Religion is
the tendency in man to worship and serve
invisible beings like himself, but above himself."
This is purposely comprehensive, so that it may in-
clude animism, fctichism and many forms of pantheism, like that of
Spinoza, who declared that we must "love God as our supreme good."
There have been and are many religions, and however much they may
differ in other respects, in this they agree, "that man has a natural
faith in supernatural powers with whom he can commune, to whom he
is related, and that this life and this earth are not enough to satisfy his
soul."

What is science? In its broadest definition, science is system-
atized knowledge. This, however, implies more than an orderly ar-
rangement of facts. It includes the discovery of the principles and
laws which underlie and pervade the facts. Scicnre seeks to reach the
highest principles, those which have given shape aiid character to the
facts, and among these principles even aspires to grasp the central one,
so as to give rational unity to the subject. Now, is there, or may there
be a science of religion? It is a gratuitous assumption to claim there
is no science but natural science. This assumption would exclude

709

Faith in
Rapernatural
Powers.

710

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

RfliKionH
Plionumena.

Three Subjects
Consideml.

t^rammar, rhetoric, logic, political economy, ethics, psychology, and
even mathematics. The truth is, there are various kinds of sciences,
according to the nature of the truth, to be investigated. " I-'ach
science," says Aristotle, "takes, cognizance of its peculiar truths."
"Any facts,' says John .Stuart Mill, "are fitted, in themselves, to be the
subject of a science if they follow one another according to constant
laws; although those laws may not have been discovered, nor even be
discoverable by our existing resources." The religious phenomena of
the world and human experience are just as real as any with which
physical science has to deal. In the sense in which he means it, James
Freeman Clarke is right when he says:

"The facts of consciousness constitute the basis of religious science.
These facts are as real and as constant as those which are perceived
through the .senses. ♦ * * Faith, hope, love, are us real as form,
sound and color. The moral laws also, which may be deduced from
some such experiences, are real and permanent, antl these laws can be
verified in the daily course of human life. The whole realm of spiritual
exercises may, and ought to be carefully examined, analyzed and
verified."

To construct a science of religion requires the collation of a vast
historical data, an exhaustive and true analysis of the facts of con-
sciousness, the discovery of the relations of these facts to one another,
of the principles which underlie and pervade them and the laws bv
which they arc governed and the logical arrangement or systcmatization
of these elements or data.

The science of religion as above defined, is broader than s' \-
atic theology in the sense in which it is used by Christians, but
term theology be used in a somewhat Aristotleian sense, it may stand
to designate our science of religion. Pherecydes and IMato, who wrote
philosophically on the gods and their material relations to the universe
and to man, were called theologians. Aristotle divided.all speculative
science into mathematical, physical and theological. He says: "There
is another science which treats of that which is immutable and trans-
cendental. If, indeed, there exist such a substance, as we shall indeed
endeavor to show that there does, this transcendental and permanent
substance, if it exist at all, must surely be the sphere of the divine; it
must be the first and highest principle." This he called theology.

Whatever else theology, or the science of religion must consider,
the three most prominent subjects must be: First, God, ilis being and
attributes, the sources of our idea of God, proofs of His existence, His
rulership over the world, etc.; second, nature or the works of God;
third, man in his relations to Deity. The fact of sin, its nature and con-
sequence, the question as to the possibility of man's recovery from sin,
and man's destiny, or the question of immortality, are also prominent
subjects for consideration. Having taken a glance at the definition
and scope of the science of religion, let us do the same for philosophy.
Definitions have been very various, from the days of Plato and Aris-
totle to the present time. With Aristotle philosophy is the systematic

THE WORLD'S CONGKESS OF KEUGIONS,

■11

and critical knowlcclj^'c of tiic fust or iiltiiii;ito principle of capital
bciiij^. Ilcrljcrt Spcncor calls it "kiiowlcdi^c of llic liii;liist (1cl,mlc of
generality" and adds: "Scii'iice is partiall\- iinitied knowledtje; philos-
ophy is completel)' unified know led^i-." C'icero defines it as "Scii'iitia,
reriiin di/inerinu et hiiiuanarnin caiisaruiii(|iie." Science is a divine
ihinj^, and is the fount of human causes. The human mind can-
not rest satisfietl with merel)' phenomena, or isolated fact, or even the
orderly cl.rssification of facts and phenomena; it seeks to j^et below
the phenomena and acciilents, to find the ultimate essence and mean-
ing,'. It would fain know the rationale of all thiiii^s, physical and
mental, natural anil supernatural.

I'hilosophy strives to comprehend in unity and to understand the
ground and causes of all reality. This necessarily includes life in all
its aspects and relations. I should ^jive the scope of philosophical
imiuiry, or the philosophical cnc)-clopedia, as follows: Metaphysics
or ontology, psychology, logic, ethics, religion, ;esthetics, politics.
These divisions partly overlap one another. On comparing the scope
of both the science of religion and philosoplu', it is seen in part they
cover the same ground. The ultimate object about which they both
treat are Gt)d, nature and man.

Said Lord Jiacon, " The three objects of philosophy are God,
nature and man." The relations of philosophy, therefore, to the
science of religion are of necessit}' very intimate. We cannot se|)a-
rate them entirely, try we never so hard. Schleiermacher and his
school, at the beginning of our century, attempted this, but even
Schleiermacher, with all his genius, failed, and his very jirocedure
showed the futility of such attempts, for he was almost all the while
up to his eyes in philosophy. In our day another school has arisen
which is proclaiming a like aim. Hut the essential relations of philos-
ophy to religion are shown by the historj- of both, from ancient times
to the present. While the ultimate aim of religion is practical and
that of philosophy is speculative, no serious or thoughtful mind can
rest in the contemplation of the i)raclical or utilitarian elements of
religion. Moreover, even the speculative or rational elements of
religion everywhere underlie the practical. But the consideration of
these rational elements brings her within the domain of philosoi)hy.
Rational theology is indeed a part of philosophy.

Man finds himself to be a religious being. He has a sense of de-
pendence on a superior Heing. There are, we may say, deposits in his
feelings themselves which are peculiar and may turn out to be very
significant and lead to the discovery of very important truths. There
are in all men certain spontaneous religious beliefs, but as man ad-
vances in, intellectual growth and intelligence, he begins to rellect on
these phenomena. lie will ask into the meaning and ground of these
feelings and of his beliefs, lie believes in (iod. Have we any true
or real knowledge of such a Heing if He exists? WHiat are the sources
of this knowledge? How far may we know Him and of what charac-
ter is our knowledge of Him? These are all ipiestions which must be

Hophical lu-
iiuiry.

Dpiif-ndoncp on
a Sunrrior

:.f;i

(12

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

■I

The I'nndn-
m-ntal Queu-
tiou.

ii i

answered if \vc ^.re able to have any such thing as scientific theology
or science ot rclig on at all, but all these questions are also questions
ot philosophy. The attempt to answer these questions, if we are not
willing to be content with a very poetical and unscientific inquiry, will
necessarily conduct to others which will land us in the very pro-
foundest depths of human thought, in the very realm of inquiry in
which philosophy as such lives and has its being.

As in the case of other subjects, religion must come to philosophy
to settle for it all the problems which are purely rational. Philosophy
must furnish the ultimate data, the basal truths, though not the histor-
ical facts upon which a great part of the religious doctrine rests.
Natural theology is constantly assuming a more metaphysical or phil-
osophical character.

The sacred books, as the Bible of the Jews and Christians, proceed
upon the assumption of the existence of the Divine Being. If there
is no such being, there is no religion. The question, then, which at
once confronts us in inquiring into the reality of religion itself relates
to the existence of a God. This is the fundamental question, but it is
philosophical in its nature, and its solution belongs to the realm of
philosophy. It is not my purpose to enter further into this question
than to show its relation to philosophy. Some say the knowledge or
the conviction of the existence of God is innate, that it cannot be
proved. Others iiold that it is innate and is a matter of proof; others
still hold that it is a matter of revelation, while still others maintain
that it is both innate and the subject of proof. Kant held that met-
aphysics can neither prove nor disprove the existence of God. Dr.
ivicCosh does not admit that we have an intuitive knowledge of God,
but that "Our intuitions, like the works of nature, carry us up to God,
their author." Yet he says: "The idea of God, the belief in God,
may be justly represented as native to man." Many writers go so far as
to speak of a God-consciousness. Professor Fisher says: "We are
conscious of God in a more intimate sense than we are conscious of
finite things." Professor Luthardt, of Leipsic, says: "Consciousness
of God is as essential an element of our mind as consciousness of the
world, or self-consciousness." The names of many other writers, phil-
osophical and theological, who teauL that idea is innate, might be
added such as DesCartes, Dr. Julius Miller, Dr. Dorner, Professor
Bowen, of Harvard University; Pro.fcssor Harris, of Yale University.
Dr. McCosh says: "Among metaphysicians of the present day it is a
very common opinion that our belief in God is innate." Their doc-
trine may be expressed thus: VVc have an intuitive necessary belief
in the di'ine existence.

liut belief implies knowledge more or less clear. "Necessary be
lief involves necessary cognition." Hence God, as the object of our
intuitive belief, becomes in some sense the object of intuitive knowl-
edge. For instance, if one ask for an explanation of finite existeiice, the
belief in the one infinite being at once and intuitively presents itself.
Says Luthardt: "There is nothing of which man has such {in intuitivQ

WE iVOkLnS CONCRESS OF RELIGIONS.

713

We can by no means
eminent Max Muller

conception as he has of the existence of a God.
free ourselves from the notion of Gou," The
puts the statement thus:

"As soon as man becomes conscious of himself as distinct from all
other things and persons, he at the same time becomes conscious of a
higher self; a power without which he feels that neither he nor any-
thing else would have any life or reality. This is the first sense of the
godhead, is the source of all religion. It is that without which no re-
ligion, true or false, is possible."

When objections are raised to this doctrine, the examination of its
validity can be determined only within the field of philosophy. This
is done by appealing to the criteria of intuition. It is necessary to
our nature, so that, when the problem is put before the mind, the op-
posite cannot be believed. Its denial does violence to our whole
nature, and is forced. As soon as the laws of nature act unrestrained,
the belief in Deity asserts itself. It is necessary somewhat in the
.same sense as our conviction of the moral law, or of right, is necessary
— we cannot rid ourselves of it. This is not disproved by the fact that
some men have doubted the existence of God. Men may do violence
to their mental constitution, either by wrong metaphysics or by sin.
A man may so cauterize his hand that he loses the sense of touch.
Men have been born blind or deaf, but this does not prove that sight
and hearing are not native to man. Some have doubted whether there
is an external world at all, as Bishop Berkeley; others, whether there
is any such thing as spirit, as Auguste Comptc. Some have denied the
reality of the material world in spite of metaphysical subtleties and
learned arguments.

This belief in a divine being is universal, /. c, it is held in some
form by all nations, tribes and tongues. The claim has in a tew in-
stances been set up that some small tribes have been discovered who
had no idea whatever of God, but when the case was narrowly inquired
into, the statement was found to be incorrect. ICven Professor De
Quatrefages, professor of anthropology in unbelieving Paris, writes:

"Obliged in the course of my investigation to review all races, I
have sought atheism in the lowest as well as the highest. I have no-
where met it except in individuals, or in more or less limited schools,
such as those which existetl in Europe in the last century or which
may still be seen at the present day."

The universality of this belief means, further, that it is a belief
belonging to the nature of all men. Tais denotes that all men are
capable of ha\ ing this belief. A horse is not capable of this belief,
but, as a matter of fact, all sane men d have it, either in some tlegraded
form or a form more exalted. " It i i as natural to man to believe in a
God as to walk on two feet," said I .ichtenberger. " What is certain is
that no necessity makes itself felt more imperatively in man than this
which compels him to believe in tiod," said Van Oosterzee. " The
fundamental presupposition of our personal existence and personal
self-consciousness is the existence of the divine personality." "Just

Source
Religion.

>f all

Universnl Be-
liof in a Divine
Being.

I-

ff":

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Relntinn of

Faitli iiud

Knowledge.

God a Per-
fect Being.

'!>' .

as the outer world presents itself to the senses for external recognition,
so God in and by the world presents Himself to reason for internal
recognition," said Christlieb.

The statement of the doctrine above, namely, that this is in the
first instance an intuitive belief, which, however, involves knowledge,
also leads to the question as to the relation of faith anil kn<nvledge, a
question which has been much discussed ever since the days of Origen.
He uttered the dictum, "Fides pntcepit intellectum." This was also
held by Augustine, Anselm, Calvin, Pascal. Ansclm's motto was,
"Credo ut intelligam." The doctrine thus expressed by these eminent
thinkers has been much iliscussed by philosophers and theologians,
but its solution belongs to the domain of philosophy. I need only
mention Calderwood, .Sir William Hamilton, Victor Cousin, Schleicr-
macher, jacobi, Christlieb.

Can the existence of God be proved, or do we rest solely on this
innate conviction? There is a vast amount of cvmuilative proof, which
is as a large reserve to support the inner conviction. The well known
classification of these proofs is into the ontological, the cosmological,
the teleological and the anthropological. Without discussing these, the
mere statement of them itself will determine their character as phil-
osophical. The determination of their validity and force belongs to
philosophy. The ontological argument is purely meta])hysical. An-
selm was the first to put it into form. Descartes constructed another,
and after him Dr. Samuel Clarke, and still later on, Victor Cousin.
Anselm's argument is in substance this:

"That which exists in reality is greater than that which exists only
in the mind. There exists in the human intellect the conception of an
infinitely perfect being. In infinite perfection necessary existence is
included; necessary existence implies actual existence, for if it must
be, it is. If the perfect being, of whom we have conception, does not
exist, we can conceive of one still more perfect, i. i\, of one who does
of necessity exist. Tiierefore, necessity of being belongs to jierfection
of being. Hence an absolutely perfect being t-xists, who is God."

Gaunillo, a contemporary of .Anselm's, sought to show that there is
a paralogism in this argument. We have, for instance, an idea of a
centaur, but this does not ])rove that a centaur ever existed. Kant
also, with a quiet smile remarked th.it he might have an idea of three
hundred dollars in hi.-, jjotlet and yet be actually penniless. Indeed,
this argument, it is sometimes said, is now not much in repute. On
the other hand, we find the essence of it already in Plato; hints of
it in Aristotle, Athanasius, Augustine and Boethius. y\nselm first
developed it. Descartes first adopted it with some changes. Leib-
nitz followed. The great theologians, Cudworth, Stillingfleet, Howe
and Henry More, adopted it in their debates with the infidels of their
time. Cousin developed still another form of it. Validity is allowed
to it by Luthardt, Dr. Dorner, Henry B. Smith, Dr. Caird, Professor
Shedd, Ulrici, Thompson. Tulloch and others. Dr. ShcdU has an elab-
orate answer to the objections of Gaunillo and Kant.

I ;' I

The WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

715

The cosmological and tcleological arguments ultimately rest on
the intuition of cause and effect. The tcleological has always been
considered as the most persuasive and powerful. Through all the ages
since Anaxagoras, but especially since Socrates, the great mass of
thinkers have laid special cuiphasis upon it. John Stuart Mill advised
theologians to adhere to it. Yet it has been vehemently attacked in
our time. Kant, although he professed respect for it, regarded it as
inadequate, and so does Hermann Lotze. John Stuart Mill, on the other
hand, says: "1 think it must be acknowledged that in our present state
of knowledge, the adaptations of nature afford a large balance of prob-
ability in favor of creation by intelligence." Jenet's "Final Causes" is
an admirable exposition of the subject.

It is to be remembered that moral proof is not mathematical
demonstration; that no one line of argument is to be taken by itself
alone; that taken together, the ontological, the cosmological, the tcle-
ological and the anthropological arguments are like so many converg-
ing lines, all pointing toward, even if they do not in strict demonstra-
tion reach, the common center — God. .Saj's Cousin: "These various
proofs have different degrees of strictness in their form, but they all
have a foundation of truth, which needs simi)ly to be disengaged and
put in a clear light in order to give them incontrovertible authority.
Everything leads to God — we go to Mini by different paths." Dr.
Carpenter speaks of some departments of science, "in which our conclu-
sions rest, not on any one set of experiences, but upon our unconscious
co-ordination of the whole aggregate of our experience; not on con-
clusions of any one train of reasoning, but on the convergence of all
our lines of thought toward one center."

In connection with those arguments philosophy must explain the
meaning and vindicate the reality of cause. I-'or religion, the question
whether there are efficient and final causes is ver\- vital. If Hume's
position be true, there can be no science of religion; there is probably
no God.

Religion says God is infiniii md al)solute. Hut can the intniite
and absolute be known by the finite? Can there be any relation be-
tween the absolute and finite? An iuipn; :aiit iiuestion for religion,
but philosophy must give us the solution, if a solution is possible.
Says Herbert Spencer in his "First Principles:" "The axiomatic truths
of physical science unavoidably postulate absolute being as th'ir com-
mon basis. The persistence of the universe is the persistence of t'.iat
unknown cause, power or force which is manifest to us through all phe-
nomena. Such is the foundation of anysj-stem of p<> live knowledge.
Thus, the belief which this datum constitutes has a higher warrant
than any other whatever." He is here substantially on Aristotleian
ground.

Again, can personality be postulated of the infinii' i absolute?
Philosoi)hy must both explain personality and how this win be consist-
ent with the infinite and absolute. This has been a great subject with
the philosophers. Witness Kant, Hegel, Fichtc, Cousin, Hamilton,

Moral Proof.

nni'

716

T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Conscious Self.

Mansel, John Stuart Mill, Calderwood, McCosh, Spencer. Here we
shall ultimately come back to the Cartesian Cogito, ergo sum.

The deepest revelation of consciousness is the ego and the non-
ego. In consciousness we become aware at once of self, a modification
of self, which is a mental state or act, and the not-self. We find here
sensations, perceptions, memories, imaginations, beliefs, volitions, etc.,
but in connection with each of these is also invariably given the self,
and its antithesis, the not-self. This conscious self thus experiencing
or exercising sensations, judgments, volitions, is what we call a per-
son. If we should here adopt the theory of James and his son, John
.Stuart Mill, that self is only a "permanent possibility of feeling," all
proper notion of selfhood or personality vanishes. The self, with these
powers of thought, feeling and self-determination, we call a spirit.
From consciousness, then, we have the idea of spirit, and are prepared
to understand the doctrine, "God is spirit;" and a knowledge of our
own personality prepares us for the idea of the personality of God.
Materialism, which regards thought as only an efnux of the brain, or
as one of the correlated forces of nature, or molecular motion, has
logically no room for the personality of man and hence, consistently,
none for a personal God. Pantheism, which identifies matter and
spirit, or regards them as only different aspects or sides of the same
universal substance, lands us precisely in the same place. But as Dr.
Fisher truly says: " Belief in the personality of man and belief in the
personality of God stand or fall together."

Religion ascribes attributes to the absolute and infinite being.
Philosophy must show whether this is possible, and if so, how. In
John Stuart Mill's criticism of Sir William Hamilton's doctrine of the
absolute, we have a hint how this may be done. Particularly is philos-
ophy of service in the discussion and elucidation of such attributes as
unity, omnipresence, omnipotence, eternity.

In many religions there are hints of the trinity in the Godhead. A
great mass of the Christian world finds in the Bible the doctrine of the
Godhead to be that of a triune being. The determination of the mean-
ing of such a doctrine, if not the possibility of it, belongs almost wholly
to the rational or philosophical side of religion.

It belongs to philosophy or reason to determine the laws of evi-
dence which are to prove not only the doctrines, but also the facts of
religion as well. Various religions claim to possess the truth and to
have a more or less positive revelation. Are these claims all false? Or,
is there one religion which j)ossesscs the truth and the divine revela-
tion? Or, are these elements of truth and of revelation in several or
all of them? Plainly it belongs to philosophical inquiry to determine
these grave questions. I am a Christian and accept the Bible as a pos-
itive revelation from God; but if I would justify and vindicate to my-
self this faith, I must have recourse to reason and philosophical prin-
ciples.

The doctrine of the will, especially of the freedom of the will, is
also a question of philosophy, but far-reaching in its bearing on theo-

■i-{

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

717

logical doctrine. It is related to the question of the personality of man
and of God; to the question of moral government, of responsibility and
of virtue to that of sin and rewards and punishments. Its importance
is seen in the fact that one's philosophy of the will determines him to
be an Augustinian, an Arminian, a Pelagian or a fatalist. Edwards
really wrote his great work in the interest of Calv nism.and Dr. Whedon
his in the interest of Wesleyan Arminianism.

Thus it is seen, that philosophy is one of the most important of
the secondary sources of the science of religion. Philosophy can aid Tme Phii-
the science of religion by keeping to her own proper sphere and dil- o8"Phy-
igently cultivating that, and by teaching religion also to keep her proper
sphere A true philosophy can do much for our science as a correct-
ive of false religious dogmas and philosophical doctrine. Hence,
finally, with the advance of a true philosophy the science of religion,
and even religion itself, must advance.

i '

^ •

' f 'I.

International Justice and \v[\\ty.

Paper by REV. S. J, BALDWIN, D. D., of New York.

■*jrw

I '.

HESK words arc rightly associated in the theme
assigned me for discussion at this time, for it
is only by justice that real amity between na-
tions can be secured. Nations are just as
much bound to be governed by justice as indi-
viduals. There is an idea still afloat, I am
aware, that the proper course for a nation to
take in dealing with others is to keep a sharp
lookout for advantages for itself, to secure
all that it can from other nations and give as
little as ])ossible in return. This is reckoned
smart diplomacy and, it must be confessed, is
still the basis of action with too many nations
professing to be governed by Christian princi-
ple.

But the true basis for international conduct, as for that of the indi-
vidual, is the golden rule, "Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would
that men should do to >ou, do ye even so to them." Or the rule laid
down by Confucius, which maybe called a negative form of the golden
True Basis rule, "What you do not like when done to yourself, do not do to
tiona/'c'on"! others." Between the old brute law of "might makes right" and the
duct. Christian teaching of justice, based on a love for our fellowmen, there

is no middle ground. It is no longer necessary to argue against the
claim that "might makes right." The world is rapidly outgrowing
that barbarous proverb, and acknowledging that nations and individ-
uals are alike bound to be governed by considerations of justice and
fair dealing in their treatment of one .another. As Theodore Parker
beautifully said, "Justice is the keynote of the world, and all else is
ever out of tune."

IMazzini, Italy's Christian hero and patriot, voiced the true senti-
ment when he said, "I''oremost and grandest amid the teachings of
Christ were these two inseparable truths: There is but one God; all men
are the sons of God, and the promulgation of these two truths changed
the face of the world and enlarged the moral circle to the confines of
the inhabited globe. To the duties of men toward the family and

718

\m .it

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

719

country to the other for the purpose of curiosity, of trade, or as perma-
nent residents."

Tliis is not a Chinese idea, but an American idea, which we in-
sisted upon having recognized by the emperor of China, and to which
lie jfave his consent. We adhered to that view of the subject for
about twelve years, when we sent an embassy to China to withdraw
this principle and to secure the adoption in some measure of the
ancient Chinese idea of restriction. The reason assigned for this curi-
ous action was the fear that we would be overwhelmed by a vast num-
ber of Chinese laborers who would work untold misery to the laborers
of our country.

The facts in the case were that the whole Chinese population, at
that time, was about one hundred and five thousand; that in the year
preceding there had actually been more departures than arrivals of
Chinese at San Francisco, as shown by the reports, the number of
arrivals being 6,544, and of departures, 6,906. h"or the three years pre-
vious the arrivals were 23,868, and the departures, 21,270, or a gain of
2,598. There was absolutely no reason for the fright into which our
government was thrown by the action of shrewd politicians who had
their own ends to serve. Jkit at our instance, a new treaty was made,
and the right to limit immigration was secured, which our government
availed itself of to pass a law prohibiting the immigration of Chinese
laborers for ten years.

In 1888 another act, known as the Scott act, was passed, which not
only forbade laborers to enter, but even denied the right to come back
of tlmse who had returned to China with the certificates of the govern-
ment in their hands assuring their right to return to this country.
Under this enactment members of Christian churches in this country
who arrived in San I'Vancisco trusting to the pledge of the govern-
ment which tliey heUl in their hands that they should be allowetl to
re-enter, were stopped in the port of .San Francisco, and compelled to
return to China in the steamer which brought them here.

Among other cases which came under my personal knowledge
was that of an Ivnglish merchant in invalid condition who was accom-
panieil by a faithful Chinese nurse, who had watched him through a
dangerous illness, and was informed at .San Francisco that this nurse
couitl not be allowed to land, and he was obliged to proceed across
our country on his way home without the faithful nurse he needed so
much. A minister of the Gospel started from China tt) come to preach
to his own countrymen in this country, but was informeil in Japan that
he would not be allowed to land and returned to China.

Many instances might be given showing the hardships which were
experienced under this law, but in 1892 another law, still more unjust
and oppressive, violating more fundamentally our solemn treaties with
China, was enacted which is known as the Geary law. It requires all
Chinese laborers to register anil to take out certificates of their right
to be here, which must be proved by at least one white witness, and
provides for the imprisonment and deportation of all who fail, within

('liineso Ar-
rivals and De-
purtureH.

! ■■

720

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

'! ,•

one year from the time of its enactment, to comply with its provisions.
On this Justice Field well said:

" The punishment is beyond all reason in its severity. It is out of
all proportion to the allc^^cd offense. It is cruel and unusual. As to
its cruelty, nothing can exceed a forcible deportation from a country
of one's residence and the breaking up of all relations of friendship,
family and business there contracted. I will pursue the subject no
further. The decision of the court and the sanction it would give
to legislation depriving resident aliens of the guarantees of the con-
stitution fill me with apprehension. These guarantees arc of priceless
value to every resident in the country, whether citizen or alien. I
cannot but regard the decision as a blow against constitutional liberty
when it declares that congress has the right to disregard the guaran-
tees of the constitution intended for all men domiciled in the country,
with the consent of the government, in their rights of person and
property."

These words are none too strong. Our treaty had promised to

these men the same treatment accorded to the citizens or subjects of

Reasons \)^q most favored nation, but this solemn promise seems to have been

\» 1 th O U t , . , , , . Ill- • 1 • r

Weight. utterly ignored when this unblushing violation of our treaty was en-

acted into so-called law. What apology is there for such action? None
whatever. The reasons urged against the Chinese have been frequently
shown to be without weight

In regard to the charge of their lessening the price of labor and
bringing ruin to the American laborer. Rev. Dr. L. A. Banks, a native
of Oregon and for many years a resident of the Pacific coast, has said:

"One of the most deplorable features of tiie whole matter, aside
from the direct dishonor of such action, is that no intelligent man be-
lieves for a moment that such a bill could have been passed on its
merits; but that members of congress of both parties permitted them-
selves to be made the tools of an infamous race prejudice because it
was understood that the electoral vote of the Pacific coast states, in the
last presidential election, would be affected by it. I was born on the
Pacific coast and lived there for thirty years; was there through the
riots of six and seven years ago, and I say deliberately that there was
no just cause for the cruel persecution the Chinese received. It was
not a question of low wages through Chinese competition, for during
those years the highest wages paid to workingmen in the civilized world
were being paid on the Pacific coast."

We have already shown that the charge of coming in overwhelm-
ing numbers is without foundation. It was charged against them that
they would not become citizens, and then, to make sure that the charge
would hold, a law was enacted that no court should naturalize them.
It was charged that the Chinese sent all their money to China, and
thus tended to impoverish America; but it was shown that out of Sll,-
000,000 earned in California in one year 59,000,000 were spent in this
country and only $2,000,000 were sent to China, and some of the same
orators who dwelt on this charge against them commended the Irish

THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

721

Race Preju-
dice nnd Po.'it

immigrants in this land for sending §70,000,000 to Ireland. And so
with all the other charges against them. The real fact in the case is,
as Dr. Banks says, that it has a basis in race prejudice and political
schemes, and I quote further these stirring words from the same noble
representative or the Pacific coast.

"This legishition docs not represent Christianity, and it does not
fairly represent the average citizenship of this country. It represents
the narrow minded and vicious elements of the Pacific coast popula-
tion, who are given power to work this disgrace because of the shame-
less cowardice of political leaders in all parties. It is surely a time ioaiScbemeB,
when Christians and patriots who value the honor of their country
should speak out and let it be known that there is another current of

Cublic sentiment in this country, a current that is not swayed by the
ecr saloon and the 'sand lot.' The outspoken indignation of Chris-
tians throughout the country will arouse such a ground-swell of pub-
lic sentiment that congress will be compelled to repeal this infamous
law. In no other way can the work of our missionaries, accomplished
through many long and weary years, be saved from disaster, our com-
merce with China preserved from annihilation, and our good name
protected from ineffaceable shame."

The true course for us to take in this matter is to recover from
the fright into which wc have allowed political demagogues to throw
us, and in a manly and Christian way to proceed at once to conform
our governmental action to the earliest and best traditions of the re-
public. Only in this way may we expect the blessing of God and
ultimate honor and success as a nation, for it still remains true that
"Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people,"
and the law of God still remains.

Sir William Dawson, F. R. S., Montreal, Canada.

Religio §cientiae.

Paper by SIR WILLIAM DAWSON, F. R. S., Montreal.

REVKNTED by age and infirm health from
being present at the Parliament of Religion.i,
I accede to the request of the chairman, Rev.
Dr Harrows, to prepare a short summary of
my matured conclusions on the subject of
the relations of natural science to reli<^ion.
In doing so I feel that little that is new can
be said, and that in the space at my disposal
I can merely state general principles suitable,
perhaps, to constitute a basis for discussion.
Eor such a purpose the term natural
science may be held to include our arranged
and systematized knowledge of the earth
and its living inhabitants. It will thus com-
prise not onl)' geology and the biological sciences,
but anthropology and psychology. On the othei
hand one ma>' take religion in its widest sense as
covering the beliefs common to all the more
important faiths, and more especiallj' those general ideas which belong
to all the races of men and are usually included under the term natural
religion, though this, as we shall see, graduates imijerceptibly into that
which is revealed. Natural religion, if thereby we understand the
beliefs fairly deducible from the facts of nature, is in truth closely
allied to natural science, and if reduced to a system may even be con-
sidered as a part of it. Our principal intiuiry should, therefore, be not
so much "How do scientific results agree with religious beliefs or any
special form of them?" but rather "How much and what particular
portion of that which is helil as religious belief is inseparable from or
fairly deducible from the results of natural science?"

All scientific men arc probably prepared to admit that there must
be a first cause for the phenomena of the universe. We cannot, with-
out violating all scientific probability, suppose these to be causeless,
self caused or eternal. Some may, however, hold that the first cause,
being an ultimate fact, must on that account be unknowable. But
though this may be true of the first cause as to origin and essence, it

723

Firtit CiiuBo.

I ,:

724

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

I ' I

\ I

1 !

j I

M ^■:-

Primitive
Power,

No Place for
PantbeiBm.

No Place for
AgnosticiBm.

.* * :

cannot be true altogether as to qualities. The first cause must be
antecedent to all phenomena. The first cause must be potent to pro-
duce all resulting effects, and must include potentially the whole
fabric of the universe. The first cause must be ihimaterial, independ-
ent, and, in some sense, self-contained or individual. These proper-
ties, which reason requires us to assign to the first cause, are not very
remote from the theological idea of a self-existent, all-powerful and
personal Creator.

Even if one failed to apprehend these properties of the first cause
we are not necessarily shut up to absolute agnosticism, for science is
familiar with the idea, th£it causes may be entirely unknown to us in
themselves, yet well known to us in their laws and their effects. Since,
then, the whole universe must in some sense be an illustration ancl
development of its first cause, it must reflect light on this primitive
power, which must thus be known to us at least in the same manner in
which such agencies as gravitation and the ethereal medium occupying
space are known. That mutual attraction of bodies at a distance,
which we call gravitation, is unknown to us in its origin and nature,
and, indeed, unthinkable as to its manner of operation, but we know
well its all-pervading laws and effects. The ether, which seems to
occupy all space and which transmits to us by its undulations the light
of the heavenly bodies, is at present, in its nature and constitution,
not only unknown but inconceivable; but science would not justify us in
assuming the position of agnostics either with reference to gravitation
or ether.

Nor can we interpret these analogies in a pantheistic sense. The
all is itself a product of the first cause which must have existed pre-
viously, and of which we cannot affirm any extension 'in a material
sense. The extension is rather like that of the human will, which,
though individual and personal, may control and animate a vast num-
ber of persons and agencies; may, for example, pervade and regulate
every portion of a great army or of a great empire. There, again,
we are brought near to a theological doctrine, and can perceive that
the first cause may be the will of an Almighty Being, or at least some-
thing which, relating to an eternal and infinite existence, may be com-
fared with what will is in the lesser sphere of human consciousness.
n this way we can at least form a conception of a universal all-pervad-
ing yet personal agency, free, yet determined by its own innate consti-
tution.

Thus science seems to have no place for agnosticism, except in
that sense in which the essence of all energies and even of matter is
unknown; and it has no place for pantheism, except in that sense in
which energies, like gravitation, apparently localized in a central body,
are extended in their effects throughout the universe. In this way
science nfierges into rational theism, and its first cause becomes the
will of a Divine Being, inscrutable in essence, yet universal in influ-
ence and manifested in His works. In this way science tends to be
not only theistic but monotheistic, and connects those ideas of the unity

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

72r)

Natnral
HcvchImI

of nature which it derives from the uniformity and universality of
natural laws with the will of one lawmaker.

Nor does law exclude volition. It becomes the expression of the
unchanging will of infinite wisdom and foresight. Otherwise we
should have to believe that the laws of nature are either necessary or
fortuitous, and we know that neither of these alternatives is possible.
All animals are actuated hv instincts adapted to their needs and place
in nature, and we have a right to consider such instincts as in accord-
ance with the will of their Creator. Should we not regard the intu-
itions of man in the same light, and also what may be called his relig-
ious and moral instincts? Of thtv^e, perhaps one of the most universal,
next to the belief in a God or gods, is that in a future life. It seems
to have been implanted in those antediluvian men whose remains are
found in caverns and alluvial deposits, and it has continued to actuate
their descendants ever since. This instinct of immortality should
surely be recognized by science as constituting one of the inherent
and essential characters of humanity.

So far in the direction of religion the science of nature may log-
ically carry us without revelation, and we may agree with the apostle
Paul that even the heathen m.iy learn God's i)ovver and divinity iiBi>>n
from the things that lie has made. In point of fact, without the aid
of either formal science or theology, and in so far as known, without
any direct revelation, the belief in God and immortality has actually
been the common property of all men in some form more or less crude
and imperfect. There are also numerous special points in revealed re-
ligion, respecting which the study of nature may give some testimony.

When natural science leaves merely material things and animal
instincts and acquaints itself with the rational and ethical nature of
man, it raises new questions with reference to the first cause. This
must include potentially all that is developed from it. Hence, the
rational and moral powers of man must be emanations from those
inherent in the first cause, which thus becomes a divinity, having a
rational and moral nature comparable with that of man but infinitely
higher.

On this point a strange confusion, produced apparently by the
philosophy of evolution, seems to have affected some scientific think-
ers, who seek to read back moral ideas into the history of the world at
a time when no mundane moral agent is known to have been in exist-
ence. They forget that it is no more immoral for a wolf to eat a lamb
than for the lamb to eat grass, and regarding man as if he were
derived by the "cosmic process" of struggle for existence from savage
wild beasts rather than, as Darwin has it, from harmless apes, represent
him as engaged in an almost hopeless and endless struggle against an
inherited "cosmic nature," evil and immoral.

This absurd and atheistic exaggeration of the theological idea of
original sin, and the pessimism which springs from it, have absolutely
no foundation in nature, since, even on the principle of evolution, no
moral distinctions could be set up until men acquired a moral sense,

LnwtixprwtMM
T<)UU<in.

and

Firet caase
ethical.

Coufasion of

idoau.

fiiVi

I IS

f '

i>,

isasmnimiL^A'j.Ktx,

7'20

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

iVi

' >

' i!

i;i;

DiHcord PtT-
ueivoil.

Moral
of Man.

NwhIs

Divine Mira-
cle.

and if, as Uarwin held, they originated in apes, the descent from the
simple habits and inoffensive ways of these animals to war and violence
and injustice, woukl be rs much a "fall of man" as that recorded in the
Bible, and could have no connection with a previous inheritance of
evil, liut such notions are merely the outcome of distorted philo-
sophical ideas and have no affinity with science properly so called.

Natural science docs, moreover, perceive a discord between man,
and especially his artificial contrivances, and nature, and the cruel
tyranny of man over lower beinjjs, and interference with natural har-
mony and symmetry. In other words, the independent will, free
agency and incentive powers of man have set themselves to subvert
the nice and delicate adjustments of natural things in a way to cause
much evil and suffering to lower creatures and ultimately to man him-
self. How this has occurred science has not the means of knowing,
except conjecturally, and it can do little by way of remedy. Indeed,
the practical results of scientific knowledge seem in the first instance
usually to aggravate the evil, though in some drections at least they
diminish the woes of humanity.

.Science sees, moreover, a great moral icd, which it cannot
supply and for which it can appeal only to .ne religious idea of a
divine redemption. On this account, if on n » other, science should
welcome the belief in a divine revelation to i.umanity; on other
grounds also, it can see no objection to this or to the idea of divine
inspiration. The first cause manifestos Himself hourly before our eyes
in the instincts of the lower animals, which are regulated by His laws.
It is the inspiration of the Almighty which gives man his rational
nature. Is it probable, then, ihat the mind of man is the only part of
nature shut out from ^^iie agency and communications of the all-per-
vading mind? This is evidently infinitely improbable. If so, have
we not the right to believe that divine inspiration i.s present in genius
and inventive power; and that in a higher degree it may animate the
prophet and the seer, or that God Himself may have been directly
manifested as a divine teacher? .Science cannot assure us of this, but
it makes no objection to it.

Tliis, however, raises the question of miracle and the supernat-
ural, but in opposition to these sc ence cpnnot consistently ])lace it-
self. It has by its own discuveries made us familiar with the fact that
every new acquisition of knowledge of nature confers power, which, if
exercised previouslj-, would have been miraculous; that is, would have
been evidence of, for the time, superhuman powers. We know no
limit to this as to the agency of intelligences higher than man or as to
God Himself. Nor does miracle in this aspect counteract natural law.
The scope for it, within the limits of natural law and the properties of
natural objects, is practically infinite. All the metaphysical arguments
of the last generation against the possibility of i.Mracles have, in fact,
been destroyed by the ])rogress of science, and n j limit can be set to
divine agency in this respect, provided the end is worthy of the means.
On the other hand science has rendered human imitations of divine

''■ i;

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

19.1

niiravilcs impo.'.tures, too transparent to be credited by intcUitjent
persons.

h\ like manner, the attitude of science to divine revelation is not
one or antagonism except in so far as any professed revelation is con-
tradictory to natural facts and laws. This is a (picstion on which 1 do
not propose to enter, but may state my conviction, that tlie Old and
New Testaments of the Christian faith, while trui; to nature in their
references to it, infinitely transcend its teachings in their sublime rev-
elations respecting God and His purposes toward man.

Finally, we have thus seen that natural science is hostile to the
old m.itcrialistic worship of natural objects, as well as to the worship
of heroes, of humanity generally and of the state, or indeed of any-
thing short of the great first cause of all. It is also hostile to that
agnosticism which professes to be unable to recognize a first cause, and
to the pantheism which confounds the primary cause with the cos-
mos resulting from his action. On the contrary, it has nothing to say
against the belief in the Divine T'irst Cause, against divine miracles or
inspiration, against the idea of a future life, or against any moral or
spiritual means for restoring man to harmony with Cod and nature.
As a consequence, it \\i\\ be found that a large |)ro])ortion of the more
distinguished scientific men have been good and pious in their lives,
and friends of religion.

I'Vicnds
ItuliKioii.

|i^

■\: '■;

iirfl

il!^

Hi
il^l

I ,■

(|l

Head of King Tahraka,

• •■, ■v'.^^.jt^-IMi

^hat C^^^t^t^t^s a [Religious as Dis-
tinguished from a JVloral Life.

Paper by PRESIDENT SCOVELL, of Wooster College.

HERE is a certain loftiness in the port and
mien of religion. It is conscious of power.
It is strangely confident, if it is not divine! It
knows that all the good in the world in broken
bits came from and under the same ordering,
and will be brought together in "Him who
fiUcth all with all." If some moral lite will
h.ive nature, it says, "Well, nature is God's,
and when men come to understand nature
fully they will come to know God and them-
selves and me better." If some moral life as-
serts its own sufificiency, religion says, "Well,
look some more" (as Agassiz said to his half
ojjcn-eyed student), "look some more into the
self for which you seem sufficient and you will
see rifts anil chasms and disharmonies and im-
possibilities which reduced far older thinkers to the ethics of despair."
If still other morals assail the divine power of sudden reconstruction
and peace, of forgiveness and the justice of atonement, religion says,
"Wait and see. Whence is the righteousness coming into the world,
by the law, or by faith?"

I say there is something sublime in this regal confidence which^
the religious life breathes amid all contradictions. All religions (in
proportion as they are religious and not mere systems of ethics) share
in this confidence in proportion to the truth they contain. Our peer-
less Christianity dares to ask them to come and lay all the utterances
of their assurance beside her own. "A child's prayer may go as far as
a bishop's," and all aspirations which are truly religious breathe in
soft, prolonged accord in the great rounded heaven above us, as 1
heard the lingering harmonies ring in the baptistry dome at Pisa.
What we happily emphasize in this congress of religions is simply
religion. That we write out in large letters and trumpet the great

7«9

Sablime in
RokhI Confi-
dence.

Ill

\':i

t ;r..i

I 'M ;

''■I I

ft i

ill

1'^':

tv.

I hi

i: f

% i

730

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

'\l

)i ii

■i^ 4

WhHt t li e
World Wants.

fact of it in all the tongues of men. Wc believe there must be more
of it in the world when men come to understand how much there is of
it already. Paul felt it as we feel it when he honestly complimented
the news-loving Athenians upon their being very religious. In an al-
most fearful fancy Heine declared that he would seize a towering pine
tree and dip it brush wise in /Etna and write on the heavens, "Agnes,
Ich liebe dich" — " Agnes, I love thee." So would wc blazon on the
more widely read scroll of our closing century's quick history the word
" religion."

This, the nineteenth century, has carried forward out of the deadly
contests of the eighteenth, and under the baptism of the Holy Ghost,
which consecrated with revived religious life this great missionary
century of the ages until now, and here at its close the world shall
recognize its own priceless heritage. What the world wants is the best
religion. It wants with a deeper thirst than it wants silver or gold, or
knowledge or science. And I believe this congress will help the world
to get just what it wants and needs — more and more genuine religious
life. From this point, then, is the place to go forward in the recital
of the infinite positive blessings the religious life brings as distinguished
from the moral life.

The world tries ethics every once in a while. Cain tried it and
murdered Abel. The Pharisees tried it and crucified Christ. The
Jesuits tried it and met Pascal. E.xtreme Unitarianism tried it and
withered. Tlu; P'rench revolution tried it in the theo-philanthropists
and Robespierre restored God. The P'rench people, since KS70, tried
it in excluding religion from education and yielding to Jules Simon,
who said the children must be taught God as well as love of country.
English deism tried it and gave birth, through Voltaire and others, to
E'rench infidelity and German skepticism; Scotch Presbyterian modcr-
atism tried it and was roused from fatal coma by Cook's eloquence and
modern missions. Wherever the two have come into comparison, it has
been found that the force and vitality of the peoples and the churches
declined as ethics supplanted religion, and the moral life was substituted
for the religious.

The religious life alone has creative power. The moral can never
create the religious, while the religious will always create the moral
life. The moral life is (^roughly) the mineral kingdom to the vege-
table. The first can feed the life of the second, but cannot kindle it.
The religious life develops more continuity, more fiber and more prop-
agative power than a moral life.

Whatever else may and ought to be said, Mohammedanism's
monotheism told tremendously on the world. It overrode the weaker
ethical systems, though in fearful contrast with the pcacefulnessof one
of them. It nearly stifled a weaker form of Christianity. If moralism
be destitute of fanaticism, it is also destitute of enthusiasm; and the
reasons are obvious. And Christianity propagates itself just in pro-
portion to the controlling position of its religious elements. Its mis-
sion, however, is overwhelmingly evangelical. This is the secret of its

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

731

The Merely

port and mien of power. "It is never alone," as Christ was not. But
moralism is always alone. To be more specific, the religious life has
a different attitude altogether toward the supernatural. The whole
enlargement of life which this brings is a vital distinction of the relig-
ious life. Eyes are opened, ears opened, messages come and arc re-
ceived, the moral life at best is bounded within the narrow rim of
things seen, and the tendency is to narrow it still more by cmphazing
only the utilitarian details. What so narrow as mere ethics set against
religion? What so liberal as that which admits the supernatural? In
the religious life there is the glory of the unseen. There is the hush
and awe of the omnipotent and eternal. There is the unseen holy,
there is an extension of the being upward and forward immea^inable
in the feeling of it.

But contrast the merely moral life. All that concerns the future,
its openings and attractions, its glories and gleams, has no power for
him who aims only to do his duty to his fellowmen. How much the Moral Life,
man must miss; what a calamity if all men would thus deny the upper-
most realm of being. The candle cannot be understood until it burns,
nor can man until his being is tipped with the deathless flame. The
religious life is peerless here. They utterly fail to appreciate it who
think of the religious view of the immortality of the soul as a matter
of personal comfort only. No! No! In it, especially, we are risen
into that plane to which George Kliot has saiil, the just interest in man
and the world must bring us, "a desire to have a religion, which is
more than a personal consolation." The whole world is one thing if
men are immortal, and another if they are not.

Guizot shows, you remember, that society is the means and man
is the end in civilization, because man is immortal. Laws and language
and literature and government are economics and orbics are all differ-
ent things if man be immortal. They are the things they are, and
which they are coining to be felt to be in the newer political economy
and sociology because man is immortal. Education is coming to have
its own true sacredness because it is immortal material with which we
have to deal. And I dare say it now and here, that no man is fit to be
an educator, in the just sense of the term, who so fearfully and fatally
mistakes the nature with which he is to deal, as to deny its immortal-
ity. Without the religious life as allied to the supernatural, I do not
believe any severe morality can be maintained among men.

Gladstone is upon record as teaching that, in connection with the
area of morals covered by the seventh commandment, no religion but
Christianity has ever attempted to restrain the race, and that any other
religion would in vain undertake the task. Clifford (the most interest-
ing of all who have bemoaned the loss of faith) writes:

"Belief in God and a future life is a source of refined and elevated
pleasure to those who can hold it. But the foregoing of a refined and
elevated pleasure, because it appears we have no right to indulge in it,
is not, in itself, and cannot produce as its consequences, a decline of
morality."

RefinfMl nnd
ElovaU'U Pli'iui-

are>

732

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

of
it}-

How, then, the stepping of the benumbed hold of an Alpins
climber from the icy ledge would not by consequence dash him to
pieces, if it simply proved that he must let go? Oh, sirs, the world's
fearful fall into immorality cannot be concealed. Despaii shall come
in place of hope. Evxry earthly conflict will increase in bitterness and
every earthly possession seem more sternly to be clung to, if there is
to be nothing but earth. Clifford's own despair proves it sadly enough.
Take away this refined and elevated pleasure and what multitudes of
coarse and sensual ones clamor for its room. Oh, how they honeycomb
the structure of society now and pluck the children from our homes
and altars for want of belief in the supernatural! Thus the religious
life, considered as individual or general, must always surpass the merely
moral because of its confessed and vital relations to the supernatural.
Out of the unseen we are come, as all things are come; into the
unseen we must go. All the visible must change, but wc must " join
the choir invisible."

While the fair vision of immortality "lifts up the eye and brow of
hope," the world will go onward by stairs sloping upward unto God.
When that hope deserts the world we shall be dry and still and inert
and gaze out into the dreariest of worlds as the fabled dwellers of the
Fair Wawa Dead sca who spurned Moses and forgot they had souls and were
Immortal- turned into apes. The religious life has a serious way of looking at all
obligations, whether ritual or ethical, because of the certainty which
attaches to direct prescription and the consequences of reward and
punishment which form part of its motive power. "The Lord is at
hand," says the religious life. "Thus saith the Lord," says the relig-
ious life. Now this strength of religion has displayed itself so far,
often, as to lean over to excess in a slavish punctuality of ritualistic
observances, on the one side; then on the other side, in a rigidity as
to minor morals. The danger is to be recognized at once that we may
lean over on the side of specific individual requirements and, perhaps,
neglect the weightier matters of judgment and mercy. Hut this only
proves how superb the power is which (iod and intelligence command,
and hope of rewards and fear of punishment give us, even in the moral
arena. However the religious life may have wandered in these direc-
tions, it has shown everywhere wonderful vitality.

Wc desire to "put a hedge around the law." The religious life,
therefore, stands out as the strongest force for the duties of life. It is
capable of adaptation to all circumstances and presses alike upon
every duty according to the square inches of exposed surface. Sweep-
ing a room may be devotional, according to the saintly Herbert; and
you remember the servant who knew she was converted because she
swept under the door mat.

"In the elder days of art" you remember how they wrought be-
cause the gods saw everywhere religion:

Let us <1<> our work as well,

Both the unseen and tlie seen,
Make the liouse where Ciod may dwell

I3eautiful, entire and clean,

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

733

Who doubts the flexibility of religious motives. They are as elas-
tic as the atmosphere, as divisible and equally constant in their press-
ure. You may (presently) extract from Niagara's visible omnip-
otence the jx)\ver to light a single electric lamp in a distant city;
and there is no work so humble but religion may bring power into it
from the throne of God. And what might not be said, what is not
every pious heart saying, of the religious life as containing a commun-
ion with God, which the merely moral life, alas, either ignores or
denies.

What is prayer? The outbreathing of innermost lite into the
closest contacts. "Speak to Him," for spirit with spirit may meet.
"He is closer than breathing." Prayer! It is the eloquence of need,
perceived rather by the infinite listener than by the soul which so im-
perfectly at best understands its own need. Prayer! It is the sob of
a broken heart (whether by sin or by sorrow) heard by God and
hymned by angels.

What is praise? What are the sacraments? Public worship;
church; fellowships? Are these things vital? Are they dear priv-
ileges? Do our world-parched souls long for them as the hart for the
water-brooks? Ah! VVeknow that Clifford's "brazen heaven" would
glare with "brazen earth" for us all, if "The Great Companion" were
dead. Nothing can properly express the importance to us, of the up-
ward extension of our being by communion with God, It is of the
same range with outward extension of the religious life into duty, or
its forward extensions into immortality.

And when man's whole nature is considered, it is found that the
moral life is most distinctly related to the intellectual and volitional
activities and is deficient on the emotional side. But just here the
religious life is full and powerful. Not that we propose to accept the
half-humorously proposed distribution of the soul territory which
would give the intellect to science and the will to ethics and surrender
the emotions to religion. No, sirs. We do not propose to accept this
with any greater readiness than Germany accepted the proposal to give
Kngland the kingdom of the sea and to assign to France that of the
land, leaving Deutschland the kingdom of the air. The latter, if she
did go to work in the unseen rcalness of education and philosophy and
art, was still preparing to strike out vigorously for recognition, both
on sea and land, as the world has witnessed at Sadowa and Sedan, and
in the colonial policy of the new empire. P>en so religion will not
forget other things, but she does accept the dominion of the heart.
Oh, how appropriately "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God," (First
great commandment.) "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
(The second like unto it.)

There is no such apostasy in religion as the apostasy from love.
Now, what would the heart-life of the race become without religion?
Where would we go without the mercy of God, the Father's pity; with-
out the boundless compassion of a dying Chirst? To what utter hard-
ness are wo left by law and morals considered only in themselves? In

What ia
Prayer?

734

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Son re p of
WorhUy Uop.
ItinenH.

i I-

the emotions and affections are the springs of action. How shall the
world do its work without the religious life to cultivate and enlarge
them?

Ill this great tract of the soul lies far the largest part of the com-
mon life of all men. How shall it be made the source of happiness it
ought to become? Here are the materials of character. How is
heaven to be peopled and days of heaven to come upon the earth
unless the strong forces of religion control here? Men are stirred to
their best deeds and wrought to their best permanent shapes through
the affections. And all men concede to the religious life special
power in the emotional tract. One complains thus: Many term the
ethics of science dry and uninspiring and turn to religions, which, if
they give us mysticism or pessimism, give us poetry also, for man is
an emotional as well as an intellectual being, and there ni^y be much
poetry in pessimism.

To which we answer:

First. We are glad that it is confessed that men want something
more interesting than evolutional ethics.

Second. We would not follow poetry away from truth; but we
know no truth which has in it so much poetry as the deep, wide, high
and warm things of religion. And the same author adds: "The high-
est poetry is that of love, and it is the realization of this poetry that
the ethics of evolution teach, promise and enjoin."

Third. Quite right, then, to join in the lists against religion as to

Producing and appreciating the poetry of unselfishness and love. The
istory of the world thunders its answer; love has made it from (iod
to man; has descended from the cross and rippled out into millionfold
currents swelling down the ages. The only brotherhood ever realized,
even approximately, has been from Christian sources.

Fourth. The love of evolution, the struggle for life and the sur-
vival of the fittest is best seen by submerging nine rats in a cage and
watching them struggle to survive. The love of evolution is a minus
quantity.

Fifth. The religious life must be greater than the moral life, even
though the latter.be all that Kant's one eloquent passage makes it
appear to be. He finds the stars annihilating him by their massive-
ness, but found himself greater than the stars. You remember "the
moral nature within" spurning any compromise and proposing him-
self as the end of his being.

The whole meaning of the invincible imperative cannot be con-
tained in the moral life. Even Kant did not find it so, returning, as he
did, through the practical reason to God and immortality. Conscience
implies God, as the southward winging bird implies the south. All
that is in us, then, all the fundamental departments of the microcosm we
call man demand the religious life. The intellect reaches its highest
principles when it thinks God's thoughts after him, and finds mind
everywhere in the universe. The affectations and emotions find their
true objects in divine things, and from these run out exuberantly and

M '[

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

735

Dit^itiKiiisli'

beneficently to all human needs. The will finds its freedom steadied
and the man back of the will certified by the infinite personality of
God. The conscience whispers approval of them and rebukes us. The
spiritual aspirations find their true direction only in the religious life.
How much of man is denied or docked bymoralism?

And now we come to the religious life as concerned with sin.

Here we find the distinguishing element of repentance, which has K<U"ntttn(o
no place whatever in the moral life. In the latter there may be regret
or remorse ( if the evil consequences of sin have become evident or have
gone beyond our power to arrest). Hut the religious life above can
know repentance. It is made up of elements which do not appear in
the moral life.

First. Fear of sin's eternal consccpiences.

Second. Regard to the mercy of God.

Third. Faith in God's promises and liie method of pardon He has
proclaimed.

Fourth. Turning unto God with a surrendered will, a poignant
sorrow and a full purpose of obedience.

Can I be wrong in saying that the moral life misses the greatest
possible joy of man when it fails of repentance? Did not all divine
interpositions in the world, from the first voice to Cain, to the last
pleading of the risen Christ seek to awaken it? Does not the tear of
repentance (as in Tom Moore's exquisite fiction) move the crystal bars
of Paradise? And does not every true act of repentance awaken the
praises of intelligent spirits — sinless, themselves, in the presence of
God?

This evangelical repentance refreshes the wholeworld of sin by its
real sorrow. There is a "repentance unto life," and there are "fruits
meet for repentance." In the nature and fruits of it is a greater thing
than the merely moral man can ever know.

It is the pivot of the wicked mans perishing or saving It is the
betteiment of the good and the besting of the better. It is associated
with every prayer It is the leading of all God's goodness. It may be
anguish to the taste, but what comfort it brings the soul! The cry of
the publican, the moan of the prodigal, are just the "coming to our-
selves," as they are our coming to the Father. Nothing can be more
just, more rational, more sensible, as nothing can be deeper and nothing
more important. Moralism excludes repentance in its just meaning
and vital nature. It stands on the brink and then turns away. Its
calculations as to sin are narrow and worldly. They are "of the world."
They are born of today and die with what they were born with.
Moralism is apt to make much more of discovery than of sin. The
hideous ingratitude of continuous rebellion against God docs not in-
tensify any deed of wrong against man for Him. The higher relations
of a sinning soul are hidden from Him, and that helps Him to hide from
Himself the lower. But the religious life never loses the deep tone (it
might be called the minor third) which is evoked when the soul knows
its sin in the lights from above.

■ n

7:»'.

Tin: woRi.ns h'Scress <v /a j.n.joxs.

■"i»i

I'^noin^' till"

How lU'ii'ssary \o ri-pi-iitaiioi" rfli!;;ioii is, is scon in tlirsc strikiiifj
woiils nl ki»lKTtsiiii, ulio w.is iKil pioiu- to i" \.i|;i;(,'riit itiM in sik h ,i
diii'ilion:

" I'di in.ilisin, i'\ rii moral it )•, will not ^,\\ isly (lie lonsiiiMu c of niaii,
* * * I'oi wlu-n Mian lonu's (o hont llii' i\ crlastMi}; (iod, and looi^
tlu- splrndor ol 1 1 is jiidi;nu'iits in llu- l.uc, jui'-onal inti-j',ril>-, lliis difani
ol s|)olifssnrss and iniioi iMU i, \;inislu s into lliin air \ om dcccniii-s
ami \i>nr ilnm li i;*''".'l'^' •""' ><'in' niMilai il ns ,imi \dnr atlachmcnl lo
conoiM si'hool and p.utv. yoin tio^|itl loimiilas ol sonml doilrim.' —
what is ,ill tiiis in lron( ol tin- wialli lo ronu-i'"

Hold it ilo..ly, then, tins dist niiMnsJn'd (li.uaitii oi the ii'lii;ions
liti". i'lu" loii;iMn aii" iori;i\in;;; liu- ildrr son is nn|ilaral)lc. Tor

sinm-rs tin- riMii-ions iili" can answiT

I'll

ins, as a niraiis to sa

hat

ion.

must III- lilt to aiiiuls. kr|u'iit.iiu c is moi.d sanity. It is tlu' liiilh oj
things. It sees (iod's Irouii and seek-. Mis l.i\(n' It stops sinning,'.
It puts tlu- stoniest h.uriiTs in the w.iy ol siniiiiit; at;aiii. Il lonks to
wli.it wo must ho, as woll as to uli.it wo iia\o lnoii. It ho. us the iiolilost
lruit.i_L;o in a liiindiodlold ol jMtod doods .md tmns JiLisplu'inois iiiti>
apostli-s. ;\iid tlio nuir.dist o.iiinot Know it.

I'hc ic!ii;ioiis iilo is siindoiod wliollx' Irom tlio nior.il IiU- .iiicl oK--
vatod aho\o it hy tlu' imti.il l.u t ol roLjonoiatioii.

I ioio is a " now lili- " iiuK'od It is a " luw man " with whom \vc
have lo \.\(\\\. it is an impl.iiitod | noiplc whioh ^oos on lo ooiiso-
tpionoos ol i^To.iti'st niomont i-\.i(ll\ in lino with tlu- initi.d im|)iilM'.
At onoo il ol.iims to ho iiioro tli.in tho nioi.il lik', iiitrodiioini; now
ro.isons l<u' ohi'ilioiuo k-w\\ to what was oho\od holon- Irom lowor
oonsidiT.itions. I'hi'^ is divino onorL;y roooi\ttl into tlu; almost |),is-
sivo sonl ot m.in, hul liltiiiL; il into a iiormaiu'iil |)aitakiii!.; ol tho
divino Iilo.

1 1 010 is tho i;lor>' ol' tho lolii^ious Iilo this m.irvoloiis, sw ill, m\ sto-
(!i,.r.v ..Mil.. lioiis, suhtlo hill otoiiial olianuo. Il m.i\- ho as swill as tin- liijlit .iiid
IS as insointahlo as tlio hio.itlimi^ ol tlio wind, hut "hj-tlioir iiiiits
sh.ill \o know ihom." roui'itul .is omnipotoii. o o.iii mako il .iml on-
limiiii.;; as the stars; th.U oh.iiim" whioh no oiio o.iii prodiuo and noiu-
can lU'soriho; to whioh tlu" soul o.iii oiil\' i-oiisonl to its possossion h\'
tho will ot (iod to turn it iipsido down and o1i.iiil;i- its loxtiiro, color
aiul oaroor — that is tho dislim;iiishin_i; oli.ii.iotoristio ol a rolii^imis Iilo.
Tiioro is nolhiiii^ liko it in iiaturo or in nnuils o\oi'i)l in n liiiod anal-
ogies. The only thiiii;' the moralist o.iii do ahoul it is to den>' it,
bccanse he cannot comprehend e\en the experience ot iL

'lU

ilM

A "' 13p<

;**-C" *v f-'

Mohammedan Funeral Procession in Tangiers, Morocco.

! !

ir M

larian Ago.

['' I

Crime and the [Remedy.

Address by REV. OLYMPIA BROWN.

T is a sif^nificant and encouraging sign that in
this great parliament of religion so much time
is given to practical questions, such as arc sug-
g(.sted by intemperance, crime, the subordina-
tion of woman and other subjects of a similar
character. The practical applications of relig-
ion arc today of more importance than philo-
sophical speculation. All the religions of the
world are here, not to wrangle over the theo-
logical differences, or forms, or modes of
worship, but to join hands in one grand, heroic
effort for the uplifting of humanity.

VVc live in a humanitarian age when relig-
ionists and theologians are asking, not so
much, how best to secure an interest in the real
estate of the eternal city, as how they may
make this earth habitable for God's children. Not how they may appease
the wrath of an offended Deity and purchase their own personal salva-
tion hereafter, but how the>' can bless their fellow men, here and now.
" If ye love not j'our brother whom ye have seen, how can ye love God
whom ye have not seen?"

The cause and cure of crime is one of the most important ques-
tions that can engage the attention of theologian, philanthropist or
statesman In the complex society of modern times, crimes are
nuiltiplied, appearing in new forms and disguised and concealed by the
methods which our larger knowledge and many inventions make
possible.

In our country, where are gathered a great variety of people repre-
senting all nations, customs and languages, society is necessarily
iKtorogeneous; and in the conflict of interests the greed of gain is
awakened and angry passions are aroused; in the mad rush for the
wealth of the world every man is striving to be foremost; rivalry and
selfishness promj)t to crime; opportunities for escape are many, and
consequently violations of law are frequent, and, therefore, there is
pressing need that we should consider what can be done to remedy

738

;

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

780

these evils, lessen crime, and out of these varied elements to pre-
sent at last the perfected, well-rounded human character which shall
combine all the best qualities of the various nations and people congre-
gated here, while at the same time eliminating the vices and weakness
of each one.

The causes usually given for crime arc many, such as poverty,
evil associations, intemperance, etc. Hut these arc rather the occa-
sions than the causes of criminal conduct. The true philosopher looks
behind all these and finds inherited tendencies one of the most fruit-
ful causes of crime. " The fathers and the mothers, too, have eaten
sour grapes and the children's teeth are on edge."

It is not the intoxicating cup but the weak will which causes
drunkenness; not the gold within easy reach but the avaricious mind
which prompts to robbery; it is not the weakness of the victim, but the
angry passions of the murderer which makes the blood flow. A care-
ful study of the subject, by means of statistics, has shown that evil
deeds, in a very large proportion of cases, can be traced back to the
evil passions cherished by the immediate ancestors of the wrong-
doer, and our means of tracing such connections are so limited that
we really know but a small part of the whole truth.

A few years ago public attention was called to a widely circu-
lated pamphlet which gave a history of the Jukes family, which for
generations had been characterized by acts of lawlessness and crime;
the taint seemed to extend to every ramification of the family, the
awful record showing that out of many hundreds only one or two
had escaped idiocy or criminality.

The story of Margaret, the mother of criminals, is familiar to all.
Margaret was a poor, neglected, ignorant inmate of the almshouse in
one of the counties in New York state; her progeny were found in
the poorhouses and jails of that region for generations.

In a recent report of one of our great reformatories, the superin-
tendent says: "The investigations and experience of the past year
have served to strengthen the opinion that physical degeneracy is a
common cause of criminal conduct," which statement confirms the
theory that in the majority of cases the criminal is a man badly born.
So true is it that in all the relations of life men are dependent upon
other men, iind each one is interested to have everybody else do right,
especially hjs own ancestors!

Dipsomania is now almost universally recognized as an inheritance
from the drinking habits of the past, and all the evil passions of men
bear fruitage in after generations in various forms of crime.

Recently a man escaped from one of our state prisons by killing
two of his guards; he had been charged with matricide and was con-
victed of murder committed in the most cruel and brutal manner and
without any apparent motive. The crime attracted much attention
from the fact that he had been reared with great care and tenderness
by wise and good parents. At the time of his trial it was shown that
the woman he had killed was not, as he had supposed, his own mother,

Evil Diipirl
tio&ii Hered-
itary.

1 1 I i

740

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

it'

I 'S':'

1 ti I '

•;'M

Crime a H«>
reditary X e d -
detcy.

Woman 8u-

Bremo in the
[ome.

!-t

but that his reputed parents had adopted him as an infant in a distant
part of the country and had reared and educated l.im as their own
child. Little was learned concerning his parentage except that his
father was a murderer. Thus, in spite of education and circumstances,
the inherent tendency to murder asserted itself and the crime of the
father was repeated in the son.

This is but one instance, but it is the type of many that are famil-
iar to students of this subject, all showing that the criminal is often he
victim of the mistakes, the evil passions, the crimes of those who w nt
before. As the drinking habit results, in after generations, in epilepsy,
insanity and various forms of nervous diseases, so other evil passions
reappear in different guises and give birth to a great variety of crimes.
What can we do to check this great tide of criminality which perpet-
uates itself thus from generation to generation, gathering ever new
strength and force with time? How stop this supply of criminals?

There is but one answer, i icn must be better born, and that means
that they must have better mothers. We arc learning that not only
the sins of the fathers, but the mistakes and unfortunate renditions of
the mothers, bear terrible fruitage, even to the third anc. fourth gen-
eration. God has intrusted the mother with the awful responsibility
of giving the first direction to human character.

In the long months which precede the birth of the young spirit
what communion of angels may elevate and inspire her soul, thus giv-
ing the promise of the advent of a heavenly messenger who should
proclaim peace on earth, good will to men! Or what demons of pride,
avarice, jealousy may preside over the development of the new life
sending forth upon earth an avenger, to lift his hand against every
man, to blast the joys of life and to weigh like an incubus upon society!
Woman becomes thus an architect of human life with all its possibili-
ties of joy or sorrow, of virtue or vice, of victory or defeat, and it was
because of this momentous mission that she was not only given joint
dominion with man over the earth, but was made to be supreme in the
home and in the marriage relation.

Old and New Testament Scriptures alike announce the Divine fiac
that man is to leave all things, his father and his mother if need be, and
cleave unto his wife. Mis personal preferences, his ambitions, his
business of the world, his early affections, all mu.st be subordinate to
this one great object of the marriage relation, the formation of noble
human characters; and in this creative realm woman is to rule supreme;
she must be the arbiter of the home, that in her divine work of molding
character she may surround herself with such conditions, and win to
herself such heavenly communions, that her children shall indeed be
heirs of God bearing upon their foreheads the stamp of ciie divine.

When in some of our marriage ceremonies she is required to
promise implicit obedience to her lord and master, and in so-called
Christian states she is bound by law to work all her lifetime for board
a. id clothes, it is evident that we are not fulfilling the Scriptural law.
No wonder the world is cursed with cowards, idiots and criminals,

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

741

ant

)wa

his

CCS,

the

mil-
he
•nt
jsy,
ons
iiics.

when the mothers of the race arc in bondage. Only in an atmosphere
of freedom can woman accomplish her grand destiny. Napoleon, on
being asked what F"rance most needed, replied, good mothers. What
France, America and all lands neci is a free motherhood. Helen
Gardner well says: "Moral idiots, like Jesse Pomeroy and Reginald
Beuuiall in life, Pecksniffs, Becky Sharps antl Fred Harmons in fiction,
will continue to cumber the earth as long as conditions continue to
br;ed them." The race is stamped by its mothers, the fountain will
not rise higher than its source, men will be no better than the mothers
who bear them, and as woman is elevated, her mental vision enlarged,
her true dignity established, will her sons go forth armed with a native
power to uphold the right, trample out iniquity and overcome the
world.

The battle for womanhood is the battle for the race; upon her
dignity of character an ' position depends the future of humanity. VVe
shall have taken the fir:V^ atul all-important step in doing away with
crime and lessening the number of criminals when we have emancipated
motherhood. The emancipation of women means society redeemed
and humanity saved. With the elevation of women education will be-
come more effective. Not only will children be better born, but there
will be higher ideals, new incentives, and the whole scope of education
and reform will be enlarged.

The Univcrsalist church, which I have the honor to represent,
stands for the humanitarian element in religion. It recognizes the
Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. We believe in a
God who has made all things good and beautiful in their time and
whose supreme and beneficent law will work out the final victory of
the good. We believe that even the poorest, most ill-born, most mis-
directed human being possesses capabilities of goodness which are in
their nature divine and indestructible, and which must at last enable
him, by God's grace, to rise above weakness and folly and sin, and to
share in the inheritance of eternal life. We believe that love is the
potent influence which shall at last win all souls to holiness and to
God; love, exemplified and made effective through the life, the labors,
the teachings, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who came to
be a propitiation for the sins of the whole world.

And, so believing, our church stands for those humane methods
of dealing with the criminal, which, while protecting society, shall at
the same time seek the reformation of the erring one.

Regarding human life as too sacred a gift to be placed in the
hands of human courts, we oppose capital punishment and we make
unceasing war upon such kinds of prison discipline as tend to harden
and brutalize the criminal.

Hut while so few people believe in the possible salvation of the
erring, while the spirit of true Christian love is still so rare and its
intelligent application to the work of the world so little sought, how
can officers be found to fitly manage such institutions and conduct
them in the interest of the highest humanity? While our legislatares

Tho WorH«
8iiwpptibl« of
Impruvement.

''I'Mm

'IMJ

il:l

742

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

! ; J'rli

if,

The Mothers
l.he Arbiters of
Destioy.

are stiil so much imbued by the material and utilitarian spirit of pre-
vious ages of selfishness, how secure such laws as shall represent the
philanthropy and the sympathy of a truly Christian people? We need,
in dealing with these humanitarian questions, the mother's sympathy
with her little ones. Mothers, who alone know at what great cost a
human life has been given to the world, should help to make the laws
which affect the condition and decide the earthly destiny of their
children.

Our legislators have been so much occupied with questions of
tariff and taxes, of silver and coinage and other pecuniary interests
that they have, in a measure, neglected the higher objects of legisla-
tion, namely, the development of a redeemed and perfected humanity.
When the mothers sit in council those subjects which affect the improve-
ment of society, the protection of the weak, the education of the
youth, the elimination of the unfortunate and dangerous classes, will
be made prominent.

As in the sick room it is the mother's tender touch that soothes
the child's pain and calls back the glow of health; so in this sin-sick
world it must be the loving sympathy of mothers that shall win back
the erring and restore them to mental health and moral beauty. It is
the glory of Christianity that it has recognized and enthroned woman-
hood.

The great Master first revealed Himself as the Messiah to a
woman. He wrought His first miracle at the command of a woman,
and as a recognition of the supremacy of motherhood; He revealed
the great truths that He came to bring to women, and He sent woman
forth to proclaim the risen Lord, and so today He commands women
to go abroad publishing the Gospel of a world's salvation. And shall
men, churches or governments dare longer to prohibit women from
obeying the command and fulfilling the divine decree? All reforms
wait for woman's freedom. The only effectual remedy for crime is
the enlightenment, independence and freedom of motherhood.

:sts
a-

ty.

[Religious State of G^^"^^"y«

Paper by COUNT A. BERNSTORFF

SHALL try to give this short si<ctch as impar-
tially as I can, though this is not easy for one
who stands in the midst of the contests about
which he is i^oing to speak. We]l ine;ining
patriots who wish to stir up the activity of ^ood
men often give a pessimistic view of things;
others who wish to show off tlieir country will
give a too favorable coloring of the state of
tilings. I mean only to say what is true. There
is no necessity to give any coloring. Things
are bad enough without being exaggerated, but
there is also sufficient good to mention without
being obliged to add U) the truth.

It may truly be said that (jernian\' is a
country where spiritual problems are fought out.
I leel happy to belong to such a countr)- and to be
able to take an active share in those struggles. In order io under-
stand the present condition of Germany we must go back to some
point in history which gave a turning to affairs, and which forms even
now the basis on which religious life has developed. The first is the
Reformation. Germany is emphatically the land of the Reformation,
by which, of course,! don't mean to say that all German)- is Protestant.
Oh, no The reformation has divided Germany into two hostile camps.
It has been the source of many political and religious (lifficulties.
Yet we praise God's name for it. The Reformation luckily had no
political sides, it was a purely religious act.

Luther sought peace with God for his own soul, and all the acts of
penance could not satisfy the yearning of his heart. It was oidy
when he got to read a Bible — these bound teachers — and when he
found in it that the just shall live by faith, that he found the peace
with God which his heart was yearning after, through the two
great principlesof the Reformation— that the Bible is the only and all
sufficient source of truth, and that man is saved without his merits by
faith in the dealing blood of Christ. However, the mere intellectual
truth alone does not suffice. We must therefore consider the feeling of

Spintnal
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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

the masses cluriii<j the early i)art of the eighteenth century as the
.seconil tiiriiin.Lj point.

Protestantism reviveil, but only in form; unbelief carried the day.
The <;reat minds of the last century failed to see the truth of revela-
tion. This is to a threat extent ilue to the fact tiiat the repression of
Liberty^'"* °' orthodo.x truths had turned into enemies scholars who found a pleas-
ure in cjuarrelin^f on points of minor interest. The revival in religion
began in what we call the wars of libert)'. When the great Napoleon
wanted to stamp Prussia out c^f the map of l"-urope, when the whole
nation rose to defend its national independence, men were turned out
to seek God in |)ra\er; and since that day earnest, liberal Christianity
has made its way again in (iermany. National differences seemed of
comparatively small value at that time, and King P'rederick William
III, of Prussia, combined in his religion the union of the Lutheran and
the Calvinist churches into one church, which he called P-vangelical.
Such a incisure would be im|)()ssible now; but in those times of unbelief
people had ceased to attach any value to ilifferences in doctrine, and
the wcw revi\al was also spiritual, not ecclesiastical. Those who be-
gan to love their .Sa\iour gladi)' joined those whom they found sim-
ilarly affected, without asking to what church they belonged.

The increase of religious coinicticMis, however, also increased the
opposition of special doctrines. The old feud between Lutherans and
Calvinists began with renewed strength, and the friendly relations be-
tween Protestants and Catholics made way to a sharp antagonism.
About half a century later the revolution of iS4<S opened the eyes of
many Christians to the unsatisfactory state of many things and the
numerous works of h.ome missions began about that time. Finally, in
1873, the organization of a synodal constitution for the Protestant
church brought a luw element into our religious life. Excuse me liav-
ing begun with this historical introduction. The present is always in
many respects the chiUl of the past, and I thought it would help to
ascertain the present.

The division of (iermany into a Catholic and Protestant population
still exists in all its force. I am a poor judge of the inner life of the
Catholic church, but I must say that she has greatly consolidated herself.
Unhap[)y measurers of ;.ur government to repress her influence, which
were in force in 1873, have only served to increase her power. With
her strong discipline on the power she wields over the people through
the confessional, with the assistance of a numerous political party that
represents her interests in Parliament, she imdoubtedl\- has a large in-
fluence. Rut, on the other side, this has also helped much to arouse

and

rxotOBt n I) t f
athglicB.

e Protestant feeling of the nation; a large I*rotestant association for

the i)rotection of Protestant interests is gaining new adherents every
day. The commemoration of the Lutheran jubilee in 1SS3 has deeply
stirred the heart of the nation, and the day will not easily be forgotten
when, the 31st of last (October, the emperor, with most of the (ierman
princes and re|)resentati\es of the queen of (ireat Hritain and of :"
king of .Sweden and Denmark, of the cjueen of the Netherlands, a.s. -teU

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THE WORLD'S COiXGRESS OF RIll.ICIONS.

74D

Clinroi
Stute.

at the reopening of the beautifully restored church of VVittcmbcrg, and
publicly declared their adherence to the doctrines of the Reformation.

With Protestantism, the old feud between Lutherans and Calvin-
ists has made way to problems of greater importance. If I speak of
the development of Protestantism, 1 can only speak of the national or
state churches. The free churches, Methodists, Baptists, Mennonites,
even the highly honored body of the Moravian brethren and the
Lutherans in Prussia, do a good work for the saving of individual
souls, and, weighed in the balance of heaven, this work will not be ac-
counted lightly, but their numbers are small and their influence in the
national life of Germany is smaller still. The great struggle and
problems of the day arc fought out within the national churches, and
this is not only true, is voluntary conviction in the press and by simi-
lar means, but also is the official battle-ground provided in the synod.
Our churches have their own voice ever in public life, and the very
abuse, heaped on the general synod of Prussia, for her clear testimony
of the old truths of the Gospel, is a sure sign of her influence.

At first a number of persons were cleoted into the synod only be-
cause they were expected to make ojiposition to the clergy, but this is
long past. P^ven the Berlin synod has a majority which holds in part
the doctrines of Christianity, and, since this is the case, she has a
noble work to do with the s[)iritual wants of our large metroi)olis. A
large party of our church is striving at a greater independence from
the slate. VVe deny not that we have entered with mighty adversaries,
but we are jjrcpared for the struggle. The socialist movement spreads
utter atheism among the working classes. Perhaps it has never before
been uttered with such emphasis that there is no God. Hut often all
this is only the case among the neglected masses of our large cities. In
the country even the leaders of social democracy restrain from saying
anything against religion because they know that it would compromise
their cause.

We have men who want to form a new religion, or a moral society
without religion, but the so-called (.tliical movenicnt found but few ad-
herents. A lieutenant-colonel left the anii\- to work for a colorless
Christianity, in which exerybody might goin;l)utnis followers are not '"''a'-
many. All these more negative forms of religious beliefs meet with
loud applause at first, but very few join them actively. Where there
is real religious work one turns to the old Pible.

The greatest danger we are under is perhaps a new critical school
of theology. The lateU' deceased Professor RictschI has introduced a
new system superior to the old rationalism, eniinentl)- cle\er, j-et
dangerous. Biblical terms are used, but another meaning given to
them. In this theolog)- Christ is not pre-e.\istent from all eternity,
l)ut only a man in whom divine life has come to its highest develop-
ment; the great fact of retiemption only s\-mbols; pia>'er is some way
only a gymnastic exercise of the soul, helpful as such to him who
prays, but not heard in heaven. Numerous studeius arc uiuler the
charm of this school, and man)- people think that t will soon have
possession of all our pulpits,
48

and

Rthicul Move-

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The Ke"j;ioii»
I'ri'fis.

AiJttrri'H s i V o
Christiuuilj .

I do not share their fear. There are too many forces of divine
help in our conijrc^ation.s now to render this possible, and to these
forces I must lastly refer. Wc have faithful preachinjj in many of our
churches, and where the Gospel is preached in power and in truth the
cluirciies are not empty. We have an honest fight for the truth in our
synods. I'.ven in the capital the orthodo.x Christians have rallied to
^ain tlic victor)' and they carried the day.

We have the great organizations of home mission work, deacon-
esses' institutions, reformatories, workingmen's city missions and so
forth. These are only examples.

Wc iiave a large religious press. The sermons published by the
Berlin cit\' mission arc spread in one hundred and twelve thousand
copies every week. ;\ great number of so-called Sunday papers, that
is, not i)olitieal papers, which a])pear on Sunday, but small religious
periodicals, which gi\e good religious reading to the people, are circu-
lated, besides the sermons, to a great e.xtent by voluntary helpers.
W'e are making way to a better observation of the Lord's day. The
new law on the social {piestion has closed our shops on Sunday, and
the complaints raised against this measure at first soon made way to a
sense of gratitude for the freedom to weary people who have hard
work (luring the week,

( )ur cm])cror and empress have given a powerful stimulus to the
building of new churches. The empress tries to stimulate the ladies
to more of what you call woman's work, and a society of three thou-
sand women in Berlin last winter shows that her call was not in vain.
W'e Iia\c altogether learned a great deal more of aggressive Chris-
tianit)-. Our .Suiula\-schools have nearly doubled in the last three years.
The institute founded for training evangelists has been removed to
Barmes, where it works more efficiently. Lay work, unknown in for-
mer generations, (piietly but steadily gains ground. I could mention
a iMunbcr of eminent laymen who no longer object to presenting the
(ios|)cl publicly. We are not afraid for the cause of believing evangel-
ical Christianity in (jermany; it is more a power now than it ever was,
though, of course, in every land and at all times only a minority truly
ami fully experience the depths of religious feeling.

I (lid not mention the last Jewish movement, because I hold it to
be purely political, not religious. It is one ot the things that we have
to contend with, but a beginning has been made. There is much dark-
ness ill tiermany, but there is also much light. May God grant that
the l:^t increase.

i;i

Christianity and the N^g^o-

Address by BISHOP B. W. ARNETT, D. D., of the African M. E. Church.

E have gathered from the east, from the
wcs:, from the north, from tlie south
this day to celebrate the triumph of
human freedom on the American con-
tinent. For there is not one slave
within all of our borders. There is no
master. From Huron's lordly flood
to where the venturesome Magellan
passed from sea to sea in the south,
every man is free, owning no master
save his own free will on earth and
his God in heaven.

The greatest of all things created,
visible or invisible, that we know of,
is man. He is the greatest mystery of
creation. The world was made for
him. The ultimate design of God can-
not be fully comprehended until we see the dust
standing erect in the form of man, with body,
soul and spirit; a compound of matter and mind,
material and immaterial, and a mortal and an immortal being, the
master of the realm of thought.

I congratulate the representatives of all nations of the earth who
have assembled in this hall this day — a day around which clusters so
much history, so much hope, and so much liberty. We have met for
the first time since the children of Noah were scattered on the plains
of Shinar. The parliament at Shinar plotted treason against the
divine command and Providence; inaugurated a rebellion against
heaven; their tongues were confused and they were banished until
this day; in fact, this is the adjourned meeting, from Shinar to Chi-
cago. They met to show their disloyalty to God; we have met to dis-
cuss the subjects which are ultimately connected with our pre^ 'Mit
happiness and the future prosperity of our race and country.

The evolution in the religious thought of the world has enabled
US to assemble in one place and of one accord, to compare notes, to

til

inV'

To Examine
the Truth.

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examine the truth, in order that our faith might be strengthened, and
our hopes brijfhtened, and our love increased toward the fundamental
truths of each of our relij^ions. We are to make a report of the battles
fought, of the victories won in search after truth. Also to report the
discoveries made in the investigation of the material world and in the
realms of mind and thought, and to give the latest conclusions of phi-
losophy about the relations of Goii, man, and the world. In fact, we
are to see whether the fundamental truth of philosophy is not the same
as the f indamental truth of theology, whicJi is God. It has been said
that philosophy searches for, but religion re\cals God. Our duty will
be to ;.how that revealed religion is superior to natural religion in giving
us a true knowledge, the new and true concejjtion of God; His nature.
His attributes, communicable and uncommunicable; His relation to
the physical, moral and mental world, as the Creator, Preserver and
Governor.

liut there are two revelations of God — the one written and the
other unwritten. The unwritten revelation of (jod is nature, from
whose forms of matter and systems of operating forces flash the sug-
gestions of infinite power, goodness and wisdom. The liible is the
written revelation of God, and is open to the gaze of man and subject
to interpretation. It contains truths which are subject to explanation.
Thctheologian is the interpreter, not alone of the Iiible,butalso of nature
and Providence. He is to interrogate nature and to give her answers
according to the rules of reason anil science. He is to interrogate the
truths as found in Revelation ami explain them in the light of the
church of God.

The Negro is older than Christianity, as old as man, for he is one

uoui u.t. .*- ^^ ^^^ legitimate sons of his father and grandfather. In some way or
gi'tlmau''8(mB' other he has been connected with the history of every age and every

"* ther/"" work, so that no history of the past is complete without some refer-
ence to the Negro or his home, Africa, whose soil has been abun-
dantly fruitful in some of the best and many of the worst of human
productions.

The Negro's home, Africa, was the home of Dido, ( f Hannibal;
the scene of .Scipio's triumphs and Jugurtha's crimes; it also has been
the home of scholars, of philosophers, of theologians, of statesmen
and of soldiers. It was the cradle of art and of science. In the first
days of Ciiristianity it contributed more than its proportion of the
early agents of the propagators of the new religion. Luke, the be-
loved physician, was from Cyrcne, an African by birth, if not by blood.
Lucius, of Cyrene, was one of the first teachers of Christianity and
was* from Africa. Simon, the father of Rufus and Alexander, was a
Cyrenian. It was this black man, a native of an y\frican city, who
became the cross-bearer of the Son of God on \\\^ way to Calvary.

Africa, having contributed either by birth or blood to the estab-
lishment of the religion of Christ upon earth, certainly her sons and
daughters ought to be permitted to enjoy the blessings purchased with
so much sorrow, suffering and tears. Among the early teachers of

One of the Le-

\k \

Bishop B. W. Arnett, D. D., Wilberforce, Ohio.

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Lifp, liiberty
andHappinpss.

Ramplt' of the
( 'hrisliBU N e-
Kro.

The Slave
Trade.

Antioch was one Simon, who was called Nif^cr. Thus we have, at
least, one evanj^elist and four of the early teachers of Christianity
who were Africans.

We do fervently pray anil earnestly hope that the meetinfj held this
day will start a wave of influences that will clianf^c some of the Chris-
tians of this land in favor of the brotherhood of man, and from this
time forward they will accord to us that which we receive in every
land except this " land of the free and home of the brave."

All we ask is the rij^ht of an American citi/.en; the rifjjht to life,
liberty ami happiness, and that be f^iven us the ri^ht and privileges
that belong to every citizen of a Christian commonwealth. It is not
pity we ask for, but justice; it is not help, but a fair chance; we ask
not to be carried, but to be given an opportunity to walk, run or stand
alone in our own strength, or to fall in our own weakness; we are not
begging for bread, but for an opportunity to earn bread for our wives
and children; treat us not as wards of a nation nor as objects of pity,
but treat us as American citizens, as Christian men and women; do
not chain your doors and bar your windows and deny us a place in
society, but give us the place that our intelligence, our virtue, our
industry and our courage entitle us to. " But admit none but the
worthy and well ciualified."

When you look for a sample of the Christian Negro, do not go to
the depot of some southern town, or the Hell's Half Acre of some city,
or to the poorhouse, or jail or penitentiary. Vou won't find the model
Negro there; he has moved from such i)laces thirty years ago. It is
possible to fintl some of his children still lingering about the old home-
stead, but the Christian and model Negro is living in the city of indus-
try and thrift, and in the cottage of comfort and ease, which he has
dedicated to religion, morality and education, and morning and even-
ing the p'asser-by may hear music from the piano or organ of "Home,
Sweet Home." the dearest spot on earth.

We speak not thus in anger, but in words of truth -and soberness.
Wc know what has been done in the name of Christianity, in the name
of religion, in the name of Ciod. We were stolen from our native I.i.id
in the name of religion, chained as captives and brought to this conti-
nent in the name of the liberty of the Gospel; they bound our limbs
with fetters in the name of the Nazarene in order to save otir souls;
they sold us to teach the principles of religion; they sealed the Bible
to increase our faith in God; pious prayers were offered for those who
chained our fathers, who stole our mothers, who sold our brothers for
paltry gold, all in the name of Christianity, to save our poor souls.
When the price of flesh went down the interest in our souls became
small; when the slave trade was abolished by the strong hand of true
Christianity, then false Christianity had no interest in our souls at all.
Christianity has always had some strong friends for the negro in the
south and in the north; men who stood by him under all circumstances.

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THnOrPBt
AwaKeninR.

(Christian E^^^S^^^sm in /^merica.

Address by REV. JAMES BRAND, of Oberlin, Ohio.

HRISTIAN Evangelism is the preaching or pto-
mulgation of the Gospel of Christ. But this 's
too general for our present purpose. The word
must be used here in a more restricted sense.
I must avoid narrowing my theme to simply
the work of itinerant evangelists on the one
hand and widening it to the general preaching
of Christian truth on the other. My purpose
is to examine the place and influence in the
development of American Christianity of spe-
cial evangelistic movements which have ap-
peared from time to time in our history. The
theme will thus cover what we are accustomed
to call general revivals or special Pentecostal
seasons in the progress of Christ's kingdom.
The first century of religious history in this
country was largely devoted to church polity and
the relation of religion to the state. Spiritually
it was a rather 'barren period. There had been some revivals from
1670 to 1712, but they were local and limited in extent. The first
great movement which really molded American Christianity was in
1740-1760, called "The Great Awakening," under the leadership of
Jonathan Edwards VVhitefield, Wesley and the Tennants, of New
Jersey. This movement was probably the most influential force which
has ever acted upon the development of the Christian religion since
the Protestant reformation. In 1740 the population of New Fingland
was nou more than 250,000, rmd in all the colonies about 2,000,000.
Yet it is estimated that more than 50,000 persons were converted to
Christ in that revival — a far greater proportion than at any other
period of our history This movement overthrew the so-called "half
way covenant," a pernicious system which had filled both the churches
and pulpits with unconverted men. In l740meH without any pre-
tense of piety studied theology, and "if neither heretical or openly
immoral were ordained to the niinistry,".antf multitudes of men were
received to church membership without any claim to Christian life.

75»

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

r53

Nece«gity of

The great awakening reversed that state of things. Students of the-
ology were converted in great numbers, and prominent men to the
number of twenty, who had been long in the pulpits in and about Bos-
ton, regarded George Whitefield as the means, under God, of their
conversion to Christ. This revival was not confined to New England
or to any one body of Christians. All denominations in New York,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and the south were equally blessed. The
movement awakened the public mind more fully to the claims of home
missions, especially among the Indians. It likewise gave a great
impulse to Christian education. The founding of Princeton college
was one of the direct fruits. Dartmouth college, founded in 1769, also
sprang from the same impulse. The proposition that «n the preaching
of the Gospel the distinction should be maintained between the regen-
erate and unregenerate, and that the church must be composed of
converted souls only, has been accepted by substantially all evangel-
ical denominations since that time. The great doctrines made espe-
cially prominent in this religious movement were those required to
meet the peculiar circumstances of the times, viz., the sinfulness of
sin, the necessity of conversion and justification by faith in Christ Convereiob.
alone. These doctrines were the mighty forces wielded by the leaders
of that time, and resulted in the recasting of the religious opinions of
the eighteenth century.

The second general evangelistic movement, 1797-18 10, generally
called the revival of 1800, was hardly less important as a factor in our
Christian life than its predecessor. It, too, followed a period of formal-
ism and religious barrenness. It was the epoch of French infidelity and of
Paine's "Age of Reason," from which this revival emancipated America
while France was left a spiritual wreck. Up to this time almost nothing
had been done in the line of foreign missions, and there were hardly
any permanent institutions of a national character for the spread of the
Gospel apart from the churches and three or four colleges. From this
movement sprang, as by magic, nearly all the great national religious
institutions of today. The "Plan of Union" in 1801 to evangelize New
Connecticut — Andover Seminary in 1808 to provide trained pastors;
the American Board, representing two or three denominations, in 1801;
the American Baptist Missionary Union, in 1814; the American Edu-
cation Society, in 181 5; the Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society,
in 1819; the Yale Theological Department, in 1822; American Tem-
perance Society, in 1826; American Home Missionary Society, in 1830;
East Windsor Theological Seminary, in 1833. Here, again, all relig-
ious bodies were equally enriched and enlarged by the stupendous
impulse given to religious thought and activity by this revival. The
leading characteristic of this movement, so far as doctrines were con-
cerned, was the sovereignty of God. The success of the colonies in
the Revolutionary war, the establishment of national independence, the
awakening forces of material and industrial development, together with
the prevPiiing rationalistic and atheistic influence of France, had pro-
(luced a spirit of pride and self-sufficiency which was hostile to the

Rovivalctf leoo.

764

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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The Third
(treat Move-
ment.

authority of God, and, of course, antagonistic to the Gospel. To meet
this state of the public mind, evangelistic leaders were naturally led to
lay special emphasis upon the absolute and eternal dominion of God,
as the infinitely wise and benevolent Ruler of the universe, and man as
His subject, fallen, dependent, guilty, to whom pardon was offered.
Here was found the divine corrective of the perils which were threat-
ning to overwhelm the country in barren and self-destructive mate-
rialism.

The third great movement was in 1 830-1 840. The tendency of
the human mind is to grasp certain truths which have proved specially
effective in one set of circumstances and press them into service under
different circumstances, to the neglect of other truths. Thus the se-
verity of God, which had needed such peculiar emphasis in 1800, came
to be urged to the exclusion of those truths which touch the freedom
and responsibility of man. When, therefore, this third revival period
began, the truths most needed were the freedom of the will, the nature
of the moral law, the ability and therefor-^ the absolute obligation of
man to obey God and make himself a new heart. Accordingly,
these were the mighty weapons which were wielded by the great
leaders, Finney, Nettleton, Albert Harnes and others, in the revival of
that period. Thus a counter corrective was administered which
tended not only to correct and convert vast multitudes of souls, but
also to establish the scriptural balance of truth.

The fourth pentecostal season, which may be called national in its
scope, was in 1857-g. At that time inordinate worldlincss, the passion
for gain and luxury, had been taking possession of the people. The
spirit of reckless speculation and other immoral methods of gratifying
material ambition had overreached itself and plunged the nation into
a financial panic. The Divine Spirit seized this state of things to con-
vict men of their sins. The result was a great turning to God all over
the land. In this awakening no great leaders seem to stand out pre-
eminent. But the plain lessons of the revival are God's rebuke of
worldliness, the fact that it is better to be righteous than to be rich,
and that nations, like individuals, are in His liands.

The latest evangelistic movements which are meeting this new era
and are destined to be as helpful to American Christianity as any pre-
ceding ones are those under the present leadership of men like Messrs.
Moody and Mills and their confreres. Tiiese revivals, though perhaps
lacking the tremendous seriousness and profundity of conviction which
came from the Calvinist preachers dwelling on the nature and attributes
RRHstic" Move- of God, nevertheless exhibit a more truly balanced Gospel than any
mente. preceding ones. They announce pre-eminently a Gospel of hope.

They emphasize the love of God, the sufficiency of Christ, the guilt and
unreason of sin, the privilege of serving Christ and the duty of imme-
diate surrender. If men said, "Is not the Gospel being outgrown?" They
said, "No, that cannot be." If they said, "Is the doctrine broad enough
and deep enough to lead the progress of the race in all stages of its devel-
opment and be the text-book of religious teaching to the end of time?"

The Fourth

PentecoBtal

Season.

Liatest Evan-

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

4t)5

They said, "Yes." Why? Because Christ's teachings are based upon
certain indestructible principles of human nature that never change.
They are based upon the moral sentiment of the soul.

1 have spoken of these general revivals as evangelistic movements.
It must not be inferred, however, that they are merely human under-
takings. They originate with the Spirit of God. Leading men, whether
as general evangelists or evangelistic pastors, were moved by the Di-
vine Spirit to yearn for the deepening of religious life and the conver-
sion of the multitudes. As of old God from time to time chooses
Him a Moses, fits him for his work and gives him a message. This di-
vine superintendence, rather than any human sagacity, explains the
peculiar types of truth and the special adaptations of doctrines to the
circumstances at different stages of our national life, to meet the pecul-
iar perils or tendencies of such times. This only proves that Christ is
the head of His church and does not abandon it to the discretion of
any set of men.

The Scripture truths which have been specially instrumental in
these great spiritual awakenings, perhaps, should have a more specific
consideration. Manifestly, no one school of theology can claim pre-
eminence. Calvinism, old school and new school on the one hand. Truths'
and Arminianism on the other, have been alike blessed at different
times in the conversion of souls. The earlier evangelists dwelt upon
the nature and attributes of the Divine Being. They preached the
utter depravity of man, the unspeakable guilt of sin, the infinite doom
of final impenitence. They said, "Nothing but eternal woe is possible
to one who will not come into harmony with God." This was not to
frighten men into religion, but as a philosophical fact in the nature of
things. It was to arouse .them out of deadly apathy to rational
concern as to their spiritual condition, and it was effective. White-
field's great topic was, "The Necessity of the New Birth," because this
was a neglected truth. It was said at the time that Whi.cfield had
"infatuated the multitude with his doctrine of regeneration, and free
grace, and conversion, all of which was repugnant to common sense."

There can be no doubt that this form of evangelism wc are con-
sidering has had a very helpful influence upon the development of our
American Christian life. Yet it must be said in conclusion, that these
powers, of evangelism are liable to be attended by one serious peril.
.Some churches have b','en led by them to depend almost together
upon outside evangelists and general movements for the winning and
gathering of souls, rather than upon the regular work of the settled
pastor and the ordinary services of consecrated church members. In
such cases church work becomes spasmodic, and the preachinjT of the
pastor has often become educational instead of being also distinctively
..vangelistic. This dependence of a church upon great periodical
movements and help for the conversion of souls in its r" ' vicinity, is
not, of course, a necessary result of general revivals, but it is an evil
which is liable to follow. To guard against the evil two things are
essential:

Moved by the
Divine Spirit.

TheSoriptare

SerioQB Peril,

iu;

:Vf:l

i^t ■ i

756

T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Local Church.

First. A higher conception of the mission of the local church.
The fact should never be lost sight of, that the local church itself is,

MJMionoftho after all, the responsible body for the evangelization of its own vicin-
ity. I would be the last to disparage outside evangelists, but it is man-
ifestly not God's design that churches should depend upon any great
combined movement. They are to depend rather upon the Christ-
likeness of their own membership and the evangelistic preaching of
their pastors. The true aggressive, soul-reviving power under God for
any community is the real people of God in that community, if there
are any. More stress must be laid upon consecrated church member-
ship.

Second. A new evangelistic ministry. That means men in the
pulpits, men impressed with the infinitely practical reach of their
work, the awful responsibility of their position, and their utter depend-

ANPwEvan- - iice upon the Holy Spirit. It means men closeted more with God.
An hour with Him is worth a week among the people. We must get
ourselves under the burden of those views of mankind which weighed
upon the soul of Christ and led Him to the cross; those great truths
which underlie God's government, which undergird the Christian's
hope, which appeal to the sinner's reason and intensify his rational
fears.

.Perhaps the supreme suggestion of the whole subject for this rush-
ing, conceited, self-asserting, money-grasping, law-defying, Sabbath-
desecrating, contract-breaking, rationalistic age is, that we are to return
to the profound preaching of the sovereignty of God.

f«>li«tic
letry

Min-

P
o

-m

International Arbitration.

Paper by THOMAS J. SEMMES, of Louisiana.

URING six and a half centuries, from Nunia to
Augustus, the temple of Janus was closed only
six years. Roman civilization is character-
ized by a disdain of human life, until it became
a sanguinary thirst. It was for them a joy
to cause the death of others. Hence their
hatred to the Christian religion, although
so indifferent to all religion; the manner in
which the Christians regarded things, human
and Divine, was essentially opposed to the
Roman view and inspired a profound antip-
athy. It is no doubt true that in proportion
as the intellectual faculties developed men
learnec' to appreciate their superiority over
the material element. But intellectual de-
velopment of itself does not weaken the influ-
ence of the body on the soul; it only im-
presses on the passions more refined tendencies. It stimulates gen-
erous emotions, such as the love of glory and patriotism; it excites in
the egotist the thirst for riches and honors. This is the reason why
the military spirit is manifested even in an advanced state of civiliza-
tion; the worship of force is established under the name of glory or
patriotism. These are only names for Jupiter and Hercules — the object
of the worship is the same.

In the beginning of Roman domination international law had no
real existence; the Roman world was in fact a federation of peoples,
under the same ruler as so vcrign arbitrator; the allies and confederates
of Rome were subjects who preserved the appearance of liberty.
This union of states did not resemble the society of free and equal
states, like that of modern times; it was a society of states, equally
subject to Roman power, though the forms of subjection were dif-
ferent. At a later period appearances were abandoned; the territories
of allies, confederates and kings were divided into Roman provinces,
subject to the imperial power. Then came Christ, who, uniting in His

7D7

Fixleration of
the Peoples.

758

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

::, I

■!» ' '

ill

[tit ■

Society
Changed.

person God and man, revealed to the world the doctrine of charity
and the liberty of man.

The church alone, in the midst of this world of desolation, was
completely and powerfully organized. The various states, conscious
of their weakness, voluntarily sought pontifical interventions until the
pontifical tribunal became the resort of peoples and princes for the
settlement of their controversies on principles of equity and justice.
The oldest treaty now on record made by an English king with a for-
eign power was arrangt d by Pope John XV, A. D. 1002, and drawn up
in his name. In 1298 ioniface VIII acted as arbitrator between Phil
liel and Edward I.

Since the PVench revolution the condition of society has changed;

slavery has been abolished throughout Chtistendom;theliberty as well

CondiUon of as the equal spiritual value of all men is established, the dignity of

' labor is recognized and a new society, commercial and industrial,

has been born which teaches that the earth is only fertilized by the
dews of sweat, that work is not a malediction, but a re-habilitation;that
the earth is only truly cursed by Cain, to whom "God said she shall
refuse her fruits to thy labor."

This society, notwithstanding the philosophies of the age, is fun-
damentally Christian, not pagan, for paganism defined force, duty,
pleasure, and it believed the unfortunate deserved the anger of God.

This society believed that Jesus came to solve the problem of the
misery of the poor and wished to solve it by voluntary poverty and the
rehabilitation of labor.

With treaties of arbitration commences the judicial status of
rations, and statesmen think that international wars will disappear
before the arbitration tribunal, before a more advanced civiliza-
tion. In 1883 the senate of the United States voted in favor of
inserting in our treaties an arbitration clause, the arbitrators to consist
of eminent jurist consults not engaged in politics. President Grant, in
his message to congress in 1 873, mystically said: " I am disposed to
believe that the Author of the un-verse is preparing the world to
become a single nation speaking the same language, which will here-
after render armies and navies superfluous." In 1874 the congress by
a joint resolution declared that the people of the United .States
recommend that an arbitration tribunal be constituted in place of
war, and the President was ai'thcrizcd to open negotiations for the
establishment of a system of international rules for the settlement of
controversies without resort to war. In December, 1882, President Arthur
announced in his message to congress that he was ready to participate
in any measure tending " to guarantee peace on earth." The United
.States in many instances has added example to precept. During the
present century the United .States, since 1818, has settled by arbitration
all of its controversies with foreign nations. The differences with
England as to the interpretation of the treaty of Ghent were amicably
settled.

The Bering Sea controversy with England, settled a few weeks

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

759

ago by arbitration in Paris, brings to the mind the Interesting fact that
during the century from 1793 to 1893 there have been fifty-eight inter-
national arl)itrations, and the advance of public opiniun toward that
mode of settling national controversies may be measured by the
gradual increase of arbitrations during the course of the century. From
1793 to 1848, a period of fifty five years, there were nine arbitrations;
there were fifteen from 1848 to 1870, a period of twenty-two years;
there were fourteen from 1870 to 1880, and twenty from 1880 to 1893.
The United States and other American states were interested in thir-
teen of these arbitrations; tlie United States, other American states,
and Kuroi)can nations were interested in twenty-three. Asiatic and
African states were interested in three, and European nations only
were interested in eighteen.

The must celebrated, the most delicate and the most difficult ar-
bitration of the century, is that which at Geneva adjudicated the
claims of the United States against (ireat Ikitain, for non-rr,nformance
of its duty as a neutral during the late Civil war The most interest-
ing arbitration of the century was that in which the highest represen-
tative of mural force in the world was acce])ted in 1885 by the apolo-
gist of material force to mediate between Germany and Spain, Leo
XIII revived the role of the Popes in the Middle Ages, The sensibd-
ities of both nations had been intensely excited by events at the Car-
olines and at Madrid; under these circumstances the acceptance of
mediation by .Spanish pride and German pride forces us 10 acknowl-
edge, says Frederick Papy, "that the spirit of j^eace has made prog-
ress in the public conscience and in the intelligence of governments."

Peace leagues and international conferences, and associations for
the advancement of social science, have for over thirty years endeav-
ored to elaborate an international code with organized arbitration.
The P'rench opened to the world the Suez canal by an analagous phe-
nomenon. Laborers group themselves into unions and hold their inter-
national congresses, and substitute the patriotism of class fur the
patriotism of peoples, and form, as it were, a state in the midst cf
nations. They see what science has accomplished, that its instruments,
like weavers' shuttles, weave the bond of friendship between the
nations. Its vessels and its railwajs transport with extraordinary
velocity men and merchandise from one extremity of the earth to the
other Its wires, transmitting human speech, bind together cities and
villages; its explorers renew geography and open new continents to
the activity and ambition of the older nations. This economical sol-
idarity suggests success in formulating some plan for reorganizing a
permanent judical tribunal of arbitration.

No one wishes to consolidate all nations into one and establish
a universal empire, the ideal state of the humanitarians; for nations
are moral persons and are part of humanity, and, as such, they assume
reciprocal obligations which constitute national right A nation is an
organism created by language, by tradition, by history and the will of
those who compose it; hence all countries are equal and have an equal

Bering H H
Contruverey.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

: I

Obataoles to
an Int«niation-
alcodi*.

Position
the Pop^.

right to inviolability. There may be some countries of large and some
of small territories; but these arc not large or small countries, because
as nations they arc equal, and each one is the work of man which man
should respect. The existence of these organisms is necessary to the
welfare of mankind.

The obstacles to an international code are not insurmountable, but
the assent of nations to the establishment of a permanent tribunal of
arbitration depends upon the practicability of so organizing it as to se-
cure impartiality. Many suggestions have been made by the wise and
the learned, by philosophers, statesmen and philanthropists, but none
seems to be free from objection. In despair the eyes of some are fixed
on the pope. David Urquard, a Protestant English diplomat, in 1869.
made an eloquent appeal to Pius IX. Jules La Cointa, a juri.st of high
authority, in his introduction to the recent work of Count Kamarowski,
entitled "The International Tribunal," makes an interesting quotation
from the Spectator dindi English Revinv, in which the writer says:

"Humanity is in search of an arbitrator whose impartiality is indis-
putabl>:. In many respects the pope is by position designed for this
office. He occupies a rank which permits monarchs as well as repub-
lics to have recourse to him without sacrifice of dignity. As a conse-
quence of his mission the pope is not only impartial between all na-
tions, but he is at such a degree of elevation that their differences are
imperceptible to him. The difficulty about religion is becoming weaker
every day. No country can have stronger prejudices on this subject
than Germany, yet Prince Bismarck has consented to apply to the
head of the Roman church. Evidently the Carolines are of little im-
portance to Prince Bismarck, but the fact that the most haughty
statesmaii of Europe recognizes, in the face of the world, that he can
without loss of dignity submit his conduct in an international affair to
the judgment of the pope, is an extraordinary proof that the pope still
occupies an exceptional position in our skeptical modern world."

Why should not the exceptional position of the pope be utilized
by the nations of the world? He is the highest representative of
moral force on earth; over two hundred millions of Christians scattered
throughout all nations stand at his back, with a moral power which no
other human being can command; no longer a temporal sovereign, the
ambition of hegemony cannot affect his judgment; religion and state
are practically disassociated throughout Christendom so that in mat-
ters of religion all are free to follow the dictates of conscience without
fear of the civil power, and therefore political motives cannot disturb
his equilibrium; provision could be made for the exceptional contro-
versies to which nis native country might be a party.

"In the next war armies will not be confronted, but nations and the
conquerors, exhausted by their victories, will contrive to forever ex-
tinguish in the conquered the idea of revenge; hence Europe hesitates
at the perspective of this supreme shock, and in the year 1891 one of
Italy's statesmen, in a public discourse, gave warning to his country-
men that the certainty of victory and the certainty of acquiring glory
would not compensate for the infinite injury of the disastrous confiicl.

' ' ;

■V

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)(

3 ': .:*

j^ffln

r-'^m

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fM ;LiL

W. T. Stead, London. Eng.

;'ViiH^i'

Xhe Civic Qhurch.

Paper by W. T. STEAD, of London.

ENKRAL Idea of the Civic church. The
fiiiulamcntal idea of the Civic church is that
of the intelligent and fraternal co-operation
of all those who arc in earnest about makinjj
1 len and thinjjs somewhat better than they
.' arc today. Men and thing's, individually and
collectively, arc far short of what they ought
lo be, and all those who, seeing this, are ex-
erting themselves in order to make them
better, ought to be enrolled in the Civic
church. From the pale of its communion no
man or woman is excluded because of
speculative differences of opijiion upon ques-
tions which do not affect practical co-operation.
The world has to be saved, and the number
of those who will exert themselves in the work
of its salvation is not so great that we can afford to refuse the co-
operation of any willing worker because he cannot pronounce our
shibboleth. An atheist of the type say of John Morley would no more
be excluded from the Civic church because of his inability to reconcile
reason and revelation than you would turn a red-haired man out of a
lifeboat crew. For the basis of the fellowship of the members of the
Civic church is their willingness to serve their fellow men, and he is
the best Civic churchman who devotes himself most loyally, most
utterly, and most lovingly to work out the salvation of the whole com-
munity.

Here let me at the very outset forestall one common misconcep-
tion. There is nothing in the idea of the Civic church that is hostile
to the existence and prosperity of all the existing churches. It pre-
supposes the existence of such organizations, each of which is doing
necessary work that is more cfificiently done by small groups acting
independently than by a wider federation acting over a broader area.
The idea of any antagonism between the Civic church and the in-
numerable religious societies already existing is as absurd as the
notion of an antagonism between the main drain of the city and the

763

Tho World
IIiiH to Be
Huved.

•JffH

764

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

.i (

Object of the
Civic CliarcL.

t:;

wash-hand basin of the individual citizen. The main drain is the
necessary complement of the wash-hand basin, but its construction
does not imply any slight upon the ancient and useful habit of each
man washing his own face. He can do that best himself, although the
community as a whole has to help him to get rid of his dirty water. So
for the salvation of che individual soul our existing churches may be
the oest instrument, while for the redemption of the whole community
the Civic church is still indispensable.

What is the objective of the Civic church? The restitution of
human society, so as to establish a state of things that will minimize
evil and achieve the greatest possible good for the greatest possible
number. What is the enemy that has to be overcome? The selfish-
ness which in one or other of its innumerable forms — either by
indolence, indifference or downright wrongdoing — creates a state of
thin^ which renders it diflficult to do right and easy to do wrong.

To a Christian such a church seems to be based upon the central
principle of the Christian religion. To Christians who recognize that
God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth
Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him, all religions
have within them something of God, all have something of help in
them by which man is able to attain nearer to the divine, and all,
therefore, have something to teach us as to how we can best accom-
plish the great work that lies before all religions, viz., how to remake
man in the image of God. To a Christian that religion is the truest
which helps most to make men like Jesus Christ.

The apostle says: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is
neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye
are all one in Christ Jesus." The Civic church accepts that principle
and carries it out to its logical ultimate. Who are those who are in
Christ Jesus? Those who conform to certain outward rites, call them-
selves by particular names, or worship according to a certain order?
Not so. Those who are in Christ Jesus are those who have put on
Christ, who are baptized with His spirit, who deny themselves to help
those who need helping, who sacrifice their lives to save their fellow-
men; in other words, those who take trouble to do good toothers.
And it is time they were gathered into a society which could act as an
associated unit of organization for the realization of the ideal. The
recognition of this wide brotherhood of all who take up their cross to
follow Christ must necessarily precede the attempt to secure federaetd
co-operation for the attainment of a common end. To take up your
cross, what is that but to deny yourself, and to follow Christ — but to
give up time, thought and energy to the service of your fellowmen?
Those who do that, so far as they do that, cijnstitute the church
militant below which will constitute the church triumphant above.
And the triumph of the church will be achieved the sooner the more
readily the church militant below gets into line, recognizes its essential
unity and employs its collective strength against the common foe.

Union, co-operation, concerted action — these are only possible on

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

765

the basis of federation. Gone forever are the days when any one church
can hope to lord it over God's heritage. The Civic church is an attempt
to get the undisciplined, scattered crowds into line. We are only
waging a guerrilla warfare, where we might be carrying on a regular
campaign. Differences of uniform or of accoutcrments are held to be
sufficient to justify our standing aloof from each other, while the com-
mon enemy holds the field. Now, we ask, has the time not come
when the attack on evil should be conducted with ordinary common
sense?

There is no suggestion on the part of the advocates of the Civic
church that a committee representing the various existing organiza-
tions for mending the world, the men and women who are willing
to take trouble to do good to others, should supersede any existing
institution. The Civic church comes into existence not to supersede,
but rather to energize all the institutions that make for righteousness,
to bring them into sympathetic communication the one with the other,
and to adapt the sensible methods of municipal administration, with
its accurate geographical demarcation and strict apportionment of re-
sponsibility, to the more spiritual work of the church.

The Civic church is the spiritual counterpart of the town council,
representing the collective and corporate responsibility of all the cit-
izens for the spiritual, moral and social welfare of the poorest and most
neglected district within their borders. It is an attempt to organize
the conscience of the community so as to bring the collective moral
sentiment of the whole community to bear upon the problems which
can only be solved by collective action. The work which lies before
such a federative center is vast and varied. Vast and varied though it
be, it is surprising how much of it is beyond dispute. Men may differ
about original sin, they agree about the necessity of supplying pure
water; they quarrel over apostolical succession, but they are at one as to
the need for cleansing cess pools and flushingsewers. It is in the fruitful
works of righteousness, in the practical realization of humanitarian
ideals, that the reunion of Christendom, and not of Christendom only,
is to be brought about.

Broadly speaking, the difference between the municipality and
the Civic church is that one deals solely with the enforcement of such
a minimum of cooperation as is laid down by act of parliament or
cong»-2ss, while t^ " ^ther seeks to secure conformity, not to the clauses
of a law, but to tnc higher standard which is fixed by the realizable as-
pirations of mankind for a higher life and a more human, not to say
divine, existence. The church lives forever in the realm of the ideal.
She labors in the van of human progress, educating the community up
to an ever-widening and expanding conception of social obligations.
As soon as her educational work is complete she hands over to the
state the performance of duties which formerly were exclusively dis-
charged by the church. Therelief of the poor, the establishment of hos-
pitals, the opening of libraries, the education of the children— all these
in former times were intrusted to the church. But as the c' iurch edu-

Bpiritiial
('iiunttTpiirt of
t li »• '{' (> w n
Comipil.

700

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Au Electoral
Center.

cated the people, these duties were transferred one by one to the care
of the state. The church did not, however, lose any of her respon-
sibilities in regard to these matters, nor did the transfer of her obliga-
tions to the shoulders of rate-paid officials leave her with a corre-
sponding lack of work to be performed. The duty of the church be-
came indirect rather than direct. Instead of relieving the poor, teach-
ing the young, caring for the sick, her duty was to see that the pub-
lic bodies who had inherited the responsibilities were worthy of their
position, and never fell below the standard either in morals, or in phi-
lanthropy which the church had attained. And in addition to the
duties, which may be styled electoral, the church was at once con-
fronted with a whole series of new obligations springing out of the ad-
vance made by the community in realizing a higher .social ideal. The
duty of the church is ever to be the pioneer of social progress, to be
the educator of the moral sentiment, so as to render it possible to
throw upon the whole community the duties which at first are neces-
sarily borne exclusively by the elect few.

There is little doubt that in any English or American city the good
people could rule if they would take as much trouble to organize and
work for the victory of justice, honesty, purity and righteousness as the
bad people take to secure the rule of the rum seller and the dust con-
tractor. Hut where arc they to find their organizing central point?
They can only find it in the Civic church, the establishment of which
in every community is indcspcnsable, if the forces which make for
righteousness and progress arc to have their rightful ascendancy in
the governance of our cities.

The Civic church would of necessity become an electoral cen-
ter, what may be described as a moral caucus, created for the purpose
of making conscience supreme in the government of the affairs of
the town.

First and foremost, the Civic church would, wherever it was power-
ful, render absolutely impossible the nomination of candidates notori-
ously dishonest and immoral.

Secondly, the Civic church, on the eve of every election, could
and would stir up all the aftiliated churches to appeal to the best cit-
izens to regard the service of the municipality as a duty which they
owe to God and man, and to all citizens to prepare for the ballot with
a due sense of *lie religious responsibility of the exercise of citizenship.
The Civic church could also bring almost irresistible pressure to bear
to prevent the coercion, the corruption and the lying which are at
present so often regarded as cxcu.sable, if not legitimate, methods of
influencing elections.

Thirdly, there are always in all elections certain great moral issues
upon which all good men agree of whatever party they may be. But
as these issues seldom affect, except adversely, the pockets of wealthy
and powerful interests, they arc ignored. The Civic church would
bring them to the front and keep them there. All that is needed is
that the professedly religious men should be as resolute to pull the

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUG/ONS.

7(}7

wires for the kinffclom of heaven as irreligious men are to roll Io^^j
for the benefit of the ffaminjf hell or the \^\n shop.

II. Its Social Functions. The duty of the Civic church is to
inspire and direct t<:.inkin(l in all matters pertaininj^ to the ri^ht con-
duct of life, the amelioration of the condition of the people and the
progressive development of a more perfect social system. Much of
this work is no doubt i)erformed already more or less imperfectly b)-
cxistinjT orf^anizations. iiut without reflecting in the least upon the
zeal, intelligence and devotion of those who have borne the heat and
labor of the day, is there one among the most earnest of the labcjrers
who would not confess in the bitterness of his soul how often he was
hampered and crippled in his besteffcjrts by the absence of any gen-
eral conception of the plan of operati(jns and the difficulty of securing
the co-operation of tlujse who agree ab(nit the needs of this life,
because they cannot agree about tliC number or shape of the steps that
lead up to the portals of heaven?

The best way in which this truth can be brought out into clear
relief is to take the life of man from the cradle to the grave, and in a
rapid and necessarily most incomplete survey, to point out objects
which command the undivided suppcjrt of all men of all religions, and
which, therefore, could be much more efficiently pursued in common
or in concer'; than by the isolated and independent action of a multi-
tude of sma'il organizations. In making Lhis survey I do not attempt
to draw up any scheme of ideal perfec'.ion. I rigidly confine myself
to noticing the best that has already been attained by the most
advanced civilizations, or by the most progressive citizens. I frame
my Civic church programme strictly on the principle (jf leveling up.
What the m<jst forward have already attained can be in time attained
by the most backward. It is all a ([uestion of the rate of progress.
That rate is likely to be accelerated by nothing so much as by display-
* ing before the eyes of the laggards in the rear a bird's-eye view of the
positions occupied in advance by the pioneers of the race. Hence 1
claim no originality fortlie programme of the Civic church. Absolute
originality is not for federations, which of necessity must not advance
beyond the solid ground of verified experiment and ascertainerl fact.
As the Civic clunxh is in advance of the state, so the individual reformer
is ever in advance of the Civic church. The heretic always leads the
van. What the Civic church can do is to generalize for the benefit of
all the advantages which have hitherto been confined to the few.

I begin with the infant; everything begins with the infant. And
the Civic church begins with the infant before his birth. The first
doctrine of the Civic church, as I conceive it, is an urgent insistence
upon the infinite responsibility of parentage, and especially of paternity.
Every child has a right to be well born of healthy parents with legiti-
mate status, and no child ought to be born into the world unless his
parents have the means and the opportunity to provide him adequately
with food, clothing, shelter and education.

When the child comes to the birth, there is at every step need for

1 1 H Hocial

PuQUtioDH.

768

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUGIONS.

' .

il'f

«;!

l\i

, 1

i:f:

Prevention of
Cruelty to Chil-
dren.

the watchful care of the church. The question of foundling hospitals
is one on which much may be said. If the great evil of the advent of
unwanted children were seriously grappled with, need for such
institutions would dwindle to a minimum. At present, with the sub-
ject ignored by the churches, the community that closes the foundling
hospital with one hand opens the murderous baby farm with the
other.

When the child is born it needs nourishment, and the supply of
good milk cheap is one of the first necessities of its existence. I well
remember Thomas Carlyle speaking to me with much sad bitterness of
the change that had come over the rural districts of Scotland in his
lifetime. "Nowadays," he said, "the poor bairns cannot get a sup of
milk to their porridge. The whole of the milk is sent off to town,
and the laborer's child gets none. The result is that they are brought
up on slops, and the breed decays." A little thought might have se-
cured the peasantry against this loss of their natural means of subsist-
ence, but the church does not take thought for such trifles. The lairds
.uid the large farmers sent the milk to the best market, and the chil-
dren of the men who tilled their land had to do without. To deprive
children of milk is simply infanticide at one or two removes.

The prevention of cruelty to children is surel)' one of the good
works upon which the Civic church could agree without one dissen-
tient voice. The fact that in all our cities a certain number of chil-
ilren are annually tortured to death by starvation, blows and all man-
ner of hideous brutalities, is unfortunately but too well attested by the
reports of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

So we may go on. From the infant we come to the child. Here
we have a constantly extending field for the intelligent activity of the
Civic church. Every child ought to be protected against the exploita-
tion of his life until he is at least thirteen years of age. That is the
child's learning time. To put him to work before then is to compel
him to live on his capital, and to impoverish him for the rest of his
life. The whole influence of the Civic church vv'ould be thrown into
the scale in favor of postponing child labor until at least thirteen
years had been allowed in which to grow and play and learn. It is
only within very recent times and only in some countries that children
of tender years have ceased to be regarded as the legitimate chattels
of their parents. The spectacle of some streets swarming after dark
with child venders of newspapers, matches, etc., is a melancholy re-
flection upon the civilization that necessitates such an ir '^'olation of
childhood.

If exemption from being driven to mine and factory and the work-
shop until after thirteen years of age be the first clause in the chil-
dren's charter, the second is the provision of places in which to play.
To the young child a playground is more important than a school-
room. But in most cities the street with all its dangers, or the gutter
with all its filth, is the only playground of the child. Within five min-
utes from every door there should be the counterpart of the village

wt
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bol

ncf

Tlf

ni[

orl

bul

saf

thi

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

green, where the little toddlers could roll and frolic without dread of
the wheels of the van or the rush of the street. A few great parks at
great intervals are no substitute for the playground close at hand.
And as there' should be public playgrounds open to all in fine weather,
so there should be public playrooms under cover, lighted and warmed,
lor use in wet weather or in winter. The Civil church could do much
in this way. There are plenty of odd corners and empty sites that
might be utilized for playgrounds if there were but a public body
ready to take the matter in hand, and in the empty but spacious halls
of our board schools there is, in- the evening at least, ample playing
room for the children of our cities. But all these things require direc-
tion, organization, and the cooperation of all existing agencies. How
can these be secured save by the Civic church?

After a place to play in, the child needs most a place to learn in.
And it will be well if the first schoolroom can be made as much of a
playing place as possible. In the advocacy of the more extended use
of the method of the kindergarten the church could lift from many
a weary little head a burden which it was never intended to bear.
Education for young children can be made a delight instead of, as too
often it is at present, being made a torture. The whole question of
the efficiency of education in school, in all its stages, can never be
absent from the thought of the Civic church. This involves no med-
dlesome interference with the proper function of the school board.
But it does involve a constant encouragement to the best members of
the school board to press on to the attainment of the highest possible
efficiency.

In the case of orphans, and children who are in a special manner
the children of the state, ..nere is everywhere noticeable absence of
systematic, comprehensive action. Here and there private philanthro-
pists will found orphanages, or a single church, like Mr. Spurgeon's,
will und'^'-*-''ke to provide for the fatherless; but the Civic church will
have to be created before the duty of caring for the orphan will be
adequately performed. There is an almost universal agreement among
the best authorities that children left to the guardians are much better
boarded out than brought up in the workhouse taint. But how many
workhouses teem with children, and how often the timid proposals of
the reformer for making a change in this respect are baffled by the vis
inertia of prejudice and use and wont? VVhether the children are
boarded out or massed together in the workhouse, there is a constant
need for the healthful, life-giving influence oi loving supervisors.
These children are the natural objects of the mother love that is run-
ning to waste in the community. The heart of many a childless wife
or lonely old maid would be filled with gladness and joy if they could
but be taught to mother the orphan family in the union. But a thou-
sand obstacles are placed in their way, and there is no Civic church
to constantly urge this mothering of the motherless children upon
the attention of the unemployed women of the middle class.

Toys and picture books are needed. Mr. Labouchcre in London,

Edacation for
YoangChildten

770

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS 01- RELIGIONS.

ScholarahipB
tor Youths.

l: :!

m \-

through the columns of Truth, does more to supply this need than all
the churches, although I am glad to say that toy services are now be-
coming more common. Why should not the superfluity of the well-
to-do nurseries be utilized for the benefit of the children of the com-
munity? Every one agrees that it would be well to do this. But how
to get it done is the question, and, short of the creation of the Civic
center which would exercise a kind of philanthropic Episcopate over
the whole community, I see no other resource.

When the child grows up and attains the status of a youth, the
widening temptations of life widen the field of usefulness for the Civic
church. The provision of a system of scholarships, by which the
most capable youths of either sex should be assisted in obtaining the
best education which school or university can afford, is no dream of
the visionary idealist. Such provision is made here and there. It
would be the duty of the Civic church to make it universal. The en-
dowments intended ibr the poor, now monopolized by the rich, need
to be reclaimed for their rightful owners. Every community should
have a complete system of graded schools through which the scholar
should be passed, from the kindergarten to the university. Endow-
ments should be divided equally between the sexes, instead of being
distributed on the principle that to him that hath shall be given, while
from her that hath not shall be taken even that which she has.

Every town should have its branch of the home reading union,
and every school its recreative evening classes. Provision should be
made of quiet classrooms where the student could pursue the studies
which would be impossible amid the distractions of a crowded room.
Playing fields, available for cricket, football, hockey and lawn tennis,
should be preserved with jealous care in the heart of every urban com-
munity. Opportunities for learning to swim, and if possible to boat,
should be provided in every center of population. Regular field clubs
and garden associations should be formed, in order to develop a taste
for natural history and a love of flowers. And in winter, when out-
door pursuits are impossible, there should be in every district a warm
and well-lighted popular drawing room, where the young people could
meet for social purposes, instead of being confronted with the alterna-
tives of the street or the music hall. The youth of every town needs
the gymnastic classes and all the conveniences of the polytechnic o»
the people's palace. But who is to secure this? The individual is at.
powerless as the isolated church or chapel. It requires the combined
action of all the philanthropists of the community to secure these
advantages for the young. But the organizing center as yet does not
exist.

The Civic church will seek to enforce the law where it exists,
and to sti'engthen it where it is faulty and inadequate. But in secur-
ing the teaching of temperance in schools it need not appeal to the
law; it only needs to educate those who are intrusted with the control
of the education of the people.

The need for technical education for the youth of both sexes, al-

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

t 4

though generally recognized, is almost as generally neglected. The
old technical education of the household enjoyed by our grandmothers
is vanishing fast; the new generation is growing up uninstructed in
the household arts, liut who will press forward the consideration of
these subjects?

The homing of the youth in our great cities, the making of pro-
vision for the young man and young woman from the country who
find themselves suddenly launched into the midst of a wilderness of
houses, all peopled by unsympathetic strangers — there is a vast field
for religious and philanthropic endeavor. The home is the great
nursery of all the virtues and all the amenities of life. How to create
substitutes for the.home for the benefit of the dishomed, this is one of
the problems which the Civic church might profitably press upon the
attention of all the churches.

As I go on unfolding page after page of the endless seiies of
philanthropic activities in which the Civic church might play the lead-
ing part, I marvel at the immensity of the humanitarian effort that is
demanded, but I marvel still more at the silence of so many of our
pulpits and the indifference of so many of our churches to the press-
ing needs of the human race. My heart stirs within me when I con-
template the innumerable good causes of our own time which urgently
and clamantly demand the attention of religious men, and I contrast
with these needs the arid and empty dialectic which does duty for a
sermon in maiiv of our pulpits. Instead of being the leader in all
good works, the director-general of the world-transforming crusade,
the religious teacher has often dwindled into a mere ecclesiastical Mr.
Fribble, who drivels through twenty minutes of more or less polished
inanity, and then subsides into complacent silence, feeling that he has
clone his duty. Meanwhile the hungry sheep look up and are not fed,
and humanity bereft of its natural leaders wanders aimlessly about in
the wilderness of sin, seeking guidance everywhere and finding it not.
Nor will it find it until by the reconstitution of the Civic church we
create once more a center of inspiration and of counsel around which
will gather all the energy and enthusiasm that exist in the community
for the realization of our social ideals.

The field is white unto the harvest and the laborers are few. And
of those who have entered their names as laborers, how many are there
who are twiddling their thumbs over more or less aimless inanities
and ecclesiastical twaddle?

So far, I have but described the work which the Civic church might
do in the service of the young. I have said nothing concerning the
work that awaits it in relation to the adults. To describe that even in
the most cursory fashion would need a volume. But lest any should
say that I have shirked the most important part of my subject, I will
jot down, without any pi-^tense at exhaustive or scientific definition,
some of the services which the Civic church might render to the adult
citizen often in connection with existing institutions. In drawingup this
formidable catalogue of labors that await this modern Hercules, I

Technical Ed-
ucatiuD.

772

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Ooneral Ben-
•flu.

strictly confine myself to indicating useful work which has been ac-
complished in some places, and which, pendinjj the intervention of
the state, can be accomplished everywhere by the efforts of some such
voluntary aj^cncy as the Civic church.

Such are a few of the subjects upon which the community needs
guidance, which the Civic church would be constantly needed to give.
There is hardly a community in which some progress has not been
made by individvals, or by churches, or by other societies, in the solu-
tion of the problems to which I have briefly alluded. Hut in no
community is there any organized effort to secure for all the citizens
all the advantages which have been secured for a favored few here and
there. What is wanted is a Civic center which will generalize for the
benefit of all the results obtained by isolated workers. The first desid-
eratum is to obtain a man or woman who can look at the community
as a whole, and who will resolve that he or she. as the case may be,
will never rest until they bring up the whole community to the stand-
ard of the most advanced societies. Such a determined worker has
the nucleus of the Civic church under his own hat; but, of course, if
he is to succeed in his enterprise, he must endeavor by hook or by
crook to get into existence some federation of the moral and religious
forces which would be recognized by the community as having author-
ity to speak in the name and with the experience of the Civic church.
Tlic work will, of necessity, be tentative and slow. I-'or do I dream of
evolving an ideal collective Humanitarian Episcopate en democr.'itic
lines all at once. Hut if the idea is once well grasped by the right
I'lan or woman it will grow. The necessities of mankind will foster it,
and all the forces of civilization and of religion will work for the estab-
lishment of the Civic church.

I
I

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■Ii

IM;

Xhe World's Debt to A^^erica.

Paper by MRS. CELIA P. WOOLEY, of Chicago.

M ERICA at once suffers and is proud when
any comparison is made between herself anil
older countries in mental productivity, for the
mental life with her has manifested itself thus
far more in a higher average of general intel-
ligence and culture than in any great creative
work or genius. When we try to measure her
contribution to the religious life fjy the side
of that of Asia or Europe, we note at once
those inevitable and marked differences which
must reveal themselves betueen a country so
young as ours and such older forms of civili-
zation as are represented in the names of Zoroaster,
Buddha, Confucius, Moses, or those types of culture
of less ancient date which the names of I lomer and Soc-
Jp'/ rates, .scneca and I'etrarch have made illustrious.

^ The religious growth of these older climes runs back

into the dim beginning of time. We trace it through vol-
umes of myth, legend and song, which the adoration of ages have ele-
vated to the rank of Scripture, each an expression of the same human
need and longing, equally divine in origin, a permanent contribution
to the world's spiritual treasures. All that the past has of legend
therein, of wisdom and lore, of beautiful myth or fable, aspiring hymn
or prayer, or elaborate ceremony or ritual embodying these, is outs,
here in latter-day America, as historical bequest rather than in-
digenous growth and possession.

America did not spring fully equipped from the brain of omnipo-
tent might and wisdom, as Minerva did, but she was nevertheless
Trown up when she began. We are in the same line of general in-
leritancc as that of England, from which wo separated ourselves one
lundred years ago, but spiritually this line ot iiil^oritance runs much
farther back to far-off Aryan sources with special nourishment of an-
other sort in the Hebrew Bible, in which we have been trained, so that
religiously we are .Semitic as well as Aryan, and may claim cousinship
with the representatives of the most distant faiths on this platform.

773

HiHtorical
Request.

774

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

lion.

The world, it must be admitted at the outset, owes but little to
America for that wealth of traditions which lies at the roots of its
religious life, as it owes almost as little for that mass of doctrinal liter-
ature which marks a latL-r stajjc of development. In deep poetic per-
ception of the ^^reat truths relating to God and the soul of man, the
seer's trust and knowledge in all or nearly all that belongs to the wor-
ship side of n'lit,Mon, we are more indebted to Asia and to that dreamy
mystic, all-surveying mind she produces, than to any other single
source.
Great LoBson "One of the great lessons which India teaches is introspection,"

of introBpec- said Mr. Mozoomclar the other day, "by which man beholds the spirit
of God in his own heart." And again, " Asiatic philosophy is the
philosophy of tiie si)irit, the philosophy of the supreme substance, not
of phenomena alone." "With us orientals, worship is not a mere duty;
it is an instinct, a longing, a passion."

Coming farliier west, we have to acknowledge a debt as vast and
more tangible. In lunope religious thought grew less diffused, subtle
and profound, but more active. Celtic and Teutonic brains .^ecreted
blood and nerve currents of a livelier order than Egypt or Persia
could supply; a harsher climate demanded constant exercise of body
and minil, compelling thought to more practical issues. Looked at
from one point of view, Christianity appears but one long theological
warfare, a record of innumerable battles of sword and pen; but a record
more fairly described as one long, grand intellectual conquest, in which
the devout and liberty-loving heart of man has continually gained new
triumph over those twin foes of the human mind, ignorance and
tyranny. Here was the arena of the world's greatest mental struggles.

Europe also had her mine of religious myth and tradition, lying
back of the period of Christian culture; a living juice, pure and strong
as the native mead of her sturdy northern tribes, which, unlike the
lotos blossom of the East, had no power to soothe or enervate, but
rather stimulated to wild excess. Hack among the worship of Thor
and Odin we find those ideas of personal independence and integrity
which have made our western civilization what it is. Man is a creature
of action, not of contemplation, who must struggle to live. Out of this
struggle the race began to evolve its first ideal of true selfhood. In the
home, the state, the church, this struggle of evolving selfhood went on.

In the Iv'ist man had dreamed of an ideal of perfect wisdom and
goodness until all other desires merged into one, tp unite himself with
that ideal, to realize and possess God, Nirvana, reabsorption into the
infinite. Heaven was attained through longing, not through will. But
the occidental mind likes to have a hand in the creation of its own
benefit, to help build its own heaven.

A regenerated and active will became the first requisite of a re-
ligious life. The merits of a life study and contemplation still re-
mained, as the various monastical institutions of Europe testified.
Nearly all were derived from non-Christian origin" but the genius of
the new time found incomplete expression in the cloister and cell and

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

775

truer exercise in camp and court. The mind of man was fully
awake. Religious devotion now took the form of religious dialectics;
spiritual culture gave way to spiritual instruction. It was no longer
enough for the soul to live in contemplation of itself; to religious being
must be added that other idea derived from the new Gospel, religioi s
doing: "Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve!"

In a sense, religion hardened and narrowed during this period. It
was the age of the theologians and the creed-makers, but it was also
the age of the religious missionaries. Man had never felt his respon-
sibility in matters of faith as now. This missionary spirit belonged, in
a degree, to all the great ethnic systems preceding Christianity— we
know that Buddha came from a high position to save mankind, as
Jesus was raised from a low one — yet it must be admitted that it finds
wider illustration in the later era.

To A.sia, then, the sentiment of religion; to Europe, its conviction
or dogma. It is to the civilization of Galileo, Dante, Calvin, Rous-
seau, Voltaire, Bacon, Newton, Darwin and Huxley that we are chiefly
indebted for the thought life of religion. All was action on the mate-
rial and mental planes until one continent no longer afforded sufficient
outlet for the seething heart and brain of man, the new impulses and
ideas taking shape everywhere in the social and religious world.

Religious belief and aspiration, religious conviction and devotion,
had been bestowed by the old world, the power to feel and to think;
but there arose in time another need which neither the tropical imag-
ination of one continent nor the busy intellect of another could
supply. With power to think must go room to think. Man had gained
some theoretical knowledge of liberty in the old world, a vision of the
promised land, but he yearned for a chance to apply the knowledge.
With all his powers alive and eager for action, where was the field?
Nowhere, but in an unknown land across an unchartered sea.

The world's religious debt to America is defined in one word, op-
portunity. The liberty men had known only as a distant ideal now
reached the stage of practical experiment. It is true, if we try to esti-
mate this debt in less abstract terms, we shall find we have made a
special contribution of no mean degree in both men and ideas. We
have had our theologians of national and worldwide fame, men of the
highest learning their age afforded, of consecrated lives and broad
understanding.

There were the Mathers, Edwardses and Higginsons of the earlier
days, one of whom plainly declared that New England was "a planta-
tion of religion, not of trade." These and others like them were men,
as one writer has described, " who felt themselves to be in personal
covenant with God, like Israel of old, who framed their state as a
temple and invited the Eternal to rule over them, whose state assem-
bly was a church council, whose voters were church members, only
voters because members, only citizens because saints."

Along with these rigid disciplinarians were believers of a gentler
order, like Anne Hutchinson, Roger Williams, Dr. Hopkins, and later

AKi'of Crcetl-
makcrti,

Defined i n
oiH> Word— Op-
portunity

'B ^*

111

IiiHtinrt
Freedom.

776

T//E H'OKLirS CONG HESS OF RF.I.IGIONS.

the Nortons and Dr. Channiiipr. We have had our clear, bold teachers
of the word, of {rolden-inouthed fame like Chrysostom of old, our
Whitcfields, Lyman Beechers, Father Taylors, Theodore Parkers and
Dwight L. Moodys, each of whom stands for some new "great awak-
ening" of the spiritual life. Hut each of these stands for a fresh and
stronger utterance for a principle or method of thought already well
understood rath'*r than for any original discovery.

The discovery of America did not so much mark the era of higher
discoveries in the realm of ideas as it provided a chance for the appli-
cation of these ideas. The conditions were new, the experiment of
self-government was new, under which all the lesser experiments in
religious faith and practice were carried on, but the thing to be tried,
the ideal to be tested, that was well understood. They knew what
they wanted, those stanch, daring ancestors of ours.

It would be hard to say when or where the gift of liberty was first
bestowed on man. Prof. John Fiske, in his " Discovery of Amer-
ica," shows how, after repeated experiments and failures, each leading to
the final triumph, no one statjding for that triumph alone — this discov-
ery was, in his words, " not a single event, but a gradual process." .Still
more are the moral achievements of mankind " gradual |)rocesses," not
" single events."

The instinct of freedom is part of nature's savage and beast-life
progeny, a caliban of the cave and wilderness. Could we read the
pages of man's prehistoric progress .is readily as the others -and we
arc learning to read them — we should find the record of as many strug-
gles in behalf of mental integrity and personal rights there as elsewhere.
In the historic periods we have learned little more than how to mark
the times and places in which this struggle culminated; we can name
the captains of the ho.st; we know where a Moses, a Socrates, a Jesus, a
Washington, a Lincoln belong, but the principle fo«- which each of
these worked and died, is older than the oldest, older tlian time itself,
its source being less human than cosmic.

To say, therefore, that America's contribution to the race lies less
in the principle of liberty than the opportunity to test and apply this
principle is to say enough. Whatever the religious consciousness of
man gained was ours to begin with. This adult stage of thought in
which our national life began deprived us of many of those poetic and
picturesque elements which belong to earlier forms of thought. The
faith of the new world being Protestant, aggressively and dogmatically
Protestant at times, felt itself obliged to dispense with the large body
of stored ind storied literature gathered by mother church, and
thus impoverished itself in the effective presentation of the truths it
held so dear. Our New England forefathers were very distrustful of
this so-called poetic and picturescpie side of life. They had seen the
selfishness and corruption of the court of Charles II upheld in the
name of grace and good manners, had seen honest opinion scorned and
publiciy murdered in defense of order and respectability, had seen
religion and the Bible made the excuse for war, lust and tyranny,

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

777

until sham and oppression in all their forms had ^rown hateful to
them and a passion for reality tilled their hearts.

It has been well said that the Puritan ideal was allied to the Israel-
itish; in both we find the same stern insistence on practical ri},diteous-
ness as a fundamental requirement of the reIi},'ious life. It was a
fundamental overlaid with a mass of hard and ilreary dnitrine,
of weary speculation on themes impossible for the human intelli ct to
grasp, but through it all burned and glowed the moral ideal. The
religious man must be the good man. He might be a harsh or narrow
man, he might not be a dishonest or impure man. He might, in the
cause of (iod, burn witches or whip Quakers, but he must pay iiis debts,
.send his children to school, be a good neighbor and citi/en; his sins
were of an abstract order, springing from mistaken notions of (iod's
government on earth and his share in it as God's vicegerent; his
virtues were personal and his own. Personal integrity — this was the
root of the Puritan ideal in public and private life, one which this H'Kf't;
nation must continue to ob.serve if it would prosper, which will prove
its sure loss and destruction to ignore,

VVehear agreatdealin the present day about an "ethical religion,"
an "ethical basis in religion," the "ethical element in religion," jjlirases
that well define the main modern tiMulency in the evolution of a new
religious ideal. Ikit this ethical element in religion, like the principle
of mental freedom to which it is allied, is less an absolute ami new dis-
cov<;ry of our own age and country than a restatement of a truth long
understood. We find struggling witnes.ses of one or the other far back
in the earliest period of human history, and at every one of tliosi- his-
toric points at which we note a fresh affirmation of the prin(:i])lc of
freedom we find new and stronger emphasis laiil upon the moral import
of things. Hand in hand those two ideals of heavenly Ijirtli, frecii iin
and goodness, have led the steps of man down the tortuous path of
theological experiment and trial out under the blue open of a pure and
natural religion. Natural religion! Where upon all the green expanse
of this our earth, under the wide dome of sky that hangs inojectingly
over every part of it, can so fitting a place for the practical demonstra-
tion of such a religion be found as now and here in our loved and free
America? This is not said in reproach or criticism of any other land,
but in just command and exhortation to ourselves. Where, .xcept
under republican rule, can the experiment so well be tried of a personal
religion, based on no authority but that of the truth, finding its sanc-
tion in the human heart, demonstrating itself in deeds of practical
helpfulness and good will?

How sadly will our boasted republic fail in its ideal if it realize
not in the near future this republic of mind. The principle of democ-
racy, once accepted, runs in all directions. Religion is fast becoming
democratized in these days. If America is to present the world with a
new type of faith it must be as inclusive as those principles of human
brotherhood on which her political institutions rest and embody a great
deal of Yankee conmion sense. Its sources of supply will be as various

I'lTHriiml III.

Rt'lifion llo-
ooiiiiiiK Dom-
oorutized.

ammitM,.v^

778

T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

('')■'

Knowledge
(MiniiiK upon
I(!iioriin(!e.

r>i.

as the needs and activities of the race. If Ralph Waldo Emerson is
to be named one of its prophets Thomas Edison must be counted
another.

If the world's reli.L;ious debt to America lies in this thought of
opportunity, or religion applied, it is a debt the future will disclose
more than the past has disclosed it. If ours is the opportunity, ours is
still more the obligation. Privilege does not go without responsibility;
where much is bestowed, much is required. If a new religious ideal,
based on the unhindered action of the mind in the search for truth
with no fear but of its own wrong doing, justifying itself only as an aid
to human virtues and happiness — if such a faith were to be evolved
here and by us, how proud our estate.

But such a faith when evolved, even as we see it evolving today,
will not be the product of one age or people, nor is it a result the
future alone is to attain. Its roots will search ever df>eper into the
past, not in timorous enslavement, but for true nounsnment, as its
branches will stretch toward skies of growing beauty and emprise.
Alike Pagan and Christian in source, it will be more than either Pagan
or Christian in result, for a faith to be universally applied must be
universally derived.

From the heart of man to the heart of man it speaketh. It is this
natural religion, springing from one human need and aspiration, which
binds our hearts together here today and will never let them be wholly
loosed from each other again. How pale grows the phantom of a
partial religion, the religion of intellectual assent, before the large,
sweet and comprehensive spirit that has ruled in the.se halls ! How
strong and beautiful the disclosing figure of that coming faith that
owns but two motives, love of God and love to man !

"We need not travel all around the world to know that every-
where the sky is blue," said Goethe. We need not be Buddhists, Par-
sees, Mohammedans, Jews and Christians in turn and all the little
Christians besides, Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians and Unitarians,
to know that in each and all God is choosing His own best way to dem-
onstrate Himself to the hearts of His children. Knowledge gaining
slowly upon ignorance, truth upon error, goodness steadily gaining
new power to heal the world's wickedness and misery, man overcoming
himself, growing daily in the divine likeness, not into which he was
born, but which he was born to attain — thus the soul's life proceeds
wherever found, by the Indus or the Nile, the shores of the Mediter-
ranean or in the valley of the Mississippi, whether it prays ui the
name of Jesus or of Cyrus, wears black or yellow vestments.

"The World's Religious Debt to America! " Measure as large an
actual accomplishment or future possibility and desire as our fondest
fancy or most patriotic wish can fashion it, there is a debt larger than
this, one which will grow larger still with time, which we acknowledge
with glad and grateful hearts today, and can never discharge, and that
is America's religious debt to the world.

Qhristianity and ^volution.

Paper by PROF. HENRY DRUMMOND, of Glasgow, Scotland.

O more fitting; theme could I)c i .losen for
discussion at this con54rcss tiiaii the re-
lation of Christianity to evolution, liy
evolution I do not mean Darwinism,
which is notyet proved, norSi)encerism,
which is incomplete, nor Weismann-
ism, which is in the hottest fires of crit-
icism, but evolution as a ^reat category
of thought, as the supreme word of the
nineteenth century. More than that, it
is the greatest generalization the world
has ever known. The mere presence of
this doctrine in science has reacted as
by an electric induction on every surround-
ing circle of thought. No truth can remain
now unaffected by evolution. We see truth as a
profound ocean still, but with a slow and ever-rising tide. The-
ology must reckon with this tide. We can stir this truth in our
vessels for the formulation of doctrine, but the formulation of doc-
trine must never stop; but the vessels with their mouths open must
remain in the ocean. If we take them out the tide cannot rise in
them, and we shall only have stagnant doctrines rotting in a dead the-
ology.

The average mind looks at science with awe. It is the breaking
of a fresh seal. It is the one chapter of the world's history with which
he is in d()ul)t. What it contains for Christianity or against it he
knows not. What it will do or undo he cannot tell. The problems to
be solved are more in number and more intricate than were ever known
before, and he waits almost in excitement for the ne.xt development.
And yet this attitude of Christianity is as free from false hope as it is
free from false fear.

The idea that religion is to be improved by reason of its relation
with science is almost a new thing. Religion and science began the
centuries hand in hand. And after a long separation we now ask what

Tr.ith in Its
Relation to Ev-
olution.

ReliKion ami

contributions has science to bestow? What God-given truths is science fnBUmd. *"

779

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T//£ IVOR ID'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

bringing now to lay at the feet of our Christ? True, science is as much
the friend of true theology as any branch of truth, and in all the struij-
gles between them in the past they have both come out of the struggles
enriched, purified and enlarged.

The first fact to be registered, is that evolution has swept over
the doctrine of creation and left it untouched except for the better.
Science has discovered how God made the world. Fifty years ago
Darwin wrote in dismay to Hooker that the old theory of specific
creation, that God made all species apart and introduced them into
the world one by one, was melting away before his eyes. One of the
last books on Darwinism, that of Alfred Wallace, says in its ojjcning
chapter these words: " The whole scientific and literary world, even
the whole educated public, accepts as a matter of common knowledge
the origin of species from other allied species by the ordinary proces-
ses of natural birth." Theology, after a period of hesitation, accepts
this version. The hesitation was not due to prejudice, but for the ar-
rival of the proof.

The doctrine of evolution, no one will assert, is yet proved. It will
be time for theolog)' to be unanimous when science is unanimous. li
science is satisfied in a general way with its theory of evolution as the
method of creation, assent is a cold word with which those whose busi-
ness it is to know and love the ways of God should welcome it. The
theory of evolution fills a gap at the very beginning of our religion. As
to its harmony with the question or the theory about the book of Gen-
esis, it may be that theology and science have been brought into per-
fect harmony, but the era of the reconcilers is to be looked uj)on as
past. That was a necess.irj' era.

Genesis was not a scientific but a religious book, and, there being
no science there, theologians put it there, and their attempt to recon-
cile it would seem to be a mistake. Genesis is a presentation of one
or two great elementary truths of the childhood of the world. It can
only be read in the spirit in which it was written, with its original pur-
pose in view, and its original audience. Its object was purely relig-
ious, the point l)eing not how certain things were made, which is a
question for science, but that (iod made them. The book was not
(ledicated to science but to the soul. The misfortune is that there is
no one to announce in the name of theology that the controversy be-
tween science and religion is ;it an end.

Involution has swept over the religious conception of origins and
left it untouched except for the better. Th'.Muethod of creation, the
question of origin is another. There is only one theory of creation in
the field, and that is evolution. Involution has discovered nothing new
and professLs to know nothing new. Involution, instead of being op-
posed to creation, assumes creation. Law is not the cause of the t)rder
of the V. orld, but the expression of it. Involution only professes to
offer an account of the development of the worLl; it does not offer to
account for it. Tliis is wV <■ Professor Tyndal said:

"When I stand in tlK■^.p^ingtime ami look upt)n the bright foliage,

III

t; ,,

l^HE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

781

the lilies in the field, and share the general joy of opening life, I have
often asked myself whether there is any power, any being or thing in
the universe whose knowledge of that of which I am so ignorant is
greater than mine. I have said to myself, can it be possible that man's
knowledge is the greatest knowledge, that man's life is the highest
life. My friends, the profession of that atheism with which I am
sometimes so lightly charged would, in my case, be an impossible
answer to this question." And more pathetically later, in connec-
tion with the charge of atheism, he said: "Christian men are
proved by their writings to have their hours of weakness and
of doubt, as well as their hours of strength and conviction,
and men like myself share in their own way these variations of
mood and sense. I have noticed during years of self-observation that
it is not in hours of clearness and of vigor that this iloctrinc commends
itself to my mind— it is in the hours of stronger and healthier thought
that it ever dissolves and disappears as offering no solution to the mys-
tery in which we dwell and of which we form a part."

Some of the protests of science against theism arc directed not
against true theism, but against its superstitious and irrational forms,
which it is the business of science to question. What Tyndal calls a
fierce and distorted theism is as much the enemy of Christianity as of
science; and if science can help Christianity to destroy it, it docs well.
What we have really to fight against is both unfounded belief and un-
founded unbelief, and there is perhaps just as much of the one as of
the other floating in current literature. As Mr. Ruskin sa\s: "You
have to guard against the darkness of the two opposite jjrides — the
pride of faith, which imagines that the character of the Deity can be
proved by its convictions, and the pride of science, which imagines
that the Deity can be explained by its analysis." i may give in pass-
ing the authorized statement of a well-known fellow of the Royal
.S{)ciety of London, which, I need not remind you, is tlie rc|)resentative
party of British men of science. Its presidents are invariably men of
the first rank. This gentleman said:

" I have known the Hritish association under forty-one different
presidents, all leading men of science. On looking over those forty-
one names I count twenty, who, judged by their private utterances or
private communications, are men of Christian belief and ei'.aracter,
while, judging by the same test, I find only four who disbelitve in any
divine revelation. Of the remaining seventeen some lune possibly
been religious men and others ma\' ha\e been opponents, but it is fair
to suppose that the greater number have given no very serious thought
to the subject. The figures indicate that religious faith rather than
unbelief have characterized the leading mm t)f the association."

Instead of robbing the world of (iod science has clone more than
all the philosophies and natural tiieologies to sustain the theistic con-
c<^])ti')!i. It has made it im[)ossible for the workl to worship any other
Ciod. The sun and the moon and the stars have been found otit;
science has shown us exactly what they are. No man can worship
them any more.

ChriBtian
Men Pnivwl b.v
their WritinRB.

ill

'.SEIiiZ*'* ' '

i ii

iUMi

782

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Science Dem-
onstrates God.

New Series of
ThoDK>it«.

If science has not by searching found out God it has not found
any other God, nor anything else like a God that might continue to be
a conceivable and rational object of worship in a scientific age. If by
searching it has not <"ound God it has found a place for God, As
never before from the purely physical side o( things it has shown there
is room in the world for God. It has given us a more Godlike God.
The new energies in the world demand a will and an ever present will.
To science God no longer made the world and then withdrew; He per-
vades the whole. Under the old view God was anon-resident God and
an occasional wonder worker. Now He is always here.

It is certain that every step of science discloses the attributes of
the Almighty with a growing magnificence. The author of "Natural
Religion" tells us that "the average scientific man worships at present a
more awful and, as it were, a greater Deity than the average Christian."
Certain it is that the Christian view and the scientific view together
form a conception of the object of worship such as the world in its
highest inspiration never reached before. Never before have the
attributes of eternity and immensity and infinity clothed themselves
with language so majestic in its sublimity. Mr. Huxley tells us that
he would like to see a scientific Sunday-school established in every
parish. If this only were to be taught we should be rich indeed to be
qualified to be the teachers of those Sunday-schools.

One cannot fail to prophesy in view of the latest contributions of
science, that before another half century has passed there will be a
theological advance of moment. Under the new view the whole ques-
tion of the incarnation is beginning to assume a fresh development.
Instead of standing alone an isolated phenomenon, its profound rela-
tions to the whole sclieme of nature are opening up. The question of
revelation is undergoing a similar expansion. The whole order and
scheme of nature are seen to be only part of the manifold revelation
of God.

As to the specific revelations, the Old and New Testaments, evolu-
tion has already given the world what amounts to a new Bible. Its
peculiarity is, that in its form it is like the world in which it is found.
It is a word, but its root is now known, and we have other words from
the same root. Its substance is still the unchanged language of heaven,
yet it is written in a familiar tongue. This Hible is not a book which
has been made. It has grown. Hence it is no longer a mere word
book, nor a compendium of doctrines, but a nursery of growing truths.
Like nature, it has successive strata and valley and hill-top and
atmosphere, and rivers are flowing still, and here and there a place
which is a desert, and fossils whose crude forms are the stepping stones
to higher things. It is a record of inspired deed as well as of inspired
words, a scries of inspired facts in the matrix of human history. This
is not the product of any destructive movement, nor is this transformed
book in any . _ sc a mutilated Bible. All this change has taken place,
it may be. without the elimination of a book or the loss of an important
word. It is simply a translormation by a method whose main warrant
is that the book lends itself to it.

MI|II|)I|B|I

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RE.UGIONS.

Other questions are moving the world just now, but one has only
time to name them. The doctrine of immortality, the relation of the
person of Christ to evolution, and the operation of the Holy Spirit,
are attracting attention, and lines of new thought are already at the
suggestive stage, and among them not least in interest is the possible
contribution from science on some of the more practical problems of
theology, and the doctrine of sin. On the last point the suggestion
has been made that sin is probably a relic of the animal part, the unde-
stroyed residuum of the ianimal, and the savage ranks at least as an
hypothesis, and with proper safeguards, may one day yield some glim-
mering light to theology on its oldest and darkest problem. If this
partial suggestion — and at present it is nothing more— can be followed
out to any purpose the result will be of much greater than speculative
interest. For, if science can help us in anyway to know how sin came
into the world, it may help us better to know how to get it out.

A better understanding of its genesis and nature may modify, at
least, some of the attempts made to get rid of it, whether in a national
or individual life. But the time is not ripe to speak with more than
the greatest caution and humility of these still tremendous problems.
There is an intellectual covctousness abroad, which is neither the fruit
nor the friend of a scientific age. The haste to be wise, like the haste
to be rich, leads many to speculate in indifferent securities, and can
only end in fallen fortunes. Theology must not be bound up with such
speculations.

At the same time speculation must continue to be its life and its
highest duty. We are sometimes warned that the scientific method
has dangers, and are told not to carry it too far. But it is then after
all it becomes chiefly dangerous when we are warned not to carry it
too far. Apart from all details, apart from, the influence of modern
science on points of Christian theology, that to which most of us look
with eagerness and gratitude is its contribution to applied Christianity.
The true answer to the question, is there any conflict between Christi-
anity and theology, is that in practice, at all events, the two are one.

What is the object of Christianity? It is the evolving of men, the
making of higher and better men in a higher and better world. That
is also the object of evolution, vhat evolution has been doing since
time began. Christianity is the fi'rther evolution. It is an evolution
re-enforced with all the moral and spiritual forces that have entered
the world and cleaved to humanity through Jesus Christ. Beginning
with atoms and crystals, passing to plants and animals, evolution
finally reaches man. But unless it ceases to be a scientific fact it cannot
stop there. It must goon to include the whole man. and all the work
andjthought and life and aspiration of man; the great moral facts, the
moral forces, so far as they are proved to exist. The Christian con-
sciousness, so far as it is real, must come within its scope. Human
history is as much a part of it as natural history.

When ail this is included it will be seen that evolution, organic
evolution, is but the earlier chapter of Christianity, and that Christian-

(Wesa^c

r84

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

■X

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ity IS but the later evolution. There can be but one verdict then as to
rhriHtianity the import of evolution, as to its bearings on the individual life and
lution.''"^ *'^"' future of the race. The supreme message of science to this age is that
all nature is on the side of the man who tries to rise. Evolution, de-
velopment and progress are not only on her programme; these are her
programme. For all things are rising — all worlds, all planets, all stars,
all suns. An ascending energy is in the universe, and the whole moves
on with one mighty ideal and anticipation. Tne aspiration of the
human mind and heart is but the evolutionary tendency of the uni-
verse. Darwin's great discovery, or the discovery which he brought
into prominence, is the same as that of Galileo, that the world moves.
The Italian prophet says it moves from west to cast. The English
philosopher says it moves from low to high.

As in the days of Galileo, there are many now who do not see
that the world moves, men to whom the world is an cndle.ss plane, a
prison fi.xed in a purposeless universe, where untried prisoners await
their unknown fate. It is not the monotony of life that destroys; it is
the pointlessness. They can bear its weight; its meaninglessness
crushes them. The same revolution that the discovery of the axial
rotation of the earth effected in the world of physics, the doctrine of
evolution will make in the moral world. Already a sudden and mar-
velous light has fallen upon the earth. Evolution is less a doctrine
than a light. It is a light revealing in the chaos of the past a perfect
and growing order, giving meaning even to the confusion of the pres-
ent, discovering through all the denseness around us the paths to prog-
ress and flashing its rays upon the coming goal.

Men began to see an undivided ethical purpose in this material
world, a tide that from eternity has never turned, making to perfect-
ness, in that vast progression of nature, that vision of all things from
the first of time, moving from low to high, from incompleteness to
completeness, from imperfection to perfection. The moral nature
recognizes in all its height and depth the eternal claim upon itself —
wholeness and perfection to holiness and righteousness. These have
always been required of man, but never before on the natural plane
have they been proclaimed by voices so commanding or enforced by
sanctions so great and rational.

il!

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Rev. Thomas Ricbey, O. D.,aNew.York.

yhe Relations 3^^^^^^ ^^e Anglican

Qhurch and the C^^^^h of the

First Ages.

Paper by REV. THOMAS RICHEY, of the General Theological Seminary, of

New York.

HKN the Italian monk and missionary,
Aufjustinc, with tliirty companions,
was sent forth by Gregory the Great
to convert to the faith the Angles of
Britain, he found on reaching the
shores of Britain, in hiding owing to
the violence of its enemies, a regu-
larly organized Christian church, with
its own distinctive characteristics and
its own peculiar rites and ceremonies.
In the year 1215 the clergy, the
people, and the barons (jf England,
constituting the three great estates of
the realm, met together at Runne-
nietle and there they passed the great
act of Chartar, which remains unto
this day the bulwark of constitutional
liberljin England, the magna charta,
article of which reads: "The Church of
' shall be free and its rights and its pri\i-
leges shall be respected."

Three hundred years after, in the year 1532, the convocation of
the Church of England passed a resolution asking the king that the
relation which hitherto had made the claims of a foreign potentate to
prevail should no longer be acknowledged; and the year after, in
153^, the parliament of England declared that " the crown of luigland
is'imperial, and that England is con-titutcd a nation in itsrif to settle
all quebtioiib, both temporal and spintudl, and that il belongs to the

787

England

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jy/iE" HV ALU'S CONGKESS OF li ELI G IONS.

EpclesiBMtifH
Pre H e II t in
Councils.

spirituality comiiujiily called the Church of iMiglanci to declare and
ileteriniue all (jiiestious whatsoever may come before them without
appealing to any forei<;ii potentate."

The Church of ICnj^land first of all claims to be a witness, the
a^es all alonff, to that faith which the apostles left upon the earth,
unto the tratlition and the teachinffS of the early apostolic church.
The Church of J'Ji.<;Iand claims, in the second place, that she is, as a
national church, anil ever has been, the defender of the j^reat principle
of civil and relii,nous liberty. The Church of England cl.iims. in the
third place, that she is called, in the providence of Ciod, to be " the
healer of the breach" in the divisions of a divided Christendom.

We find at the coimcil of Aries, in the year 314, five lirilish eccle-
siastics present, the bishop of Carleon, the bishop of I.omlon and the
bishop of \'ork, with an attendant priest and deacon. We find also
that the emperor, when he called the council of Arininum thirty years
afterward, provided for the Hritish bishops to be present, when ihroui^di
their own poverty tluy were not able to meet the obligation. The
claim of the Chmch of l'".ngland is that, as she was thus ri-presented
in the councils of the church, as she took part by the authoritv of the
empire itself in the determining of the questions which belonged to
the settlement of the faith, that she from that day until now has been
the representative of the apostolic faith, of the apostolic traditions
and of the ap'stolic customs.

When in the )ear 603 Augustine first came into personal contact
with the Hritisii church he found that there were points of tlifference
between the church which he represented and the church as he found
it in Hritain, in Ireland (then called .Scotland), and in the church of
Columbanus, which aftervsard accomplished the great work of the
conversion of the I'icts and Scots. l''irst of all the Hritish church with
the .Scoto-Celtic church kept Master at a different time from the church
of the west. There was found to be again a difference in the mode of
administering the rite of baptism, the liritish church administering
the jite in one immersion, whereas, it was the custom of the R<jman
church to use three immersions. The Hritish church adopted one
method of tonsure and the Roman church adopted another. I..asll\-,
there was found to be a difference in the method of consecration, the
practice of the iiritish church being from the beginning to consecrate
by means of one bishop, whereas the Roman church, in accordance
with the N'icene canon, required three.

When these points of difference came up before the council of
WliitI))', the disciis.si(jn became one that afterward ended in the divis
ion of the two churches. The British church claimed its right accord
ing to its o\\ n mode of intercalation which it had practiced for twu
hundred and fifty years to celebrate Easter at its own time and refuse
the claim of another ct)mmunion to impose upon it a different obliga-
tion. The Scoto-Celtic church, in Ireland, when the (|uestioii was pre-
sented before it, had set aside the demand made by a foreign potentate
and foreign church to dictate a difference of time in the celebration ot

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUG/ONS.

rs<>

Knstcr offices; but still more, when the (luestioii took a wider raii;^e
aiul Coliimliaiuis in the year 519 went out to (iaul, we find tlial it i aine
into contact with the church in (iaul, and that tin: differences in the
mode of celehratinjf the I'.aster ofifice was made ;i j^round of rejection
of the ft)rei,tfn missionary- -that Columhamis called before the council
and also before lioniface IV, the rei^ninjf pope of the time, defended
the traditions of his fathers and refused to surreiuler his ('hristian
liberty. When asked who those persons were that had intruiled theni-
sehes into the church in Gaul, the answer was: "We are Irish from
the ends of the earth; our doctrine is that of the ;ii)ostIes and of the
evangelists. The Catholic faith we maintain, as it has been perpetu-
ated to us throu^di the succession of the apostles, and we know none
other." When the council in (iaul would not receive tlu' I'xplanation
L;iven by Columbanus, he was compelled to appeal to Jioniface
1\'. When he wrote to the bishop of Rome he claimed to be allowetl
to do his work in his own way, ;ind he claimed it under the second
canon of the council of Constantinople, in 3S1, which, ;>.fter declariiis^'
that no one l)ishop shall intrude into the jurisdiction i)f another, (.mi-
tered a decree that when amonj^ barbarians there was an\- difference
connected with tlu; administration of the Christian riles, liberty siioiild
I)e allowed and their claims should be acknowledged.

The claim which Columl)anus maile before Boniface l\' is the
claim which the ICiiLjlish church today ui)holds in defense of its own
('hristian libert\'. It needs no doctrine but tliat which it ha.-; received
from the apostles and the evanL,felists. It holds the (.'atholic faith as
it has been per[)etuated by succession from the fust ai^r^s until miw.
Ihit be\'ond that, in thin;4s that are not in their own nature; indiffeniit,
it will submit to no dictation, ami it will resist e\er\- effort to destro)'
the rights which ha\e been ij[i\'en it by our Lord Jesus Christ I limself.
When 1 le called 1 lisapostles 1 leleft ittothemselves under the Ljuidance
and dictation of the Holy .Spirit to adopt that line of polity tlie\-
should thid to be most necessary. 1 le prescribi-d no ritual, but I le left
it free to the men whom lie had chosen to adapt themsehes to dilTer-
eiit times and different circumstances in ordc-r that there should bi- no
oblijfation upon the council res;ardin^ those fundamental tliini;s which
are necessary to man's salvation. That principle the Church of I^ul;-
land has maintained, and ever shall maintain, as necessaryto the defense
of ('hristian liberty in thins^s which are belonj^inj^ to o!)liL;ations upon
the conscience.

Mr. (ireene, in his "Making' of l'^n_<^lan(l." has obserxed that it was
a happy circumstance that, at tlie council of Whitb\-, in 664. tlu; Church
of iMiLjlaiul liiil iu)t throw in its lij^ht with the .Scolo-(."eltic church
with all its ardent devotion and all its missionar}- enter[)rise, but nuule
the choice now that the door was open, to all>' itself with the' outside
world and above all with Rome as the _<,n-eat fountain of ancient civili-
zation. I believe, as Mr. Greene believes, that it was nu>re than an
accident which led (ire^ory the (ireat, a man whom all must honor,
for his holiiu-ss of life and his ("hristian and missiouar)' de\otion; it

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was more than an accident when he saw the Hritish boys in Rome, and
his heart was touched with Christian synipatliy that those lair liritish
were sohl for slaves in the Roman market. lie never rested until he
sent lora hand of his missionaries to reclaim the Anodes of the Deira
and hriiij^r them into relations to the Christian faith.

Theodore the (ireat, trained in the same school as .St. Paul at Tar-
.sus, prevailed upon the Hritish church, the .Scoto-Celtic church and
till! church of Rome, represented In* Au^nistine and his followers, to
cast aside their differences and to coalesce in one ^reat church. It
was his work wliich brought about, as Mr. Oreene says, a^ain the union
of the heptarch)' into one kini^dom and one people. It was the ICn-
}f|isli church which made the hjifjlish nation; it was not the ICnj^lish
nation which made the lMi|.(lish church. It was in I-ji^Iand as it was
before under Charlemaj^ne, as before it had been under Constantine.
Let men dream as they will, it is the power of reli<,Mon that is the
P.iwoi of itp- only one unifvine bond that can ever bind toifetlur the sum of the
human family. People can talk as they will ri'^riidinif the union in
the )-ear Soo, upon Christmas day, between Charn n'a^nie, as represen-
tative of the (lerman empire, and the See of Rome, as representative
of spiritual eneri^y and power in the western world, but that which
moved Charlemaf^ne is the same tiling which moved Constantine, or
letl to the enunciation of the principle which has ever been maintained,
that the foundations of human society do not rest upon the church
onlv, nor upon the state only, but they rest upon the church and ihe
state allied one to another, bound together in mutual sympathy for the
accoin])lishment of the work that Ciod has ^nven them to do.

Hut iiavin^f ^Mven the kingdom of ICni^land into the hands of a
forei|4ii power I want to speak with all respect of the j^reat represen-
tative of that power at that time; there never was a nobler, a {^reater,

a better meanin.Lj man than Innocent III but Innocent III, as he

had made the mistake of sanctioning' the invasion of the western
church into the east and the foundinj^ of the feudal kingdom of Con-
stantinople, so Innocent III also made the dreadful mistake, after
John was forcetl to sijLjn, of anathematizing^ the men who did the di^ed,
and declaring' that he had released the kiiis^' from the bonds of the
oath wliich bounil him to t!ie obligation. Hut while John obeyed the
mand Mc n( the pope and received in silence the suspension which for

that

iw L lie imposed on nun, s

till, when he rctiuiied, he himself

signed with his own hand the ma^na charta, and from that da)' to this
ICn^dand has maintained the position that not only the church but
also the nation shall be free from the sovereignty of any foreijjjn
pow

er.

I think this parliament of relijrions represents one great princi-
ple, whatsoever may be the objections to it upon other grounds. It
is the principle, which has been enunciated with eUxpience and power
here before, that relijjion is natural to man as man and makes the hu-
man race one. We Christian men, then, can have no hesitation in
welcoming here any man who is made in the image of his Maker, and

THE IVORL/yS CONGRESS OF h'ErfCfONS.

T!M

has the thirst that rclij;ion ^ivcs burning- in his ht-ait. It is not for
Christianity to hiy a^'ain the foutuiation which Gotl lliniscll: has hiitl
in the hearts of man. It is tlio work of C'iiristianity, claiming', ;is it
must ever claim to be, tiie absolute reli^Mon, to supplement, to restore,
to correct whatsoever is amiss in that fust \i^\it that God \fiwv. to man,
and to labor to brin^ it to an absolute i)erfe(li<in.

We have amoni; us at this parliamiiit of religions representatives
of the two ^reat historic reli^nons of the ])ast. It is our pleasure here
to acknowledge that it is to the Greek church that we owe tiie fornui- '
latinjj of tiic faith, and tiiatit was by no accident that the l)ix ecumen-
ical councils should be co-terminus with the Gnuco-Roman empire
before it passed away in its Hyzantine sta^e. Itj^ives me also pleasure
to acknowledge that to the Roman church in the middle age Almigiity
God gave the teaciiing and discipline of l)arbaric nations when they
needed a hand that km \v how to check and a power that knew how to
bind. When Rome fell and was trampletl under the feet of the bar-
barian, she rose to life again, because Rome will he eternal. It
rose to life again in the holy Roman empire, as connected with the
German empire and German civilization. It accomi)lished its task in
the great work of educating the barbarian, m.iking him a man. Hut in
the present time it is not to the (ireek in the past or to the Greek
church; it is not to the Roman, nor is it to the Italia people, that (iod
has given the leadership of the world in the great future; it is to the
(iermanic races and to the Germanic people who brought w ith them
when they came three great princi[)les which underlie the foundation
of modern civilization, as contrasted with the past, the sense of per-
sonal liberty and of moral obligation; and that other principle, which
is not less dear, reverence for woman and that which belongs to the
felicity of home; and what is greater still, they brought with them that
priu'iple which they incorporateil into iMiglish life and which is the
basis of our American life now, the principle of the jury, by virtue of
which man is to be tried by his fellows; and the i)rinciple of parlia-
mentary representation, by virtue of which you have no right to tax a
man without his own consent. Those three great jjrinciples were
brought by the Germans when they came into the Greek and Roman
world.

I say there are but three pillars upon which rest nu)dern civiliza-
tion, and which the Church of Mnglaiul is pledged to preserve. ! will
not except, if you will pardon me, for one moment America. There
is no country on earth where man is as free today as he is in ICnglaiul,
and where his private rights are more respected. There is no countiy
on earth where the happiness of domestic peace rests as it rests u})oa
the homes of ICngland. Anil it is the giory of the Christian priest-
hood there that they have sanctified the home, not simply as prescrib-
ing the lesson in an abstract way, but as a married priesthood they
exercise an influence of good upon societx' in I'jigland, which no
priesthood in this world from the beginning has ever equaled in itr.
influence and its power.

i'''iriiiiiliitinri
>f llie KhUIi.

Hi; if

IH!

'n '■

ill'

' i t

|R 1

^^i

1 1 f ■

1 f. '^

:i'l

(

11: I Ml |,

i:'

Chancel and Altar of Modern Lutheran Church, Denmark.

"Yhe p^eligious /\/\ission of the English
Speaking fSjations.

Paper by REV. HENRY H. JESSUP, D, D., of Beirut, Syria.

HERE is a Divine plan in all luinian history.
It embraces nations as well as indivicluals, and
stretches on to the end of time, l-'very nation
and people are a part of the plan of Ciud, who
has set to each its bounds and its sphere of
service to God and man.

For I dduht not throu^li the a^'cs one increasing
purpose runs,

'\n(l the thdui^hts of men are widened witli tiie prcic-
ess of the suns.

lii.t no nobler service has l)een t^iven U> any
people, no nobler mission aw aits any nation, than
that which God has given U> those who speak
the En<j;lisb. tont^nie.

In iSoo the b'.nt^lish s])eakin.<,r po])ulation of
the globe numbered twenty-four millions. It now numbers not less
than one hundred and eight millions, an increase of owr four hundred
per cent, and it rules over two-fifths of the total are'i of tiie glubo. It
stands on a vantage ground of influence. Its voice sounds through
the nations.

The four elements which make up its power for gootl and fit it to
be the Divine instrument for blessing the world are:
I. Its historic planting and training.
Its geographical position.
Its physical and political traits.
Its moral and religious character — vhich

4-
stitute:

5. Its Divine call and opportunity, and iosult
mission, its duty and responsibility.

I. The Historic Planting and Training. In the
seventh century the Saxon race in liritain embraceil the religion of Christ.
From that time through nine centuries the hand of God was training.

K M U' 1 i - I,

jilidii of 111'.'
lobe.

combined, con-
in its religious
)eginnin<i of the

I !

^mffBasanrnvt

JiW-l'.iUJ ij i r i i .i.J' »—l1Wi

794

T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

H i B t ori c
Plantinir and
Traiuiog.

OpoKraphi-'^ul
Poaitiou.

leading, disciplining and developing that sturdy northern race until
the hidden torch ol: truth was wrested from its hiding place by Luther
and held aloft for the enlightenment of mankind just at the time when
Columbus discovered the continent of America, and opened the new
and final arena for the activity and highest development of man. Was
it an accident that North America fell to the lot of the Anglo-Saxon
race, that vigorous northern people of brain and brawn, of faith and
courage, of order and liberty? Was it not the divine preparation of a
field for the planting and preparation of the freest, highest Christain
civilization, the union of personal freedom and reverence for law? The
composite race of Norman, Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic blood, planted
on the hills and valleys, by the river and plains and among the inex-
haustible treasures of coal and iron, of silver and gold, of this marvel-
ous continent, were sent here as a part of a far reaching plan, whose
consummation will extend down through the ages.

2. The Geographical Position. A map oi tiic world, w'th North
America in the center, shows at a glaiiCi Ihc , ntage ground, the
strategic position of Great liritain and the T .; . cates. Their vast
sea coast, the innumerable harbors facing the yXtlantic and Pacific
Oceans, the maritime instincts of the two nations, their invigorating
climate, matchless resources, world-wide commerce, facilities for ex-
ploration antl travel and peculiar adaptation to permanent coloniza-
tion in remote countries, give these people the control of the world's
future anil the key to its moral and ethnical problems.

3. The physical, social and political traits of the English-speaking
people are a potent factor in the influence among the nations. * * *

4. The moral and religious character and training of these
nations. * # #

While no other European race has succeeded in planting success-
ful colonics and keeping them unmixed with the blood and the vices
of inferior races, the Anglo-Saxons have transplanted the vigor of the
original stock to the temperate climates of North Americn, South Af-
rica and Australia.

These great nations are permeated with the principl > 'Iv: Bible;
their poetry, history, science and philosophy are moral \, : : . jcl'inous;
they are foundeil on a belief in the Divine existence and 1' ■'j\ :J?nce,
and in final retribution; in the sanctions of law and in the si- iciacy
of conscience; in man's responsibility to God and the ruler's responsi-
bility to the people; in the purity of the family, the honor of woman
and the sanctity of home; in the obligation to treat all men — white,
black and tawny — as brothers made in the image of God. .Such prin-
ciples as these are destined to mold and control all mankind. The
United States are impressing deeply the semi-Latin populations of
South America, and iMi^land and America are affecting France.

A sincere religious s])irit, a (Jiovl-fearing integrit<', will mold a
nation only in one way, and the upward, (jodv.ard ,'.'. th of such a
people will affect by its vital energy other nations ai^! ; nples.

5. With such a unique combination of historic, gcogi.^'hical, polit-

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

795

ical and religious elements, it is easy to see what constitutes the Divine
call and opportu.iity, the religious mission and responsibility of these
great nations. The true ideal of the religious mission of a ration em-
braces its entire intellectual, moral and social relations and duties to
its people and to all other peoples.

If is thus a home and a foreign mission. To its own citizens this
mii...ion is one of religious liberty, the promotion of Sabbath rest, tem-
perance, social purity and reverence for the laws of God. The Anglo-
American peoples should foster and defend those principles which
their fathers fought to secure, and keep pure the foundation whose
streams are to gladden and refresh the world.

It is treason to liberty, disloyalty to religion, and a betrayal of the
sacred trust we hold from God for our children and our country, to
surrender the control of our educational system, our moral code, and
our holy Sabbath rest from toil, to our brethren from other lands, who
have come at our disinterested invitation to share in these blessings,
but who, as yet hardly free from the shackles of Old World absolut-
ism or the despair begotten dreams of unbridled license, are not yet
assimilated to our essential and vital principles of liberty and law, of
perfect freedom of conscience, tempered by the absolute subjection
of the individual to the [)ublic good.

Let us each rear his own temple for the worsliip of his God ac-
cording to his own conscience, but let the schoolhouse be reared by
all in common, open and free to all, and patronized by all.

To the civilized nations this mission is one which can only be
effective through a consistent, moral example. The English speaking
nations are not set as dumb finger-posts of metal or stone, but as liv-
ing, speaking, acting guides. They arc set for an example — to exhibit
reform in act, to shun all occasion of war and denounce its horrors, to
show the blessings of arbitration by adopting it as their own settled
international practice, and to treat all social questions from the stand-
point of conscience andequie/. The Alabama and Behring sea arbitra-
tions have been an object lesson to the world more potent in exhibiting
the true spirit of Christianity than millions of painted pages or the per-
suasive voice of a hundred messengers of the cross.

The recent action of congress and the house of commons with
regard to a treaty of arbitration is pregnant with promise for the future
peace of the nations and cause for profound gratitude to God It is
the religious mission of the English speaking nations to form a juster
estimate of other nations, to treat all men as entitled to respect, to
allow conscience its full sway in all dealings with them.

Let these closing years of this noble century of progress be
crowned with the glorious spectacle of a heaven-born and heaven-
blessed covenant of lasting and inviolable peace between these great
nations, one in history, one in faith, one in liberty, one in law, one in
future service to God and all mankind

Truo Ideal of
n Ui'l iftioa 8

MisHiun.

11 V

I':

l.i' !

Spiritual porces in H^"^^" Progress.

Paper by REV. EDWARD EVERETT HALE.D. D.

r;j

Keon Fore-
Bisht of the

E speak and think in this matter of
the celebration of the discovery of our
countr)- as if everybody else had al-
ways spoken and thought as we do.
Now, this is by no means so. Only a
century af^o, when Columbus'-! discov-
ery was 300 \-ears old. the whole world
of science, the whole world of litera-
ture, the whole world of history, was
very doubtful whether we had done
any ^ood to the world at all. in fact,
the general weit^ht of opinion was that
America was a nuisance and had done
a great deal more harm than <.(ood to
civilized men. j\\k\, if you think of
it, they had some reason for this im-
pression. America had launched the
I'"uropean nations in all their wars.
lui^Iand was just then disj^raced by the loss of lier
colonies. France was in debt anc
discovery of i;old ami siher in

erished .Spiiin and Portugal -the gentlemen at Washington can tell
you wh)' and lu)W — and the whole commercial arrangements of the
world were thrown out of joint, because this untoward discovery ol
America had l)een made. There were diseases which, it was uni\er-
sally said, had been introduced from America, and there had been no
additions to the arts or the sciences, no addition to those things which
seem to make life worth living which they were willing to deem as re-
ceived from America. The Literary Society at Lyons offereil a great
prize to i)e awarded, in 1792, for an essay on "The Advantages anil
Disadvantages of the Discovery of America." When the time came
for the prize to be awarded, the society was so impecunious, and
!•' ranee was so much engageil in other matters of more importance to
France ami her poor king, that the prize was never given.

\U\i the papers e.\ist which were written for that prize. Among
them is the very curious paper of the Abbe de Genty. The abbe, after

7U()

disgraced b\- the loss of Canada. The
America had, strange to say, impov-

;s.

itter of
yof <nir
had al-

\vo do.

( )nly a
idiscov-
Ic world
t" litL-ra-
ory, was
id done

In fact,
was that
lad done

jrood to
tliink of

tlus ini-
•hcd the

ir wars.

ss of her

Ida.

The

, iinpov-

can tell

Its of the

|()ver\' ot

iiniver-

heen no

l^s wliich

[in as re-

rcat
\

[jTcs am

lie came

lous, and

tance to

Anions
Ibe, after

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

799

going from the north pole to the south, from Patagonia to Greenland,
comes out with the view that America has never been of any use to
the world so far; and, if it is to be of any use, it will be because of the
moral virtues of 3,000,000 people in the United States. It has proved
that the ab')e was perfectly right. All that the world owes to America
it owes to the spiritual forces which have been at work in the United
States in the last 100 years.

I do not think you will expect me, in the brief time at my dis-
posal, to state exhaustively what these spiritual forces are. I had
rather allude in more detail to one alone and let the others speak for
'.hemselves at the lips of other speakers here. I do not believe that
Americans of today sufficiently appreciate the strength which was
given to this country when every man in it went about his own busi-
ness and was told that he must "paddle his own canoe," that he must
"play the game alone," that he must get the best and that he must not
trust to anybody about him to work out these miracles and mysteries.
And the statement of these duties, these necessities to each man and
to every man in the Declaration of Independence, gave an amount of R^iz^®"*"*
power to the United States of America which the United States of
America does not enough realize today. It is power given to America
that the European writers never could conceive of, and, v. *:h one or
two exceptions, do not conceive of to this hour.

When you send a man off into the desert and tell him he is to
build his own cottage and break up his own farm, make his own road
and that he is not to depend for these things on any priest or bishop
or on any prefect or mayor or council, that he is not to write home to
any central board for an order for proceeiling, but that he is to work
out his own salvation and that he himself, by the great law of promo-
tion, is to ascend to the summit, you add incalculably to your national
power. It is a thing which the earlier travellers in this country never
could understand. It drove them frantic with rage.

They would come over here, this French gentleman, that English
adventurer, thrl Scotchman working out his fortune; they would come
over here, with that habit of condescension which I must observe is
remarkable in all Europeans to this day when they travel in America;
and, with that habit of condescension, they were invariably disgusted
with the language in which the American i)ionecr spoke of the future
of his country. One of these travellers travelled along on his horse
through the mud for thirty miles over a wretched road, which was not
a road, over a corduroy, which was not corduroy, and at length he re-
ceived a welcome in a dirty little log cabin by a man who was hospita-
ble, but he would not stand nonsense. And this jjioneertold him that
in that dirty home of his were growing up children who were going to
live in a palace on that very spot. He told him that that roadway
which he had been following was going to be the finest roadway in the
world. He told him that this country around him, with just a few red-
skins in the neighborhood, and occasionally the howl of a wolf in the
Sclds at night was going to be the most magnificent city ever read of in

800

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Ki|unl ItiKlitH.

history. And the traveller never could bear this; he could never
stand it.

What did it mean? It meant that the pioneer had been sent by
the nation, as one of the children of the nation, and that he knew he
had the nation behind him; he knew he had a country which would
stand by him. This country had said to him, "Do what you will, so
you do not interfere with the ri<;hts of others." This country said to
Freeandwith him, in the j^rcat words of the Declaration of Independence, that every
man is born free and that every man is born with ecpial rights. It is
true that the country, as it sent out the pioneer, did not give him a
ticket, did not give him a pin with which to scratch his way in the
wilderness. The country said to him in that magnificent proverbial
phrase, " Root, hog, or die;" you are to live out your own life, but you
shall be free to live out your own life; you are to work out your own
salvation, but working out your salvation you are to will and do
according to God's good pleasure.

The country thus gave to him the inestimable privilege of free-
dom. What does a country gain which gives to its citizens this
inestimable privilege? Why, if that country needs a million pioneers
it sounds its whistle and a million pioneers rise at its order. If, in
the course of history, that country needs that every son of hers
shall rise in her defence, every son of hers rises in her defence.
A government of the people, for the people, by the people, gives
the country strength such as no nation ever had before. The
pioneer looks forward to such strength as this in that magnificent
expression of patriotism which seemed so brutal to the Scotch or
I'jiglish or h'rench adventurer. It is true that all the time there were
vulnerable j)oiuts in this armor of American citizenship. It was all very
fine to say, "All men are born free and ecjual," if, when you said so,
none of them hajjpened to be born slaves. It was all %ery fine to sing
The star-spangled banner, oh \o\\^ may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave

if you did not remember that the rhyme sounded just as well when
you sang

O'er the land of the free and the hime of the slave

and was just as true. There is somethinij really pathetic in thescrap
book of historical speeches of, say, the first thirty years of the century.
There is a sort of wish and attempt to keep this matter of slavery out
of sight, )ou know. WHiy, it is as if we had a fine boy come up here
to make his exhibition speech and he should forget his words a id you
should all pretend to observe that he had not forgotten his words. So,
in the first thirty years of this century, we would say our country was
the land of the free and the home of the brave, and we would not
remember that there were some black people there; we would keep
them out of sight if we could.

liut this country is ruled by ideas; it is not ruled by frivolities or
excuses. And in the middle of all that keeping out of the way the
things we did not wish to have seen, there was this man and that

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUUIONS.

8Ul

or
the
hat

wortinn who steadily said, without much rhetoric ox eloquence, perhaps,
Human slavery is wron^." And they kept sayinjf it; would not be

that is the onl\- answer they

silenced. " Human slavery is wron;.

would ^nvc to arguments on the other side to conventional statement
of historical deduction. Vou know what came from that answer Vou
know that the ^reat idealism of the be<;innin<f worked its way alon^
till, in the blood of your own sons, in the sacrifices of )-our own home,
it should be proved that all men are born free, that all men have eciual
rijfhts, and to prove these ^reat spiritual truths, smoke and dust and
pleasure, f^jold and silver- these are all forgotten and all as nothing,
and the things that are remembered and prized are the spiritual truths
which have given this country its strength and its power.

It is this something which, on the other side of the water, is not
understood. They are forever telling that, when the wealth of our
prairies is exhausted, we shall have to begin where they began; and
now they begin to tell us that it is the accident of gold and silver, of
lead
things

the-

the

ana copper, tnat makes our country what it is. i\o, all tnese
were here before. The virgin prairies were here; plenty of
nuggets of gold were here. It was not till you created men and
women who deserved the name of children of God, it was not until )ou
sent every one of them out, sure that he was a chilil of God and work-
ing under (iod's law, that your gold and silver were worth anything
more than dust in the balance.

One is temjitetl to say in passing, that it was the people, not the
theologians, so-called — that it was the people who proved to be the
great theologians in this affair. The fall of Augustinianism, the utter
ruin of the theory of the middle ages, that men are children of the
devil, born of sin -all this dates from the decision of the people of
America that they would live by universal suffrage Universal suf-
frage came in, one hardly knows how, there was so little said about it.
It worked its way in. The voice of the people is the voice of God,
the people said, and of course you could not strip the Connecticut
valley of its farmers and tell every man from fifty to si.vty years of
age that he had got to .'dmulder his musket and go out against Bur-
goyne, and then tell him when he came back home. "Vou cannot \-ote,
you are too wicked to vote; you are the son of the devil and shoulcl
not be allowed to vote' You had to give them uni\ersal suffrage.
If this Connecticut valley farmer is good enough to die for you, he
is good enough to vote for you. This custom of universal suffrage
was in advance of all the theologians and, although they kept bits
of paper with statementsof Augustinianism on them to the effect that
the people were the children of the devil, they gave them a suffrage
as sons of God

Augustinianism died with the fact of universal suffrage; it had died
long before. ^ speak with perfect confidence in this matter, because
I know there \\as not a pulpit in the country that brought forth on
that Sunday this old doctrine, which is a doctrine to bo preserved in
a museum, but is not to be paraded at the present da> , The doctrine
51

Working Un-
(lor (idd'H Law

Vox Populi
Vox Uei.

m
1 H

^11

802

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

■ 'i -i

Dollar.

for US was the great truth that was announced in the beginning, that
was writttMi in the Gospels, that we are all ki'ii^s and priests and sons
of God, antl that all of us are able in our political constitution to write
down the laws of our eternal life.

And I am tempted in passing to speak of that old fashioned sneer
about the "almighty dollar" — how every book of travel used to say
that we had no idealism in America, that we were all given so to mak-
ing money, to mines and timber and crops, that we would never know
Thfi Almighty what ideas were, and that for spiritual truths we must go back to Ger-
many and ICngland. " Nobody ever reads American books," they said;
"nobody ever looks at an American statue," and thus they really
thought that the writing of a great book was the greatest of things, or
the carving of a great statue was the greatest of triumphs; not seeing
that to create a nation of happy homes is greater than any such triumph,
not seeing that to make good men and good women whose history maj'
be worth recording by the pen or by the chisel is an achievement
vastly beyond what any artist ever wrought with a chisel or any man
of letters ever wrote with his pen. It is in the midst of such sneers
about our lack of idealism that one observes with a certain interest the
American origin of the man whom everybody would admit was the
first great idealist of the ICnglish-spcaking tongue today.

The man who s.peaks the word, which some miner in his humble
cabin read last" night when he took down from his book-shelf ICmer-
son's Essays; the man who wrote the poem which some poor artist read
in Paris last night, to his comfort; the man whose works were read last
Sunday as the Scriptures are read in some rude log house in the mount-
ain, is Ralph Waldo Kmerson — he of the country which is said to
know nothing of ideals. His philosophy was not German in its origin.
He did not study the English masters in style. He is not troubled by
the traditions of the classics of the Greeks and the Romans Our
friends in O.xford, as they put back the Plato which they have been
reading for a little refreshment in their idealism, resort to the Yankee
Plato of this clime, Ralph Waldo ICmerson.

. I have chosen in the few minutes in which I have this greatest
privilege in my life to speak thus briefly of what has passed since the
year i8oo rather than to attempt a great speech on the great subject
assigned to me by your committee, "the spiritual forces of the world."
That, it seems to mc, is the greatest subject possible. I thought I
would not like to have you think me wholly a fool, so I selected one
or two of these little illustrations instead of attempting a subject of
such great magnitude. The lessons which America has learned, if she
will only learn them well and remember them, are lessons which may
well carry her through this twentieth century which is before us. We
have built up all our strength, all our success on the triumph of ideas,
and those ideas for the twentieth century are very simple.

God is nearer to man than He ever was before, and man knows
that and knows tliat because men are God's children they are nearer
to each other than they ever were before. And so life is on a higher

The Plato of
this Clime.

L e B 8 o n 8
Learaed.

atcst
the

DJCCt

rid."
htl
one
ctof
: she
may
We
dcas,

nows
carer
igher

THE WOkLb'S CONGRESS OF RELlGIONii.

803

N (I II r «' r
Knch OlIiiT.

Penco AmouK
all MatiouB.

plane than it was. Men do not bother so nuicli about the smoke and
dust of earth. They live in higher altitudes beeausc tlay are cliildrcn
of God, living for their brothers and sisters in the workl, a life with
God for man in heaven. That is the whole of it. \t the end of the
nineteenth century we can state all our creeds as brieil)' as this. It is
the statement of the pope's encyclical, as he writes another of his
noble letters. It is the statement on which is based the action of some
poor come-outer, who is so afraid of images that he won't use words
m his prayers.

Life with God for man in heaven — that is the religion on which
the light of the twentieth century is to be formed. The twentieth
century, for instance, is going to establish peace among all the nations
of the world. Instead of these transient arbitration boards, such as
we have now occasionally, wc are going to have a permanent tribunal,
always in session, to discuss and settle the grievances of the nations
of the world. The establishment of this permanent tribunal is one of
the illustrations of life with God, with men in a present heaven.
Education is to be universal. That does not mean that every boy and
girl in the United States is to be taught how to read very badly and
how to write very badly. We arc not going to be satisfied with any
such thing as that. It means that every man and woman in the
United States shall be able to study wisely and well all the works of
God, and shall work side by side with those who go the farthest and
study the deepest. Universal education will be the best for every one —
that is what is coming. That is life with God for man in hea\en.

And the twentieth century is going tocare for everybody's health;
going to see that the conditions of health are such that the child born
in the midst of the most crowded parts of the most crowded cities
has the same exquisite delicacy of care as the baby I)orn to some
Tresident of the United States in the White House, We shall take
that care of the health of every man, as our religion is founded on life
with God for man in heaven.

As for social rights, the statement is very simple. It has been
made already. The twentieth century will give to every man accord-
ing to his necessities. It will receive from every man according to
his opportunity. And that will come from the religious life of that
century, a life with God for man in heaven. As for purity, the twen-
tieth century will keep the body pure — men as chaste as women.
Nobody drunk, nobody stifled by this or that poison, given with this
or that pretense, with everybody free to be the engine of the almighty
soul.

All this is to say that the twentieth century is to build up its civili-
zation on ideas, not on things that perish; build them on spiritual
truths which endure and are the same forever; build them of faith, on Civiiizaition
hope, on love, which are the only elements of eternal life. The twen-
tieth century is to build a civilization which is to last forever, because
it is the civilization of an idea.

(^aro of
Hoalth.

the

Social Rights.

A Pormnnent

;i t

,4U

■■i ll I --4»W

h ■

iij .

\f ■'■

Tribal Chief, Upper Congo (Heathen).
LlJy permisBiou of Mr. Wm. S. Cherry.)

^-fewr

f^eligion.

Paper by REV. WALTER ELLIOTT, of the Paulist Convent, New York.

Reason, if well
toward perfect life

proach his ideal condition,
directed, dedicates our best efforts to profjrcss
and if reliijion he of the ri,i;lit kind, muler its
influence all human life becomes sensiti\e to the touch of the divine
life from which it sprunt^. The ilefinition of jierfect religious life is,
therefore, eciuivalent to that of most real life; the human spirit mov-
ing toward perfect wisdom and joy by instinct of the divine spirit
actinfj upon it both in the inner and outer order of existence.

Hut man's ideal is more than human. JNIan would never be con-
tent to strive after what is no better than his own best self. The
longinijf toward virtue and happiness is for the reception of a supe-
rior, a divine existence. The end of religion is regeneration.

Otherwise stated, religion has not done its work with the cfface-
mcnt of sin and the restoration of the integrity of nature. It has,
indeed, this remetlial office, but its highest power is transformative; it
is the elixir of a new and divine life. The supreme ofifice of religion

IS regeneration.

Man> Ideal
Moro than Ha-
inan,

805

♦ii

806

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Not Emanoi-
pation but lie-
generation.

New Life for
Man.

To remit actual sin is not the main purpose of religion, but rather
to remedy that first evil by which our race lost its supernatural and
divine dignity — the evil called original sin. And this is the meaning
of Christianity's great word, re^^eneration. It is not only said, "unless
ye repent," but also, "unless ye are born again, ye cannot enter into the
kingdom of God;" "born of water and of the Holy Ghost;" "born, not
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God."

The supreme end of religion is not emancipation, but regenera-
tion. As among the Romans, when a citizen emancipated his slave,
he by that act conferred citizenship on him, so the pardon of sin
by Christ is not only remission, but also adoption among the sons
of God.

That gift from above known as the grace of Christ does not simply
break the fetters of sin, it ennobles the slave with the dynastic dignity
of God. Thus the value of grace is essential in its transforming power,
accidental in its cleansing power, or its power of reconciliation.

The final end of all created existence is the glory of God in His
office of Creator. As man is a micro cosmos, so the human nature of
the God-man, Jesus Christ, is the culminating point at which the crea-
tive act attains to its summit and receives its last perfection. In that
humanity, and through it in the Deity with which it is one person, we
all arc called to share. The supreme end and office of religion is to
bring about that union and to make it perfect.

"The justification of a wicked man is his translation 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 Ad.im, Jesus
Christ, our Saviour." These words of the Council of Trent affirm that
the boon of God's favor is not merely restoration to humanity's nat-
ural 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 arc drawn by the unseen attraction of divine grace, and
toward which, in their better moments, they consciously strive, how-
ever feebly and blindly.

Religion, as understood by Christianity, means new life for man,
different life, adaitional life. "He breathed into his face the breath
of life." What life? What life did Christ mean when He said, "I am
come that they may have life and may have it more abundantly?" Is
it merely the fullness of the natural life of man? No, but a superior
and transcendent life, which is nothing less than the natural life of
God, given to man to elevate him to a participation in the Deity — into
a plane of existence which naturally belongs to God alone.

In the breathing forth in Eden, the Holy Spirit, God's life and
breath, passed into man. Mark the second breathing: " Breathing
upon them, he said, 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost.'" And this is what
St. Paul means when he says, "For us, we have the mind of Christ"
(I Cor. ii, i6). 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."

^ i

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REL/G/OA'S:

bu]

Before coming to the ways and means and processes of acqiiiring
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 involve suffering.

God's purpose is now just what it was in the beginning, to com-
municate Himself to each human being, and to do it personally, eleva-
ting men to brotherhood with His own Divine Son, making them
partakers of the same grace which dwells in the soul of Christ, and
shares hereafter in the same blessedness which he possesses with the
Father. To accomplish 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 meaning of it is bringing together into one.
Mediation is now, as ever before, the constant and final purpose of
God's loving dealing with us. We are saved, not only by Christ's
death, but, says the apostle, "being reconciled, we shall be saved by
His life" (Rom. v. lo).

Understand atonement thus, and you know, as a sinner should,
what mediation means. Understand mediation thus, and you know,
as a child of God should, what a calamity sin is.

In the present order of things atonement is first, but originally
mediation, as it was the primary need of imperfect nature, was like-
wise God's initial work. As things are, too, the gift of righteousness
through sharing the cross of Christ elevates man to a degree of merit
impossible if the gift were purely and simply a boon.

A mistaken view of this matter of atonement is to be guarded
against. For if there is any calamity surpassing the loss of conscious-
ness of Sin, it is the loss of consciousness of human dignity. If I must
believe a lie, I had rather not choose the monstrous one that I am
totally depraved. 1 had rather be a Pelagian than a Predestinarian.
But neither of these is right. Christ and His church are right, and
they insist that the divine life and light are communicated to us as
being sinners, and in an order of things both painful to nature and
superior to it, and yet will allow no one to say that any man is or can
be totally depnned.

Hence St. Paul: "I rejoice in my infirmity." Not that sorrow is
joy, or is in itself anything but misfortune; but that in the order of
atonement i' is turned into joy by restoring us to the Divine Sonship.

Relig :m is positive. It makes me good with Christ's g /:)dness.
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 conscious experience of pardon of

The Order of
Atouoiuent.

808

THE WORLUS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

ill 1^

H ^

Expiation of
Sin.

iji

■ '''

H i.

■ ^

Made Perfect
by Love

1 •

mI '

IP |r

Im |: ■

■li

any kind, and yet will consciously enjoy the union of filiation forever.
Nor can it be denied that there arc multitudes of adults whose sancti-
fication has had no conscious process of the remission of p[-avc 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. Yet with some it seems the supreme end and office of religion.
This explains the revolt of many, and their bitter resentment against
the ministers and ordinances of religion, sometimes extending to the
God whose caricature has been seated before their eyes on the throne
of false judgment. No order of life needs truthfulness, strict and exact
in every detail, so much as that known as the religious. The church
is the pillar and ground of truth. The supreme end and office of
religion is not the expiation of sin, but elevation to imion with God.

The expiation of sin is the removal of an obstacle to our union with
God. Nothing hinders the progress of guileless or repentant souls,
even their peace of mind, more than prevalent 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 i)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, is not in the nature of niLMcly paying a pen-
alty, but is chiefly an offering of love. Atonement is related to media-
tion as its condition and not as its essence. Thus viewed the sufferings
of the King of Martyrs manifest in an indescribably* pathetic manner
the holiness of Qod's law, the evil of sin, and the divine compassion
for the sinner.

Pardon, we repeat, considered solelj- by itself, is the removal of
an obstacle to our advancement into the divine order. The comple-
tion of man's being is his glorification in the Godhead. This is the
answer to those who are shocked at the thought that Christ came into
the world as a mere sin victim. Christ's sorrow is indeed our atone-
ment, but the end he had in view is the ecstatic joy of the union of
human nature with the di\ine nature. We are washed in the Re-
deemei"'s blood, but that blood does not remain on the surface; it jjcn-
etrates us and sanctifies our own i)l()o<l, mingling with it. We are not
ransomed only but ennobled.

It never can be said that it is by reason of obedience that men
love, but it must always be said of obedience that it is by reason of
love that it is made perfect. Obedience generates conformity, but love
has a fecundity which generates every virtue, for it alone is wholly
unitive. The highest boast of obedience is that it is the first-born of
love. As the humanity said of the divinity," " I go to the Father, because
the Father is greater than I," so obedience says of love, " I go to my
parent-virtue, for love is greater than I."

His Eminence, James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore.

612

:IH

Hi-

«i

■i-

(. 1

Contrast*) of
the P li g a u
World witli our
Own.

Xhe Needs of H^^^^^^ty §upplied by the
Catholic {Religion.

Paper by HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL GIBBONS, Archbishop of Baltimore.

E live and move and have our being in
the midst of a civilization which is the
legitimate offspring of the Catholic
religion. The blessings resulting
from our Christian civilization are
poured out so regularly and so abun-
dantly on the intellectual, moral and
social world, like the sunlight and the
^^____ air of heaven and the fruits of the
>|^Sl If Wr^y^^KBS earth, that they have ceased to excite

^IkMl" iP »'^i<^ J^^9^- '"^'^y •''iii'piisc except to those who visit

lands where the religion of Christ is
little known. In order to realize ad-
equately our favored situation we
should transport ourselves in spirit to
ante-Christian times and contrast the
condition of the pagan world with
our own.
Before the advent of Christ the whole world,
with the exception of the secluded Roman prov-
ince of Palestine, was buried in idolatry. Every striking object in
nature had its tutelary divinities. Men worshiped the sun and moon
and stars of heaven. They worshiped their very passions. They
worshipetl rxcrything except God, to whom alone divine homage is
due. In the words of the Apostle of the Gentiles: "They changed
the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the corrupt-
ible man, and of birds and beasts and creeping things. They wor-
shiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed
forever."

But at last the great light for which the prophets of Israel had
sighed and prayed, and toward which even the pagan sages had
stretched forth their hands with eager longing, arose and shone unto

810

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

811

them "that sat in darkness and the shadow of death." The truth con-
cerning our Creator, vhich had hitherto been hidden in Judca that
there it might be sheltered from the world-wide idolatry, was now
proclaimed, and in far greater clearness and fullness, unto the whole
world. Jesus Christ taught all mankind to know the one true (iod —
a God existing from eternity to eternity, a God who created all things
by His power, who governs all things by 1 1 is wisdom, and whose
superintending Providence watches over the affairs of nations as well
as of men, "without whom not even a bird falls to the ground." He
proclaimed a God infinitely holy, just and merciful. This idea of the
Deity so consonant to our rational conceptions was in striking con-
trast with the low and sensual notions which the pagan world had
formed of its divinities.

The religion of Christ imparts to us not only a sublime concep-
tion of God, but also a rational idea of man and of his relations to his
Creator. Before the coming of Christ man was a riddle and a mys-
tery to himself. He knew rot whence he came nor whither he was
going. He was groping in the dark. All he knew for certain was
that he was passing through a brief phase of existence. The past and
the future were enveloped in a mist which the light of philosophy was
unable to penetrate. Our Redeemer has dispelled the cloud and en-
lightened us regarding our origin and destiny and the moans of attain-
ing it. He has rescued man from the frightful labyrinth of error in
which paganism had involved him.

The Gospel of Christ, as propounded by the Catholic church, has
brought not only light to the intellect, but comfort also to the heart.
It has given us " that peace of God which surpasseth all understanding"
■ — the peace which springs from the conscious possession of truth.
It has taught us how to enjoy that triple peace which constitutes true
happiness as far as it is attainable in this life — peace with (iod by the the H'eart
observance of His commandments; peace with our neighbor by the
exercise of charity and justice toward him, and peace with ourselves
by repressing our inordinate appetites and keeping our passions sub-
ject to the law of reason and our reason illumined and controlled by
the law of God.

All other religious systems prior to the advent of Christ were
national like Judaism, or state religions like Paganism. The Catholic
religion alone is world-wide and cosmopolitan, embracing all races and
nations and peoples and tongues.

Christ alone of all religious founders had the courage to say to His
disciples: "Go, teach all nations." "Preach the Gospel to every
creature." "You shall be witness to Me in Judea and .Samaria and
even to the uttermost bounds of the earth." He not restrained in your
mission by national or state lines. Let my Gospel be as free and uni-
versal as the air of heaven. " The earth is the Lord's and the '"ullness
thereof." All mankind are the children of My Father and my breth-
ren. I have died for all, and embrace all in my charity. Let the w'lole
human race be your audience and the world be the theater of your
labors.

< 'omfort to

'M■*^•'i?'!

i, i >,:

% %

812

THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

i! ^1

Every Human
Creature a
rhildotdod.

What the
Church h II »
Done for SocU
ety.

It is this recognition of the fatherhood of God and tlie brother-
hood of Christ that has inspired the Catholic church in her mission of
love and benevolence. This is the secret of her all-pervading charity.
This idea has been her impelling motive in her work of the social
regeneration of mankind I behold, she sa\s, in every human creature
a child of God and a brother and sister of Christ, and therefore 1 will
protect helpless infancy and decrepit old age. I will feed the orphan
and nurse the sick. I will strike the shackles from the feet of the
slave and will rescue degraded women from the moral bondage and
degradation to which her own frailty and the passions of the stronger
sex had consigned her.

Montescpiieu has well said that the religion of Christ, which was
instituted to leail men to eternal life, has contributetl more tl:an any
other institution to promote the temporal and social happiness of man-
kind. The object of this parliament of religions is to present to
thoughtful, earnest and inquiring minds the respective claims of the
various religions, with the view that they woultl " prove all things, anil
hold that which is gcjod," by embracing that religion which above all
others commends itself to their judgment and conscience. I am not
engaged in this search for the truth, for, by the grace of God, I am
conscious that I have found it, and instead of hiding this treasure in
my own breast I long to share it with others, especially as I am none
the poorer in making others the richer.

But, for my part, were I occupied in this investigation, much as I
would be drawn toward the Catholic church by her admirable unity of
faith which binds together 250,000,000 of souls; much as I would be
attracted toward her by her sublime moral code, by her world-wide
Catholicity and by that unbroken chain of apostolic succession which
connects her indissolubly with apostolic times, I would be drawn still
more forcibly toward her by that wonderful system of organized
benevolence which she has established for the alleviation and comfort
of suffering humanity.

Let us briefly review what the Catholic church has done for the
elevation and betterment of society:

First. The Catholic church has purified society in its very fountain,
which is the marriage bond. She has invariably proclaimed the unity
and sanctity and indissolubility of the marriage tie by saying with her
founder that "WhatCiod hath joined together let no man put asunder."
Wives and mothers, never forget that the inviolability of the marriage
contract is the palladium of your womanly dignity and of your Chris-
tian liberty. And if you are no longer the slaves of iiian and the toy
of his caprice, like the wives of Asiatic countries, but the peers and
partners of your husbands; if you arc no longer tenants at will like the
wives of i)agan (ireece and Rome, but the mistresses of your house-
hold; if you are no longer confronted by usurping rivals like Moham-
medan and Mormon wives, but the queens of the domestic kingdom,
you are indebted for this priceless boon to the ancient chuich. and
particularly to the Roman pontiffs who inflexibly upheld the sacred.

THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

813

ncss of the nuptial bond against the arbitrary power of kings, the lust
of nobles and the lax and pernicious legislation of civil governments.

Second. The Catholic religion has i)roclaimed the sanctity of hu-
man life as soon as the body is animated by the vital spark. Infanticide
was a dark stain on pagan civilization. It was uni\ersal in Greece,
with the possible exception of Thebes. It was sanctioned and even
sometimes enjoined by such eminent Greeks as I'lato and Aristotle,
Solon and Lycurgus. The destruction of infants was also very com-
mon among the Romans. Nor was there any legal check to this in-
human crime, except at rare intervals. The father had the power of
life and death over his child. And as an evidence that human nature
does not improve with time and is everywhere the same, unless per-
meated with the leaven of Christianit)-, the wanton sacrifice of infant
life is probabl)- as general today in China and other heathen countries
as it was in ancient Greece and Rome. The Catholic church has
sternly set her face against this exposure and murder of innocent
babes. She has denounced it as a crime more revolting than that of
Herod, because coinmilted against one's own flesh and blood. .She
has condemned with ecpial energy the atrocious doctrine of Malchus,
who suggested unnatural methods for diminishing the population of
the human family. Were 1 not restrained by the fear of ol"fending
modesty and of imparting knowledge where "ignorance is bliss," I
would dwell more at length on the social plague of ante-natal infanti-
cide, which is insidit)usly and systematically spreading among us in
defiance of civil penalties and of the divine law which says, "Thou
shalt not kill."

Third There is no place of human misery for which the church
does not provide some remedy or alleviation. .She has established
infant asylums for the shelter of helpless babes who have been cruelly
abandoned by their own parents or bereft of them in the mysterious
dispensations of Providence before they could know or feel a mother's
love. These little waifs, like the infant jNIoscs drifting in the turbid
Nile, arc rescued from an untimely death, and are tenderly raised by
the daughters of the Great King, those consecrated \irgins who
become nursing mothers to them. And I have known more than one
such motherless bibe who, like Israel's law-giver, in after years became
a leader among his people.

Fourth. As the church provides homes for those yet on the thresh-
old of life, so, too, does she secure retreats for those on the threshold
of death. She has asylums in which the aged, men and women, find
at one and the same time a refuge in their old age from the storms of
life, and a novitiate to prepare them for eternity. Thus, from the
cratlle to the grave, she is a nursing mother. She rocks her children
in the cradle of infancy, and she soothes them to rest on the couch of
death.

Louis XIV erected in Paris the famous Hotel des Invalidcs for the
veteran soldiers of France who had fought in the service of their
country. And so has the Catholic religion provided for those who

Sanctity of
Humau Life.

AHylamB.

M'-l
' I '

■iW-

■HP

814

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUGJONS.

W H

li ■ i%

:«i

Hunpitals.

have been disabled in the battle of life a home, in which they are ten-
derly nursed in their declining years by devoted sisters.

The Little Sisters of the Poor, whose congregation was founded in
1840, have now charge of 250 establishments in different parts of the
globe, the aged inmates of those houses numbering 30,000, upward of
70,000 having died under their care up to 1S.S9. To the asylums are
welcomed not only the members of the Catholic religion, but those
also of every form of Christian faith, and even those without any faith
at all. The sisters make no distinction of persons or nationality or
color or creed, for true Christianity embraces all. The only question
proposed by the sisters to the applicant for shelter is this: Are you
oppressed by age and penury? If so, come to us and we will provide
for you.

Fifth. She has orphan asylums where children of both sexes are
reared and taught to become useful and worthy members of society.

Sixth. Hospitals were unknown to the pagan world before the
coming of Christ. The copious vocabularies of Greece and Rome had
no word even to express that term.

The Catholic church has hospitals for the treatment and cure of
every form of disease. .She sends her daughters of charity and of
mercy to the battlefield and to the plague-stricken city. During the
Crimean war I remember to have read of a sister who was struck deati
by a ball while she was in the act of stooping down and bandaging the
wound of a fallen soldier. Much praise was then deservetlly bestowed
on Morence Nightingale for her devotion to the sick and wounded
soldiers. Her name resounded in both hemispheres. But in every
sister you have a Florence Nightingale, with this difference — that, like
ministering angels, they move without noise along the path of duty;
and, like the angel Raphael, who concealed his name from Tobias, the
sister hides her name from the world.

Several years ago I accompanied to New Orleans eight .Sisters of
Charity, who were sent from Baltimore to re-enforce the ranks of their
heroic companions or to supply the places of their devoted associates
who had fallen at the post of duty in the fever-stricken cities of the
south. Their departure for the scene of their labors was neither an-
nounced by the press nor heralded by public applause. They rushed
calmly into the jaws of death, not bent on deeds of destruction like the
famous 600, but on deeds of mercy. They had no Tennyson to sound
their praises. Their only ambition was — and how lofty is that ambi-
tion — that the recording angel might be their biographer; that their
names might be inscribed in the liook of Life, and that they might
receive their recompense from Him who has said; "I was sick and j'e
visited Me, for as often as ye did it to one of the least of My brethren
ye did it to Me." Within a few months after their arrival six of the
eight sisters died, victims of the epidemic.

These are a few of the many instances of heroic charity that have
fallen under my own observation. Here are examples of sublime
heroism not culled from the musty pages of ancient martyrologies or

THE WORLD'S COXGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

SI")

Victims <)f
Morul Disoose.

books of chivalry, but happen in<T in our own day and under our own
eyes. Here is a heroism not aroused by the emulation of brave comrades
on the battlefield or by the clash o£ arms or the strains of martial
hymns, or by the love for earthly fame, but inspired only by a sense of
Christian duty and by the love of God and her fellow-beings.

Seventh. The (Catholic religion labors not only to assuage the phys-
ical distempers of humanity, but also to reclaim the victims of moral
disease. The redemption of fallen women from a life of infamy was
never included in the scope of heathen philanthropy; and man's unrc-
generatc nature is the same now as before the birth of Christ.

He worships woman as long as she has charms to fascinate, but
she is spurned and trampled upon as soon as she has ceased to please.
It was reserved for Him who knew no sin to throw the mantle of pro-
tection over sinning woman. There is no page in the Gospel more
touching than that which records our .Saviour's mercifid judgment on
the adulterous woman. The Scribes and Pharisees, who had perhaps
l)articipated in her guilt, asked our Lord to pronounce sentence of
death upon her in accordance with the Mosaic law. "Hath no one
condemned thee?" asked our Saviour. "No one. Lord," she answered.
"Then," said He, "neither will I condemn thee. Go; sin no more."

Inspired by this divine example, the Catholic church shelters
erring females in homes not inappropriately called jNIagdalena asy-
lums and houses of the (iood .Sheplierd. Not to speak of other
institutions established for the moral reformation of women, the con-
gregation of the Good She[)herd at Angers, founiled in 1836, has
charge today of 150 houses, in which ui)ward of 4,000 sisters devote
themselves to the care of over 20,000 females who had yielded to
temptation or were rescued from impending danger

Eighth. The Christian religion has been the unvarying friend and
advocate of the bondman. Before the dawn of Christianity, slavery
was universal in civilized as well as in barbarous nations The
apostles were everywhere confronted by the children of oppression.
Their first task was to mitigate the horrors and alleviate the miseries
of human bondage. They cheered the slave by holding up to him the Bondman
example of Christ, who voluntarily became a slave that we might
enjoy the glorious liberty of children of God, The bondman had an
equal participation with his master in the sacraments of the church
and in the priceless consolation which religion affords.

Slave-owners were admonished to be kind antl humane to their
slaves by being reminded with apostolic freedom that they and their
servants had the same Master in heaven, who had no respect of per-
sons. The ministers of the Catholic religion down the ages sought to
lighten the burden and improve the coiulition of the slave as far as
social prejudices would permit, till at length the chains fell from their
feet.

Human slavery has, at last, thank God, melted away before the
noonday sun of the Gospel. No Christian country contains today a
solitary slave. To paraphrase the words of a distinguished Irish jurist,

Friond of the

i:"'

•i ,8

SH5

T///-: ll'OKLD'S COXGKESS OF RELIGIONS.

as soon as the bondman puts his foot in a Christian land he stands
redcciued, rc}j[cnciatcd and disenthralled on the sacred soil of Chris-
tendom.

Ninth. The Savior of mankind never conferred a ffreatcr temporal

boon on mankind than by enii()hlin<f and sanctifying niaiuial labor and

by rescuing it from the stigma of degradation which had been brandeil

upon it. liefore Christ appeared among men, manual and even

Manmii La- mechanical work was regarded as servile and degrading to the free

Dor tnnoblod. .- ,, ," ,, i , i ^ i /m • ^

men or pagan Rome and was consequently relegated to slaves. Christ
is ushered into the world, not amid the pomp and splendor of imperial
majesty, but amid the environments of an humble child of toil. He i.">
the reputed son of an artisan and Mis early manhood is spent in a
mechanic's shop. "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?" The
primeval curse attachetl to labor is obliterated by the toilsome life of
Jesus Christ. Kver since lie pursued His trade as a cari)enter He has
lightened the mechanic's tools and has shed a halo arounil the workshop.

If the profession of a general, a jurist and a statesman is adorned
by the example of a Washington, a Taney and a liiuke, how much
more is the calling of a workman ennobled by the c.xampK' of Christ.
What Oe Toccpieville said si.xty years ago of the United Slates is true
today — that with us every honest labor is laudable, thanks to the
example and teaching of Jesus Christ.

To sum up: The Catholic church has taught man the knowledge
of God and of himself; she has brought comft)rt to his heart by in-
structing him to bear the ills of life with Christian philosophy; she has
sanctified the marriage bond; she has proclaimed the sanctity and in-
Summed Up. violability of Innnan life from the moment that the body is animated
by the spark of life till it is extinguished; she has founded asylums for
the training of children of both se.xes and for the support of the aged
poor; she has established hosjMtals for the sick and homes for the re-
demption of fallen women; she has exerted her inlluence toward the
mitigation and abolition of human slavery; she has been the unwaver-
ing friend of the sons of toil. These are some of the blessings which
the Catholic church has conferred on society.

I will not deny, on the contrary I am happy to avow, that the
various Christian bodies outside the Catholic church have been and
are today zealous promoters of most of these works of Christian
benevolence which I have enumerated Not to speak of the innumer-
able humanitarian houses established by our non-Catholic brethren
throughout the land, I bear cheerful testimony to the philanthropic
institutions founded by Wilson and Shepherd, by Johns Hopkins,
Enoch Pratt and (ieorge Peabody in the city of Haltim ,ic. liut will
not our separated brethren have the candor to acknowledge that we
had first possession of the field; that these beneficent movements have
been inaugurated by us, and that the other Christian communities in
their noble efforts for the moral and social regeneration of mankind
have in no small measure been stimulated by the example and emula-
tion of the ancient church?

ii;

Xhe Practical §ervice of the §cience of

f^eligions to the Qause of f^eligious

(Jnity, and to jV^issionary

Enterprise.

Paper by MERWIN-MARIE SNELL.

KLIGION is a universal fact of human experi-
ence There arc people without Gods, with-
out sacred books, without sacraments, with-
out doctrines, if you will — but none without
religion. There is in everj' human breast
an instinct which reaches outward and up-
ward toward the highest truth, the highest
goodness, the highest beauty, and which
testifies at the same time to the existence of
an intimate relation of affection, of honor
and of beauty between each individual per-
son and the surrounding universe.

Everything that exists or can exist may
be an object of religious devotion, for every-
thing is in some sense a compendium of the World-
All and a symbol of creative power, preserving wis-
dom and transforming providence In all the world, from pole to pole outsome^imi
and from ocean to ocean, there lives not one single unperverted human of Religion,
being from whose soul there does not ascend the incense of adoration
and in whose hand is not found the pilgrim staff of duty Mankind is
one in the recognition of the relationship between the individual and
the cosmos, and one in the effort to manifest and perfect that relation-
ship by sacrifice and service. Superimposed upon this universal
foundation of the spiritual sense, as the late Brother Azarias was wont
to describe it, rises a great structure of religious and ethical truths and
principles, regarding which there is a substantial agreement among all
the branches of the human family. If the precise extent of this agree-

817

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HIM

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

incnt can be ncfinitcly ascertained, as well as the exact sipjnificancc and
cause of tlic real or apparent divergencies trom a conunon standard,
either in the way of omission or addition, the way will be prepared for
the complete annihilation of vital religious diflerences, and the placing
of the tacts and principles of religions upon an absolutely inexpung-
'ible basis.

It cannot be too much insisted upon that for a perfect realization
of the highest development and firmest demonstration of religion, the
Anlndisnen.*- perfection of the science of religions is an indispensable condition.
ableConditi.m. uf this fact the fricuds of the world's parliament of religions cannot
permit themselves to doubt; for the parliament itself is a vast hicro-
logical museum, a working collection of religious specimens, having
the same indispensable value to the hierologist that the herbarium has
to the botanist. It is not only an exhibit of religions, but a school of
comparative religion, and every one who attends its .cssions is taking
the hrst steps toward becoming a hierologist.

Under these circumstances it is fitting that the science of religions
should here receive special attention under its own name. And this
all the more as the prejudices and animosities which perpetuate relig-
ious disunion are in a large proi)ortion of cases the result of gross
misconceptions of the true character of the rival creeds or cults. The
anti-Catholic, antiMormon and anti-Semitic agitations in Christen-
dom, and the highly colored pictures of heathen degradation in which
a certain class of foreign missionaries indulge, are significant illustra-
tions of the malignant results of religious ignorance.

No one would hate or despise the Catholic c'.inrrb who knew its
teachings and practices as they really are; no one would exclude the
church of the latter day saints trom the family of the world's relig-
ions who had caught the first glimpse of its profound cosmogony, its
spiritual theology and its exalted morality; no one would fail in
respect to Judaism could he once enter into the spirit of its teaching
and ritual; and no one would attribute a special ignorance and super-
stition to the pagan systems as such who had taken the trouble to
acquaint himself with their phenomena, and, as it were, enter into
union with their inner souls and thus fully perceive the divine truths
upon which they rest.

Those who aspire to prepare themselves to give intelligent assist-
ance to the cause of religious unity by a scientific study of religions
should bear in mmd the following rules:

1. An impartial collection and examinatiotiof data regarding all religions with-
out distinction is of primary imjiortance.

2. It is not necessary ho\veve»-, to doubt or disbelieve one's own creed in order
to give a perfectly unbiased examination to all others.

3. In cases where the facts are in dispute the testimony of the adherents of
the system under consideration must outweigh those who profess some other relig'oi;
or none.

4. The facts collected must be studied in due chronoJogical order, and it is not
legitimate to construct a history of religions based upon a study of contemporary
cults without regard to history.

THE WORLD'S CO.VGHESS OF REL/OfONS.

Hin

ft. Resemblances in nomenclature, in beliefs or in customs must nui bo too
liastiiy iiccepteii as conclusive evidence of the special relationship between systems.

o. Resemblances in ceremonial details must not be considered as necessarily
indicatini^ any fundamental similarity or kinship. ,

7. \\'heii any reli>;ion or any one of its constituent elements appears to be
absurd and false, consider that this appearaiue may result from an error as to the
facts in the case, or misunderstanding of tiie true si^,'niticance of those facts.

It is not necessary to be a scientist by piofi-ssion in order to },'i\e
iiHclli^ent study to the science ot" religions. The priifessioiud hieroio-
^ist analyzes and compares relif^ions from a pure h)ve of his science;
the man of broadeninj^ ciiltme and thoiif^ht may stiiiiy them with the
practical enil of a fuller self-enlightenment ic^ardin^ his duties to (iod
and the race; and the intellijjent relifjious partisan may seek to master,
by means t)f this science, the secret of religious variations and to ob-
tain such a knowletl^c of the relation of other relif^ioiis systems to his
own, their points of ajjreement and contradiction anil their historic
contact as will enable him to carry on a very powerful and fruitful
propajranda.

Missionary work, in particular, cannot dispense with this science.
I do not refer to Christian missions exclusi\ely, but to missionary
work in general, whoever be its objects aiul whatever its aims, and
whether it be Catholic, Protestant, liuddhist, or I\b)slem. I'.very mis-
sionary training school should be a colle^'e of comparative religion. ., ...^
It shoultl be realized that ij^norance and ])rejudice in the propatjandist Hionurj w.'.rk."
are as j^reat obstacles to the spread of any relioion as the same cjual-
ities in those whom it seeks to win, and that the first requisite to suc-
cessful missionary work is a knowledge of the truths and beauties of
the cxistin<j religion, that they may be used as a ])()int d'appui for the
special arguments and claims of that with which it is desired to
replace it.

However, whatever may be the motives of the scientist, the truth
seeker and the i)ropagandist, they must all use the same methods of
impartial research; and all work together, even though it be in spite
of themselves, for the hastening of the day when mutual understanding
and fraternal sympathy, and intelligent appreciation as wide as the
world shall draw together in golden bonds the whole human family.

All true study of the facts of nature and man is scientific study;
all true aspiration toward the ideal of the universe is religious aspira-
tion. Into this iinit)n of religious science all men can enter Catho-
lics, Protestants, Jews, Mormons, Mohammedans, Hindus, Huddhists,
Confucianists, Jains, Taoists, Shintoists, Theosophists, Spiritualists,
theists, pantheists and atheists, and none of them need feel out of
place; none of them need sacrifice their favorite tenets, and none of
them should dare to deny to any of the others a perfect right to stand
upon the same platform of intelligent and impartial inquiry and to
obtain a free and appreciative audience for all that they can say on
their own behalf.

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Yhe §ocial O^^i^e of f^eligious peeling.

Paper by PRINCE SERGE WOLKONSKY, of Russia.

T is tlic custom at the congresses that whenever a
speaker appears on the stage he should be
introduced as the representative either of some
government, or of some nationality, or of some
association, or of some institution, or of any
kind of collective unity that absorbs his indi-
viduality ami classifies him at once in one of
the great divisions of humanity.

My name tonight has not been put in
coimection with any of these classifications,
and it is tpiitc natural that you should ask:
"What does he represent? Does he represent
a government?" No, for I think that no
government as such should have anything to
do with the questions that are going to be treated
here, nor should it interfere in the discussions.
Am I a representative of a nation? No, 1 am not. Why not? I'll
tell you. Some weeks ago I had the honor of speaking in this same
hall on some educational subjects. After I had finished, several Not a Repre-
per.-^ons came to me to express their feelings of sympathy. I recollect seiitntive of a
with a particular thought of thankfulness the good faces of three
colored men, who came with outstretched hands and said:

" We want to thank you because we like your ideas of humanity
and of internationalit\- - we like them."

If I mention the fact it is not because I gather any selfish satis-
faction in doing so, but because I feel happy to live at a time when
the advancement of inventions and ideas made such a fact possible as
that of a stranger coming from across the ocean to this great country
of the New World and being greeted as a brother by children of a
race that a few years ago was regarded as not belonging to humanity.
I feel proud to live in such times, and I am glad to owe the experience
to America.

But that same evening a lad>' came to me with expression of
greatest astonishment and said she was so much surprised to hear

821
8

ill llj:'^

'■'^:.P

!' Ml

I'' I

S^H

Hel i ^ i o 11 H
Feeling in Uen-
era].

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

such ideas, such evidences of the brotherhood of man, advanced by a
Russian

"Why so?" I asked her.

*'■ Because I always thought these ideas were American."

"American ideas? No, madame; these ideas are as little Ameri-
can as they are Russian. They are human ideas, madame, and if you
are a human creature you must nt . be astonished — you have no right
to be astonished — that another human creature spoke to you a lan-
guage that you would have spoken yourself."

No, I am representative of no nationality, of no country. I love
my country; I would not stand at this very place, I would not speak
to you tonight if I did not; but our individual attachment to our own
country is of no good if it does not give to us an impulse to some wider
expansion, if it does not teach us to respect other people's attachment
to their country, and if it does not fill our heart with an ardent wish
that every one's country should be loved by every one.

Now remains a last question: Am I representative of one particu-
lar religion? I am not, for if 1 were I would bring here words of divis-
ion, and no other words but words of union should resound in this
hall. And so I introduce myself with no attributes, considering that
after the permission of the i)resident that confers on a man the right
of appearing on this stage, the mere fact of his being a man — at least
at a religious congress — is a sufiftcient title for deserving your atten-
tion.

Now, we must extend the same restrictions to the subject we are
going to treat. First of all, we settle the point that we are not going
to speak of any particular religion, but of religious feeling in general,
independently of its object. Secondly, we will not speak of the origin
of the religious feeling; whether it is inspired from heaven or it is the
natural development of our human faculties; whether it is a special
gift of the Creator to man or the result of a long process of evolution
that has its beginning in the animal instinct of self-preservation. The
latter theory that places the beginning of religion in the feeling of
fear seems to prevail in modern science and is regarded as one of its
newest conquesfs, although many centuries ago the Latin poet said
that "Primiis in crbe dcos fecit timor. ' A remarkable evolution, in-
deed, that would place the origin of religion in the trembling body of
a frightened mouse, and the end of it on the summit of Golgotha. We
will not contest, but we will invite those who were clever enough to
discover and prove this wonderful process of evolution to pay their
respect and gratitude to Him who made such a process of evolution
possible

Let us forget for once that eternal question of origins. Do you
judge the importance of a river by the narrowness of its source? Do
you reproach the flowers with the putrified elements which nourish its
roots? Now, you see what a wrong way we may take sometimes in in-
vestigating origins. No, let us judge the river by the breadth and
strength of its full stream, and the flower by the beauty of its colors

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

833

and of its odor, and let us not go back nor down to darkness when we
have the chance of living in light. Religious feeling is a thing that
exists, it is a reality, and wherever it may come from it deserves our
attention and our highest respect as the motor of the greatest acts that
were accomplished by humanity in the moral domain.

Two objections may be urged: First, the human sacrifices of ancient
times that were accomplished under prescriptions of religion. To this
we must answer that religious feeling, as everything on earth, requires
a certain time to become clear and lucid; and we can observe that the
mere fact of its gradual development brings up by and by a rejection
and condemnation of those violences and abuses that were considered
incumbent in those prehistoric times when everything was but con-
fusion and in a state of formation. The same religions that started
with human sacrifices led those who followed the development of ideas
and did not stick to the elaboration of rituals — to highest feelings of
humanity and charity. Socrates and Plato wrote the introduction, and
Seneca the first volume of the work that was continued by St. Paul.

The second objection will be the violences accomplished in the
name of Christianity. Religious feeling, it will be said, produces such
atrocities as the inquisition and other persecutions of modern and even
present times. Never, never, never! Never did Christian religicMi in-
spire a persecution. It did inspire those who were persecuted, but not
those who did persecute. What is it that in persecution is the product
of religious feeling? Humility, indulgence, pardon, patience, heroism,
martyrdom; all the rest that constitutes the active elements of a per-
secution is not the work of religion; martyrization, torture, cruelty,
intolerance, are the work of politics; it is authority that chastises in-
subordination, and the fact that authorities throughout history^ have
been often sincerely persuaded that they acted "ad majorem Uci
gloriam," is but a poor excuse for them, an excuse that in itself in-
cludes a crime.

Hut now let us withdraw the question of religious feeling from
history and politics, and let us examine it from the strictly individual
point of view. Let us .see what it gives to a man in his intercourse
with other men, this being the really important point, for we think-
that only in considering the single individual you really embrace the
whole humanity. The moment you consider a collective unity of
several or many individuals you exclude the rest.

. It is that very desire to embrace all humanity that determined us
in the choice of our theme. In fact, what other feeling on earth but
the religious feeling could have the property of reuniting all men on a
common field of discussion and on the same level of competence?
No scientific, no artistic, no political, no other religious subject but
the subject we selected; tliat feeling of our common human nothing-
ness in pre.sence of that unknown but existing being, before whom we
are all equal; who holds us under the control of those laws of nature
that we are free to discover and to study, but cannot transgress with-
out succumbing to their inexorable changelessness, and who regulates

Imlividaal
Point ofView.

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824

TiY^ IVOKLD'S CONGRESS OF KELIGIONS.

Unity and
Happinesa.

our acts by having impressed upon each of us the reflection of Jlim-
selt through that sensitive instrument, the human conscience. If we
appeal to one creed or to one religion, we will always have either a
limited or a divided audience; but if we appeal to the human con-
science, no walls will be able to contain our listeners. All limits and
divisions must fall if only we listen to our conscience. What are
national, or political, or religious differences? Are they worth being
spoken of before an appeal that reunites, not only those who believe
differently, but those who believe with those who do not believe?

This is the great significance of religious feeling I wish to point
out to you. Not the more or less certitude it gives to each individual
of his own salvation in the future, but the softening influence it must
have on the relations of man to man in the present.

Let us believe in our equality; let us not be "astonished" when
life once in a while gives us the chance of experiencing that one
man feels like another man. Let us work for unity and luippiness,
obeying our conscience and forgetting that such things exist as Cath-
olic, or Huddhist, or Lutheran, or Mohammedan. Lot every one keep
those divisions each one for himself and not classify the others; if
some one does not classify himself, and if he does not care to be clas-
sified at all, well, then, let him alone. Vou won't be able to erase him
from the great class of humanity to which he belongs as well as you.
He will fulfill his human duties under the impulse of his conscience
as well as you, and perhaps better; and if a future exists, the God in
whom he did not or could not believe will give him the portion of
happiness he has deserved in making others happy. For what is
morality after all? It is to live so that the God who, according to
some of us, exists in one way, according to some others in another
way; who, according to some others, does not exist at all, but whon-
we all desire to e.xist, that this God should be satisfied with our acts

Yes, Christianity is broad because it teaches us to accept and not to
exclude. If only all of us would remember this principle the ridicu-
lous word of "religion of the future" would disappear once and for-
ever. Of course, as long as you will consider that religion consists in
forms of worshiping that secure to you your individual salvation, the
greatest part of humanity will declare that forms are worn out and
that we need a new "religion of the future." But if you fill yourself
^1 Men the ^^-jth the idea that religion is the synthesis of your beliefs in those pre-
scriptions that regulate your acts toward other men, you will give up
your wanderings in search of new ways of individual salvation, and
you w-ill find vitality and strength in the certitude that we need no
other way but the one shown by the religion that teaches us that all men
are the same, whatever their religion may be.

•

li (■

Xhe \York of §ocial preform in India.

Paper by B. NAGARKAR.

v-^^

HE conquest of India by England is one of the
most astounding marvels of modern history.
To those who are not aciiuainted with the
social and religious condition of the diverse
races that inhabit the vast India peninsula, it
will always be a matter of great wonder as to
how a handful of ICnglish people were able to
bring under their sway such an extensive con-
tinent as liindostan, separated from England
by thousands of miles of the deep ocean and
lofty mountains Whatever the circumstances
of tliis so-called coiupiest were, they were no
more than the long-standing internal feuds and
jealousies — the mutual antipathies and race-
feelings - between caste anil caste, creed and
creed, and community and community, that have been thrown together
in the land of India. The victory of the I^ritish— if victory it can be
called -was mainly due to the internal quarrels and dissensions that
had been going on for ages past between the conflicting and contending
elements of the Indian population. Centuries ago, when such a
miserable state of local division and alienation did not exist in India,
or .it any rate had not reached any appreciable degree, the Hindus
did make a brave and successful stand against powerful armies of
fierce and warliketribcs that led invasion after invasion against the holy
home of the Hindu nation. Thus it was that from time to time hordes
of fierce Hactrians, Greeks, Persians and Afghans were warded off by
the united armies of the ancient Hindus. Time there was when the
social, political and religious institutions of the Aryans in India were
in their pristine purity, and when as a result of these noble institutions
the people were in the enjoyment of undisturbed unity, and so long as
this happy state of things continued the HincUis enjoyed the blessings
of freedom and liberty. Hut time is the great destroyer of everything,
what has withstood the withering influences of that arch-enemy of
every earthly glory and greatness? In proportion as the people of
India became faithless to their ancestral institutions, in the same
proportion they fell in the scale of nations.

F{>11 in the
Senio of Na-
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826

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

. (

it El?

Btate of Dead-
ly Division.

Cload of De-
cay.

At first they fell a prey to one foreign power and then to another,
and then again to a third, and so on, each time degeneration doing the
work of division, and division in its own turn doing the ghastly work of
further and deeper degeneration. About two hundred years ago this
fatal process reached its lowest degree and India was reduced to a
state of deadly division and complete confusion. Internecine wars
stormed the country, and the various native and foreign races then
living in India tried to tear each other to pieces. It was a state of
complete anarchy, and no one could fathom what was to come out of
this universal chaos.

At this critical juncture of time there appeared on the scene a
distant power from beyond the ocean. No one had heard or known
anything of it. The white-faced sahib was then a sheer novelty to the
people of India. To them in those days a white-faced biped animal
was synonymous with a representative of the race of monkeys, and
even to this day, in such parts of India as have not been penetrated by
the rays of education or civilization, ignorant people in a somewhat
serious sense do believe that the white-faced European is perhaps a
descendant of apes and monkeys. For aught I know the ever-shifting,
ever-changing, novelty-hunting philosophies of the occult world and
the occult laws, of spirit presence and spirit presentiment in your part
of the globe may some day be able to find out that these simple and
unsophisticated peojjle had a glimpse of the "Descent of Man" accord-
ing to Darwin. Whatever it may be, no one could ever have dreamt
that the people of England would ever stand a chance of wielding
supreme j)owcr over the Indian peninsula. At first the English came
to India as mere shopkeepers. Not long after they rose to be the
keepers of the country, and ultimately they were raised to be the
rulers of the Indian empire. In all this there was the hand of God.
It was no earthly i)ower that transferred the supreme sovereignty of
Hindostan into the hands of the people of (ireat Britain. Through
the lethargic sleep of centuries the people of India had gone on degen-
erating. Long and wearisome wars with the surrounding countries
had enervated them; the persistent cruelty, relentless tyranny and
ceaseless persecution of their fanatic invaders had rendered them weak
and feeble even to subjection, and a strange change had come over the
entire face of the nation.

The glory of their ancient religion, the purity of their social insti-
tutions and the strength of their political constitution had all been
eclipsed for the time being by a thick and heavy cloud of decay and
decrepitude. For a long time past the country had been suffering from a
numberof social evils, such as wicked priestcraft, low superstition, degrad-
ing rites and ceremonies and demoralizing customs and observances.
It was, indeed, a pitiable and pitiful condition to be in. The chil-
dren of God in the holy Aryavarta, the descendants of the noble Rishis,
were in deep travail. Their deep wailing and lamentation had pierced
the heavens, and the Lord of love and mercy was moved with com-
passion for them. He yearned to help them, to raise them, to restore

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

827

len
Ind
a
id-
les,
lil-
lis,
led
m-
)re

them to their former glory and greatness; but He saw that in the coun-
try itself there was no force or power that He could use as an instru-
ment to work out His divine providence. The powers that were and
long had been in the country had all grown too weak and effete to
achieve the reform and regeneration of India. It was for this purpose
that an entirely alien and outside power was brought in. Thus you
will perceive that the advent of the British in India was a matter of
necessity and, therefore, it may be considered as fully providential.

It is not to be supposed that this change of sovereignty from the
eastern into the western hands was accomplished without any blood- „ „,

111 £ ir 1- ii I • i. • / 1 1 NpwElcmentB

shed or loss or lite, hven the very change in its process introduced of DiBcord.
new elements of discord and disunion, but when the change was com-
pleted and the balance of power established, an entirely new era was
opened up on the field of Indian social and political life. This trans-
fer of power into the hands of your English cousins has cost us a most
heavy and crushing price. In one sense, it took away our liberty; it
deprived us, aiul has been ever since depriving us, of some of our
noblest pieces of ancient art and antiquity which have been brought
over to England for the purpose of adornment of and exhibition in
English museums and art galleries.

At one time it took away from the country untold amounts of
wealth and jewelry, and since then a constant, ceaseless stream of
money has been flowing from India into England. The cost, indeed,
has been heavy, far too heavy, but the return, too, has been inestima-
ble. We have paid in gold and silver, but we have received in exchange
what gold and silver can never give or take away — for the English rule
has bestowed upon us the inestimable boon of knowledge and enlight-
enment. And knowledge is a power. It is with this power that we
shall measure the motives of the English rule. The time will come, as
it must come, when, if our English rulers should happen to rule India
in a selfish, unjust and partial manner, with this same weapon of
knowledge we shall compel them to withhold their power over us. But
I must say that the educated natives of India have too great a confi-
dence in the good sense and honesty of our rulers ever to apprehend
any such calamity.

Our Anglo-Saxon rulers brought with them their high civilization,
their improved methods of education, and their general enlightenment.
We had been in darkness and had well-nigh forgotten ovir bright and
glorious past. But a new era dawned upon us. New thoughts, new
ideas, new notions began to flash upon us one after another. We were
rudely roused from our long sleep of ignorance and sclf-forgctfulness.
The old and the new met face to face. We felt that the old could not Face to^Faoe!*
stand in the presence of the new. The old we began to see in the light
of the new, and we soon learned to feel that our country and society
had been for a long time suffering from a number of social evils, from
the errors of ignorance and from the evils of superstition. Thus wc
began to bestir our.sclves in the way of remedying our social organiza-
tion. Such, then, were the occasion and the origin of the work of
gocial reform in India.

■■''\'-r.

: ■ i|

: I ^1

828

THE IVORLD'S COXGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

h \

I ^ii

Caste.

Before I proceed further, 1 imist tell you that the work of reform

Work of Ro- in India has a twofold aspect. In the first place, we have to revive

"""' many of our ancient religious and social institutions. Throut^h aj^es of

ijjnorancc they have been lost to us, and what we need to do in regard

to these institutions is to bring them to life again.

So far as religious progress and spiritual culture are concerned,
we have little or nothing to learn from the west, beyond your com-
pact and atlvanced methods of comI)ination, co-operation and organ-
ization. This branch of reform 1 st>le as reform b>' revisal. In the
second place, we have to receive some of your western institutions.
These are mostly political, industrial and educational; a few social.
But in every case the process is a com|)osite one. I'or what we are to
revive we have often to remodel, antl what we have to receive we have
often to recast. Hence our motto in e\ery department of reform is,
"Adapt before you ailojjt." I shall now proceed to inilicate to you
some of the social reforms that we ha\e been trying to effect in our
country.

The abolition of caste — what is this Hindu institution of caste? In
the social dictionary of India, "caste" is a most difficult word for you
to understand. Caste may be defined as the classification of a society
inBtitutionof on the basis of birth and parentage. l'"ore.\ami)le, the son or daughter
of a priest must always belong to the caste of priests or Brahmans,
even though he or she may never choose to follow their ancestral
occupation. Those who are born in the famil)' of soldiers belong to
the soldier caste, though the\' may ne\er prefer to go on butchering
men. Thus the son of a grocer is born to be called a grocer, and the
son of a shoemaker is fated to be calleil a shoemaker. Originall)',
there were only four castes the Brahman, or the priest; Kihateiya, or
the soldier; Vaishja, or the merchant, and Shudra, cjr the serf. And
these four ancient castes were not based on birth, but on occupation or
profession. In ancient India, the children of Brahman parents often
took to a martial occujiation, while the sons of a soklier were (piite
free to choose a peaceful occupation if they liked. But in modern
India, by a strange process, the original four castes have been multi-
plied to no end and ha\ e been fixed most hard and fast. Now you find
perhaps as many castes as there are occupations. There is a regular
scale and a grade. Vou have the tailor caste and the tinker caste, the
blacksmith caste and the goldsmith caste, the milkman caste antl the
carpenter caste, the groom caste and the sweeper caste. The opera-
tion of caste may be said to be confined principally to matters of
first, food and drink; second, matrimony and adoption; third, the per-
formance of certain religious rites and ceremonies.

Each caste has its own code of laws and its own system of observ-
ances. They will eat with some, but not with others. The higher
ones will not so much as touch the lower ones. Intermarriages are
strictly prohibited. Why, the proud and haughty Brahman will not
deign to bear the shadow of a .Shudra or low caste. In the west you
l^ave social classes, we, in India, have "castes." But remember that

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RK/.HJfONS.

S20

kcrv-

|ghcr

arc

not

you

that

"classes" with you arc a purely social institution, havin^f no rclif^ious
sanction. "Castes" with us arc essential!)- a rcli_Ljious institution, based
on the accident of birth and parentatje. With a view to illustrate the

diff

erence

bet

ween "classes" and "castes

I in

I)' sa\'

that

in wes

tern

countries'the lines of social division are parallel, but horizontal, anil,
therefore, ran,L(in^ in the social strata one above another. In India
these lines are perpendicular and, therefore, running from the top to
the bottom of Llic bodysociai,dividinL;andse[)aratint^one social stratum
from every other. The former arraiiL^ement is a source of strenj^th
and support and the latter a source of alienation and weakness. Per-
haps at one time in the history of India when the co.idition of things
was entirely different and when the numl)er of these castes was not so
lar^e, nor their nature so ri;j;id as now, the institution of caste did
serve a hi<i[h purpose; l)ut now it is lon<^r, too lontj, since ihat social
condition underwent a chanije. Under those ancient social ami ])olit-
ical en\ironments of liulia the institution of caste was {^really helpful
in ccntrali/injf and transmitting- professional knowled^^e of arts and
occupations, as also in <^roupiiiL;, l)indin<r toLjether and preserving,' intact

e various LTuilils and artisan eommunilie.'-

lUit

centuries atro that

social and pt)litical environment ceased to exist, while the mischiev-

Caste

ous macliuiery ot caste contnuies m lull swmtj up to tins day. Last
in India has divided the mass of Hindu society into imuunerable
classes and cli(|ues. It has created a sjjirit of extreme exclusiveness;
it has crowded anil killed les^itimate ambition, health)- enterprise and
combined adventure. It has fostered eii\)- ami jealous)- between class
and class and set one community aL^ainst another.

It is an unmitigated evil and the veriest social and national curse.
Much of our national and domestic ile;4radation is due to this perni- Must Be Pat
cious caste system. Vounj^ India has been full)- convinced that if the Down.
Hindu nation is once more to rise to its former i,dory and greatness
this dot^ma of caste must be put down. The artificial restrictions and
the unjust — nay, in man)- cases, inhuman and unhuman — ilistinctions
of caste must be abolished. Therefore, the first item on the pro-
gramme of social reform in India is the abolition of caste and further-
ance of free and brotherly intercourse between class and class as also
between iniliviilual and indi\ idual, irrespective of the acciilent of his
birth and parentage, but mainly on the recognition of his moral worth
and goodness of heart.

Freedom of intermarriage. Intermarriage, that is marriage be-
tween the members of two different castes, is not allowed in India.
The code of caste rules does not sanction any such unions under any
circumstances. Nccessaril)-, therefore, they have been marrying and
marrying for hundreds of )-ears within the jiale of their own caste.
Now, many castes and their substances are so small that the)' are no
larger than mere handfuls of families. These marriages within such
narrow circles not onh' prevent tiie natural and healthy flow of fellow-
feeling between the members of different classes, but, according to
the law of evolution as now fully demonstrated, bring on the degener-

^ii

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.1

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i t

Betrothal
Ckiidren.

830

n/E n'ORLD'S CONGRESS OF HEL/G/OA'S,

ation of the race. The profjeny of such parents rjo on degenerating
physically and mentally anil, therefore, theic should be a certain
amount of freedom for intermarriage. It is evident that this question
of intermarriage is easily solved by the abolition of caste.

Preveiiticjii of infant marriage. Among the higher castes of Hin-
dus it is (juite customary to have their children married when they ari-
as young as seven or eight; in cases not very infrequent as young as
four and five.

Evidently these marriages are not real marriages — they are mere
betrothals; but, so far as inviolability is concernetl, they are no less
binding upon the innocent parties than actual consummation of mar-
riage. Parties thus wedded together at an age when they are utterly
incapable of uncUrstanding the relations between man and woman,
and without their consent, are united with each other lifelong, and can-
of not at any time be separated from each other even by law, for the
Hindu law does not admit of any divorce. This is hard ami cruel. It
often happens that infants that are thus married together do not grow
in love. When they come of age they come to dislike each other,
and then begins the misery of their existence. They, perhaps, hate
each other, and \'ct they are expected to live together by law, by usage
and by social aliment. Vou can picture to yourselves the untold
misery of such unhappy pairs. Happily, man is a creature of habits,
and providence has so arranged that, generally speaking, we come to
tolerate, if not to like, whatever our lot is cast in with. Hut even if
it were only a question of likes and dislikes, there is a large number of
young couples in India that happen to draw nothing but blanks in this
lottery of infant marriage. In addition to this serious evil there are
other evils more pernicious in their effects connected with infant mar-
riage. They are physical and intellectual decay and degeneracy of
the indivitlual and the race, loss of individual independence at a very
early period of life when jouths of either sex shoukl be free to acquire
knowledge and work out their own place and ])osition in the world,
consequent penury and poverty of the race, anil latterly, the utterly
hollow and unmeaning character imposed upon the sacred sacrament
of marriage. These constitute only a few of the glaring evils of
Hindu infant marriage. On the score of all these the system of
Hindu infant marriage stands condemned, and it is the aim of every
social reformer in India to suppress this degrading system. Along
with the spread of education the public opinion of the country is being
steadily educated and, at least among the enlightened classes, infant
marriages at the age of four and five are simply held up to ridicule.
The age on an average is being raised to twelve and fourteen, but noth-
ing short of sixteen as the minimum for girls and eighteen for boys
would satisfy the requirements of the case. One highest ideal is to
secure the best measure possible; but where the peculiar traditions,
customs and sentiments of the people cannot give us the best, we have,
for the time being, to be satisfied with the next best, and then again
keep on demanding a higher standard.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUGIOXS.

08t

tlllllH

The marriapjc laws in jjcncral — the Hiiulu maniarjo laws aiul cus-
toms-were furnuilattjcl and systcniati/eil in the most ancient ot times,
and viewed under the li^ht of modern times and western thouijht they
would require in many a considerable radical rel\)rm and recasting'.
l'"or instance, why should women in India be compcllfd to niarr\?
Why should they not be allowed to choose or refuse matrimoiu- just i,hw"uui1
as women in western countries are? Why should bii,faniy or poly^iuny
be allowed l)\ Hindu law? Is it not the hij^hest piece of injustici- that
while woman is allowed to marry but once, man is allowed ( !)>■ law ) to
marry two, or more than two, wives at one and the same time? \\ liy
should the law in India not allow divorce under any circumstances?
Why should a woman not be allowed to have (within the lifetime of
her husband) her own personal property, over which he shouUl have
no ri^ht or control? These, and similar to these, are the problems that
relate to a thorouLjh reform of the marriage laws in India, lint situ-
ated as we are at present, society is not ripe even for a calm and dis-
passionate discussion of these, much less then for an)' acceptance of
them, even in a iiualified or modified form. However, in the distant
future people in India shall have to face these problems. They cannot
avoid them ft)rcver. lUit as my time is extremely limited, you will
pardon me if I avt)id them on this occasion.

Widow marriaj^e. Vou will be surprised to hear that Hindu
widows from amonj,^ the hij^her castes are not allowed to marry attain.
I can understand this restriction in the case of women who ha\e
reached a certain 'imit of advanced a^e, thoui^h in this country it is
considered to be in perfect accord with social usas^e even for a widow
of three score and five to be on the lookout fcjr a luisband, especially
if he can be a man of substance, Hut cert.iinly you can never com-
prehend what diabolical offense a child widow of the tender af^e of
ten or twelve can have committed that she should be cut away from
all marital ties and be compelled to pass the remainin^^ days of her
life, however lon<^ they may be, in perfect loneliness and seclusion.
Even the very idea is sheer barbarism and inhumanity. Far be it from
me to convey to \-ou, even by implication, that the Hindu home is
necessarily a place of misery and disc(Md, or that true happiness is a
thing never to be found there. Banish all such idea if it should have
unwittingly taken possession of your minds.

Happiness is not to be confounded with palatial dwellings, gor-
geously fitted with soft scats and yielding sofas, with magnificent cos-
tumes, with gay balls or giddy dancing parties, nor with noisy revel-
ries or drinking boul.--' and card tables, and as often, if not oftcner, in
that distant lotus land, as in your own beloved land of liberty, you
will come across a young and blooming wife in the first flush of im-
petuous youth, who, when suddenly smitten with the death of the lord
of her life, at once takes to the pure and spotless garb of a poor
widow, and with devout resignation awaits for the call from above to
pass into the land which knows no parting or separation. But these
are cases of those who are capable of thought and feeling. What scn-

a r r I II K i>
I'lm-

Widow Miir-
riaKi'.

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fill

832

TtT£ wokLUS cojvoJi£ss oh^ ki:LiGioNs,

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timcnt of devoted love can you expect from a girl of twelve or four-
teen whose ideas are so simple and artless and whose mind still lingers
at skippinjj and dollmakin^i? What sense and reason is there in ex-
pecting her to remain in tiiat condition of forced, artificial, lifeloiif^
widowhood? Oh, the lot of such child-widows! How shall I dei)ict
their mental misery and sulferinj^s? Lanj^nia^'e fails and imagination
is baffled at the task. Cruel fate — if there be any such power— has
already reduced them to the condition of widows, and the heartless,
pitiless customs of the country barbarously shave them of their beau-
tomB'**** ^"*' *'^"' hair, divest them of every ornament or adornment, contlne them
to loneliness and seclusion; nay, teach people to hale and avoitl them
as objects indicating something supremely ominous and inauspicious.
Like bats and owls, on all occasions of mirth and merriment they must
confine themselves to their dark cells and close chambers. The unfort-
unate Hindu widow is often the tirudge in the family; every worry
and all work that lU) one in the family will e\ er do is heaped on her
head, and yet the terrible mother-in-law — the mother-in-law in every
country is the same execrable and inexorable character — will almost
four times in the hour visit her with cutting taunts and sweeping
curses. No wonder that these poor forlorn and persecuted widows
often drown themselves in an adjoining jjooI or a well or make a qui-
etus to their life by draining the poison cup. After this I need hardly
say that the much-needed reform in this matter is the introduction of
widow marriages.

The Hiiulu social reformer seeks to introduce the practice of
allowing such widows to marry again. As long ago as fifty jears one
of our great jnindits, the late pundit V. .S. of liombay, raised this
question and fought it out in central and northern India with the ortho-
dox lirahmans. The same work and in a similar spirit was carried
out in Bengal and northern India by the late Ishwar Ch. V. .Sagar, »jf
Calcutta, who died oidy two years ago. These two brave souls were
the Luther and Knox of India. Their cause has been espoused by
many others, and until today, perhaps, about two hundred wiilow mar-
riages have been celebrated in India. The orthoilo.x Hindus as j-et
have not begun to entertain this branch of reform with any degree of
favor, and so any one who marries a widow is put under a social ban.
He is excommunicated; that is, no one would dine with him. or enter-
tain any idea of intermarriage with his children or descendants. In
spite of these difficulties the cause of widow marriage is daily gaining
strength, both in opinion and adherence.

The position of woman. A great many reforms in the Hindu
social and domestic life cannot be effected until and unless the ques-
tion as to what position does a woman occupy with reference to man
of is solved and settled. Is she to be recognized as man's superior, his
equal or his inferior? The entire problem of Hindu reform hinges on
the position that people in India will eventually ascribe to their
women. The question of her position is yet a vexed question in such
advanced countries as England and Scotland. Here in your own

Position
Woman.

llinilu
; qucs-
to man
or, his
n<rcs on
o their
in such
ur own

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUGIOSS.

Nja

country of the states you hfivc, I presume to think, ^ivcn her a supe-
rior place in wliat you call the social circle and a place of full equal ;ty
in the paths and provinces of ordinary lilc. Thus my American sis-
ters are free to compete with man in the race for life. Both enjoy the
same, or nearlj' the same, rif^hts and pri\ ilc^^es. In India it is entirely
different. The Hindu lau^nviMs wxte all men, and, \vliatc\-er others
may say about them, I must say that in this one particular respect, viz,
that of {.jiving woman her own |)lace in society, they were very partial
and short-sighted men. They have ^iven her quite a secondary place.
In Indian dramas, poems and rorrances you may in many places fuid
woman siioken of as the "^^oddess" of the house and the "deity of the
palace;" i)ut that is no more than a poet's conceit, and indicates a state
of thin[,'s that lon^. lon^ a^o used to be rather than at present is.

For every sucli passa^^e you will find the other passatjes in which
the readers are treated with terse dissertations and scattering lam-
poons on the so-called innate dark character of woman. The entire
thouf^ht of the country one finds saturated with this idea. The Hindu
hails the birth of a son with noisy demonstrations of joy and feast-
ing;; that of a female chilli as the advent of somethinf,^ that lie would
most jjlaiUy avoid if he could. The bias l)e<;ins here at her very birth.
Whatever may be the rationale of this state of things, no part of the
progranmie of Hindu social reform can e\er be successfully carried
out until woman is reco_ti;ni/ed as man's eipial, his conq)'inion and co-
worker in every part of life; not his handmaid, a tool or an instru-
ment in his hand, a puppet or a playthiiifr, fit o\\\y for the hours of
amusement and recreation. To me the work of social reform in India
means a full reco<;nition of woman's position. The education and
enlightenment of women, ^rantin^ to them liberty ami freedom to
nu)ve about freely, to think and act for themselves, liberatinpf them
from the prisons of lontj-locked zenana, extending; to them the same
rijijhts and privilej^es, are some of the grandest problems of Hindu
social reform.

These are the lines of our work. \Vc have been workint;- out the most
intricate problems of Hiiulu social reform on these lines. We know
our work is hard, but at the same time we know that the Almit^dity
Goil, the father of nations, will not ft)rsake us; only we must be faith-
ful to Him, His jruiding spirit. And now, my brethren and sisters in
America, God has made you a free people. Liberty, etiuality and
fraternity are the guiding; words that you have pinned on your banner
of progress and advancement. In the name of that libert)' of thought
and action, for the sake of which your noble forefathers forsook their
ancestral homes in far-off Europe, in the name of that equality of
peace and position which you so much prize and which you so nobly
exemplify in all your social and national institutions, I entreat you,
my beloved American brothers and sisters, to grant us your blessings
and good wishes, to give us your earnest advice and active co-opera-
tion in the realization of the social, political and religious aspirations
of young India.

Work of So.
ciiil Kifform.

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Religion and \^ealth.

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Paper by REV. WASHINGTON GLADDEN, D. D.

I'",LI(il()N .111(1 Wc'illli arc two ^nval interests;
c)i liuiiian life. Are they hostile or trieiidly?
Are they mutually exrliisive, or can they
(Iwell tof^ether in luiity? lii a perfect social
.state what woukl he their relations?

What is reli^non? Ivsseiitially it is the

devout reco,L,Miition of a Supicnie i'ouer. It

is belief in a Creator, a .Sov.-rei^M), a l*"ather

_^^ ^—^,. , of men, with sonie sense of (lepeiulence u])on

S^B^Hn^i ^^»^ llim and obligation to I lim. The reli^'ious

^ajH^wB^ki^*^'"'^^ ^^^'^ is the keynote is harmony with the di\ine
•^Su^Srmi^^sSf ■)<iti>i'*^ 'I'^'l conformity to the divine will.
"^^'^-^^'^^^^ What will the man who is living; this kind

of life think about wealth? flow will his
)n affect his thouj,dits about wealth? If all men
were in this highest sense cjf the word relif^doiis,
should we have wealth amonj; us?

To answer this (juestion intelli^aMitly we must first define wealth.
The economists have had much disputation over the word, but for our
pur|)oses we may safely define wealth as consistinij in e.\chan^reai)ie
jjoods. All products, commodities, riijhts which men desire and whicii
in this commercial a^e can be exchanged for monr)-, we mav inclucie
under this term. Hut the cjuestion before us has in \ iew the abun-
dance, tlie profusion of e.xchan^eable t^oods now existinij in all civilized
nations. There is vastly more in the hands of the men of l^urope and
America today than suffices to supply their immediate ph)'sical nect's-
sities. Vast stores of food, of fuel, of clothinc;' and orn.Mnent.of luxu-
ries of all sorts, millions of costl\- homes, filleil with all manner of com-
forts and adornments, enormous a^^^n-e^ations of machinery for the
production and transi)ortation of exchan^^eable floods — these are a few
of the si<^ns of that abundance toward which our thouj^ht is now di-
rected.

Our ciuestion is whether, if all men lived according to God, in
perfect harmony with His thought, in perfect conformity with His will,

835

VVcultli Dofint'd

\'W

' " I,

s;](5

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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Virtue.

the world would contain su^h an abundance of exchangeable goods as
that which we now contcni[)late?

This is a question which the devout have long debated. Through
long periods and over wide eras the prevalent conception of religion
has involved the renunciation of riches. The life of the pious Brah-
man culminates in mendicancy; he reaches perfection only when he
rids himself of all the goods of this world.

liuddhism does not demand of all de\otees the ascetic life, but its
eminent saints adopt this life, and poverty is regarded as the indis-
,, ,. nensable condition of the highest sanctity. The sacred order founded

tn HuddhisUc by (jautama was an order of mendicants, ilirce garments of cotton
cloth, made from casi-off rags, are the monk's whole wardrobe, and
the only additional possessions allowed him are a girdle for the loins,
an almsbowl, a razor, a needle ami a water strainer. The monastic
rule has had wide \-ogue. however, in Christian conmiunions, and great
numbers of saintly men have adopted the rule of poverty. Many
of the early Christian fathers use \ery strong language in denouncing
the possession of wealth as essential!}- irreligious.

The corner-stone of monasticism is the sanctity of poverty. It is
not too much to say that for ages the iileal of saintliness involved the
reinmciation of wealth. Nor is this notion contlned to ti)e monar.tic
ages or the monastic conununities. There are man\' good I'rotestants,
e\en in these da\s, who feel that there is ;'.n essential incompatibility
between the jxissession of wealth ami the attaimnent of a high degree
of spiritualil}-.

DouJMless the ascetic doctrine respecting wealth finds support in
certain texts in the New Testament. " Ve cannot serve tiod and

ISI;

unmon.

ilow hardlv shall tlu'v that have riches enter into the

kMiiidom of (ioil.

Whosoever he be of \ou that renounceth not all

that lie hath he cannot be "Sly disciple.

wil

iK)t !)e difticult for the student to find other words of jesus

relating to the possession

and tl

le use o

f th

e Lfood thmus ol

IS wor

in wliich the siibjt'ct is j)!aced in a different light. The fact that several
rich men are mentioned as friends of Jesus must also be taken into
consideration. The ascetic doctrine with regard to wealth cannot, I
think, be clearh' (hawii from tiie New Testament. Nevertheless, this
doctrine has greatl)' inlluenceil the thought, if not tiie life, of the
(ilnistian churcii.

Tiiis feeling has been strengthened also b\- the aliuses of wealth.
fjra\e these ainises have always been 1 need not try to tell;

s words.

1 low-
it is the most threadl)are of truisms. Lovi' of inone\-, in Paul

A b u rt u (J
Wfaltli.

f has been " a rocjt of all kinds of evil." The desire of wealth is the
parent of pride, ant! extortion, and cruelty, and oppression; it is the
minister of treason, and corrujition, and bribery in the comnu)nwcalth;
it is the purve)-or of lust and debauchery; it is the instigator of count-
1

ess crimes.

It is in these alnises of wealth, doubtless, that devout men have

found the chief r

nise
easo

or their skepticism concerning it and their rc-

■ipi^f

dsas

i^nih-
;n Ui^

Hit its
indis-
aiulccl
;ott()n
c. and

loins,
)nastic
1 <^rcat

1^1 any
uncin'^

;. Iti^
vcd the
lonaf.tic
xstants,
latibility
\ dc^r^"-'

■)port in
od and
nlo the
li not all

A jcsus

is world
xl several

<cn into
cannot, I
olcss. this
:c. ot the

ol wealth.

•y to tell;

iVs words,
M is the
it is the

uonwealth;

,r ot count-
men have

ul their rc-

alii

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIC IONS.

S:-}7

nunciation of it. It is often difficult for ardent rind strenuous souls to
distinguish between use and abuse. What is the truth in Lh is case? Do
the anchorites ritjhtly interpret the will of God? Is their manner of
life the perfect life? Would Gotl be better jileased with men if they
had no possessions beyond the supply of the actual needs of the
hour?

The earth's riches are simjily the development of the earth's re-
sources. It is plain that these material resources of the earth readily
submit themselves to this process of development under the haud of
man. Is it not c'lually plain that these processes of tlevelopment
have followed, for the most part, natural laws; that these t^rains, and
fruits, and roots, ami li\ int^ creatures have simply been aided by man
in fulfilling the law of their own life?

In order that men may reach intellectual and s[)iritual pcrfectioii
there must be opportunity for stud\', for meditation, for commuuion
with nature. Tliere must be time and facilities for travel, that tiie prod-
ucts and thoughts of all climes may be studied and compared; that
human experience may be enlarged and human s\'mjiathies broadened
and deepened. It is no more p(jssii)le that hnmanit}' should attain its
ideal perfection in po\ert\- than that maize should flourish in Green-
land.

If. then, the material wealth of the world consists simply in the wmiththe
development of powers witii which nature h;'s been stocked by the ni'vclopment
Creator, and if this de\elopment is the necessmy condition of the per- °' ' ''^"''''•
fection of man, who is made in the image of (iod, it is certain that in
the production of wealth, in th.e multiplication of exchangealjle utilities,
man is a co-worker with (ioil.

So much has religion to say concerning the proiluction of wealth.
I am sure that the verdict of tlie religious consciousness on this part
of the (piestion must be clear and unfaltering.

lUit there is another important impiiry. That we;dth should exist
is plainly in accordance with the will of (ioil, but in whose hands?
Religion justifies the production of wealth; what has religion to say
aI)out its distribution? The religious man must seek to be a co U(,rker
with Ciod, not only in the production, but also in the distribution of
wealth. Can we discover God's plan for this distribution?

It is pretty clear that the world has not as yet discovered (.iod's
plan. The existing distribution is far from being ideal. While tens
of thousands are rioting in superfluit\-, hundreds of thousands are suf-
fering for the lack of the necessaries of life; some are e\en starving.
That the suffering is often due Xo indolence and iini)rovidence and \ice,
a natural jienalty which ought not to lie set aside, ma\' l)e freel)'
admitted, but when that is all taken account of there is agreatdeal of
penury left which it is hartl to justify in view of the opulence every-
where visible.

What is the rule by which the wealtii of the world is now distrib-
uted? Fund;imentall>-. I think, it is the rub of the strongest. The
rule has been greatly moditied in the progress of civilization; a great

;'i

1 •

■i< ■■ ;

838

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Works
GreoJ.

many kinds of violence are now prohibited; in many ways the weak
are protected by law against the encroachments of the strong; human
rapacity is confined 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 essen-
tially as Rob 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 cannot 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.

The ability of men productively and beneficently to use wealth is
bj- no means equal; often those who have most power in getting it
shovv little wisdom in using it. One man could handle with benefit to
himself and fellows Sioo.ooo a year; another could not handle Si.ooo
a year without doing both to himself and his fellows great injury. If
the function of wealth under the divine order is the development of
manhood, then it is plain that an equal distribution of it would be alto-
gether inadmissible; for under such a distribution some would obtain
far less than they could use with benefit and others far more.

The socialistic maxims: "To each according to his needs," and
" To each according to his worth," are evidently ambiguous. What
needs? The needs of the body or of the spirit? And how can we
assure ourselves that by any distribution which we could effect real
needs would be supplied? Any distribution according to supposed
needs would be constantly perverted? It is impossible for us to ascer-
tain and measure the real needs of men.

"To each according to his works" is equally uncertain. What
works? Works of greed or works of love? Works whose aim is .sordid
or works whose aim is social? According to the divine plan the func-
tion of wealth, as we have seen, is the perfection of character and the
promotion of social welfare. The divine plan must, therefore, be that
wealth shall be so distributed as to secure the greatest results. And
religion, which seeks to discern 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.

It is obvious that the divine plan is yet far from realization.
Other and far less ideal methods of distribution are recognized by our
laws, and it would be folly greatly to change the laws until radical
changes have taken place in human nature.

What
sordid
func-
d the
3C that
And
teach
when
mself a
unity;

■ * ! V

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''■'■^

Marriage
bttcramuut.

Yhe C^thoHc Church and the JV^arriage

Bond.

Paper by PROF. MARTIN J. WADE, University of Iowa.

PON the great question of marriage and
the effect of the marriage bond, as upon
all other questions involving moral and
social duties and obligations, the Cath-
olic church speaks with an unfaltering
voice. "What therefore God hathjoined
together let no man put asunder," has
been adopted as the true doctrine of the
church; and, through the darkness and
the light, the successes and reverses of
Christian civilization, those sacred words
have been breathed down through the
ages, a solemn benediction upon indi-
viduals and upon society.
Divinely instituted in the beginning, mar-
riage, throughout all the ages before the Chris-
tian era, was a recognized institution among
tiie ciiildren of men. In the chaos incident
to the moral darkness which preceded the
Dawn is true it lost much of its sanctity; but, when the Light came, that
divine institution was again impressed with the seal of divinity and
was honored by being elevated to the tlignity of a sacrament

The teaching of the Catholic churcii is, therefore, that marriage
is a sacraiwcnt that true marriage properly entered into by compe-
tent persons is of a threefold nature— a contract between the persons
joined in wedlock, a contract between the persons joined in wedlock
and society- the .State, and a solemn compact between the contracting
parties and God. The difference which is seen between this view of
marriage and the civil conception of marriage is that in the latter the
only recognized elements are the personal obligations one to the
other and the joint and several obligations to the state. The most
liberal will not claim that marriage is a mere contract of the parties.

S4()

m..

THE WORLD'S COXGKESS OF REUGICA'S.

841

The civil law teaches that by marriapfc each party assumes certain
duties and responsibilities toward the other; both parties assume cer-
tain duties and responsibilities toward society, and S(jcicty in turn
assumes certain duties toward tlie family relation newly established.
Laws are made for the enforcement of these vari(nis duties and the
protection of these rights. And while the stale ijuards the individuals
and protects their rij^dits, she is jealous of her own.

One of the duties assumed hy the ccjutractiiiLj parties is, that they
shall live tot^cther as husband and wife, maintaining^ tlieir family in
peace with their fellowmen, and so educatint^ their children as to
make them pjood citizens, ^ood members of society.

It is well settled in our juris|)rudence that the contractinff parties
cannot by mutual consent dissolve the marriage bond ( in this it diifers
from the ordinary contract), but that in order to srver the union the
other party to the contract must be consulted, in other words, the
state must consent. The Catholic church ^^oes a step farther and holds
that Cjod is a party to the contract, and that even w ith the consent of
the state, expressed by the dc;crees of her courts, the sacred tie cannot
be severed, but that it is bindinj^ until dissolved by the solemn decree
of God, which is death.

The church points to the words of God Himself; she points to
marriage, which from its very nature must be indissoluble, and she
])oints to society and the intimate relation which marriai:^e bears to it,
and she sa\'s: "Marria,<,fe is not alone of this earth, but is also of the
kingdom of God; in so far as it is of this earth, let earthl)' courts
j^overn and control; but in so far as it is of a his/her power, let that
higher power speak."

To the Catholic church marriage is something holy. "For tliis
cause shall man leave father and mother and cleave unto his wife." It
is to her a solemn compact for life — a compact which, when once val-
idly made and consummated by competent parties, cannot be com-
pletely (hssolved by jutlge, by priest, l)\' bishop nor poj^e; by none can
it be dissolved save by Him who created the sacred relation, God
Himself.

JMany erroneously believe that the pope grants divorces; but in the
almost nineteen centuries of the history of the church the first decree
of divorce has yet to come from Rome. ()n the contrary, the sacred
pontiffs ha\e stood, a wall of brass, in ever\' age, against tiie violation
of the marriage bond. Histor\' speaks of tlie many iii^tjuiccs where
the laws of Christian marriage were sought to be set aside by those
high in |)ouer, and the brightest pages in the history of the: li\cs of the
popes are those which tell of the patient resign>iti(Ui with which they
withstood entreaty, threats and even torture in defending the sanctity
of marriage. They ha\e been no respecter of persons To the rich
and to the poor, to the prince and peasant seeking an absolute disso-
lution of the marriage botul, the same answer has been made.

From the throne ha\e come, first entreaties, then threats, and,
these being unavailing, even armies have been sent. Rome has been
64

MiiirinKe Tie
Cannot lioS<iV-
ercil.

Some t li i n g
Holy.

N( ) Decrw of
Divorce from
Uouif.

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842

T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

besieged, priests and people maltreated, ciiurchcs desecrated, the cioss,
the emblem of Christianity, tt)rn to the ground, the pope imprisoned
and forced to endure luinjjjer and thirst; hut above the ilin of battle,
out from the dust of destruction— from the prison door,above the noise
of the clankinjj chains, has been heard comint; from the cpiiverin^ lips
of the pontiff: "What, therefore, God hath joined together let no man
put asunder."

"If the i)opes," says the Protestant writer. Von IVIueller, "could
hold up no other merit than that which they gained by protecting
monogamy against the brutal lusts of those in power, notwithstanding
bribes, threats and persecution, that alone would render them im-
mortal for all future ages."

The church is condemned, by those who know not, for compel-
ling persons who have entered the marriage state to live together,
regardless of the faults of one or the other. This is an error; the
church teaches that man and wile should live together; she imposes
upon husband and wife the solemn duties of sharing in the joys and
sorrows of each other, but she by no word holds virtue chained in the
grasp of vice, nor compels the sober wife to submit to the brutal treat-
ment of the drunken husband. The object of her teachings is to pro-
mote virtue, and when contact longer breeds \ ice. when a soul, whether
it be of a husband or wife or child, is in danger; where the boily, the
casket of the soul, is in danger (if serious injury, she not only permits
but advises her children to ii\e separate and ajiart. And in such cases
she permits the strong arm of the law to interpose between husband
and wife, to shield the weak from the strong, l^.xercising no civil
authority, she permits her children, in the proper case, to seek the
. solace of the law, and, in' proper decree in the civil courts, to erect a
barrier against vice, wrong and injustice. Hut to her the divorce abso-
lute of the civil courts is of no more effect, except as it affects civil
rights, than the divorce tr //wf/sa if tlioro. In her eyes the mystical
bond of marriage is e\'er existing until "death does them part."

.So that while civil divorces are i)ermitted in cases where the facts
justify a separation, neither party can, while the other lives, enter into
another valid marriage. The church, therefore, admonishes those who
CivilDlvorces 'ire about to marry to consider well the stej) they are about to
Permitted. take; she throws about them such protection as she can by requir-
ing the " publication of the bans" in order to prevent secret marriages,
and to circumvent the scheme of any adventurer or other unworthy
person, who, by secret marriage, would pollute innocence and ruin a
young life.

It is liberty of remarriage after divorce which encourages divorce.
We know that in the marital relations differences arise which seem to
point to separation as the only remedy. We know that the wrongs of
one may be such that common humanity dictates that the other be
freed from the bonds which have become unbearable. We may even
admit what is claimed by the advocates of divorce, that it seems in
one sense to be an injustice to compel the innocent to remain unmarried

ce.

von

s in

iod

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS.

M-13

after divorce because of the wroiH^s of the wicked. l)ut it must be
remembered that laws cannot be framed to suit tiie individual case.
Laws and rules of life must be enacted with a \iew to the conmuni
^ood of humanity at larL;e. y\n individual case of apparent injustic e
arisini; from a law is no ars^ument ai;ainst its pnjprietw It is said that
such a rule destroys iiutividual liberty, but no, the contract to be
bindinj.; must, in the first instance, be the \oluntary act of the parties.
If it is understood that the bond is to remain unbroken durin;^ life, it
is one of the conditions to which consent is ijiven.

Hut it is said, as one of the parties has brokin his vow, the other
is not bound; but we sa\', societ)-, — the state — (lod, has not violated the
contract, and it is still in force luitil all atjree to a dissolution

As a matter of fact, in actual life, it is not the innocent or wrontfed
one who usually seeks remarriaije; on the contrar\', it is the one who
has violated the most solemn obliijations, who has trampled upon
riffht, broken the heart of iniy)cence, aiul, by his own acts, forced the
other party to the divorce court for protection of life and honor. In
many cases it is ai)[)afent that the wnuij^s ha\e been inllicted with the
purpose of forcintf a separation and consetiuent divorce in order to
enable the wronj^doer to attain take the vows of marriat^e, to be in
turn vicdated as whim or j)assi(.)n m;iy dictate

The wront^doer, free from the boiuls of matrimoiu', free from the
care of children — for it is to the innocent part}' their cuslod\' is j^iven
by the court— free even from the obligation to support in most cases,
goes out into st)ciety a threateniiiLj blij^ht to innocence and purit)-.

It is this condition that encour;i,i;es hast)- marriage As the sj-s-
tem has ^rown, there has been developini^ its correlative, the matri-
monial bureau, throuph the operations of which wi\es and husbands . t, ,„„,„„
are taken on trial with the lull knowiedt^e that it they pro\e unsuitable ingEvii.
the divorce courts are open to declare their relations at an end, and
j)ermit them to ,t;o forth to cast another line in the matrimonial sea.
Oh, shailes of the Christian founilers of this Christian land, didst thou
ever foresee this threatenini:; evil ? Oh, men and women of today, stop
and consider ere it is too late!

Eminent men who ha\e made a study of causes and effects in
marital difticulties assert that indissolubilit\- in the sense that remar-
ria;4e after separation be not permitted is the onl>' safe<;uard of inar-
riatj;e. That eminent le^al scholar, John Ta\'lor Coleridij[e, in a note to
his edition of Hlackstone's Commentaries, s;i\s: "It is no less truly
than beautifully said by Sir W. Scott, in the case of I'.vans vs. l',\ans,
'that though, in particular cases, the repugnance of law to ilissolve the
obligation of matrimonial cohabitation may operate with great severity
upon individuals, yet it must be carefull\-reinembereii that the general
happiness of the married life is secured by its indissolubility.' W hen
people understand that they must live together, except for a lew rea-
sons known to the law, they learn to soften, by mutual accommoda-
tion, that yoke which they know they cannot shake off; they become
good husbands and good wives from the necessity of remaining hus-

Y ■

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,„. .rOA"^-- «'-"'"^- "'■' """""''

RL'-inurriuKi'.

lis .na .ivcs.fo. necessity. ^^P;^e.;a^

ais,ust.>u;uv,ecip. -„. . ^^.^^^ ,,^^,^ I ^;':;;;rc^ .:ii-ty.nuuut

"^>^^- 1'^^^^ '^""^'^ L • >.• a.ul t.. the ,nov. *^»-^ ^ ,^^^ „kinclncss. in a

to the U>---^^^^-^=;':;^' : kinl^ <.t the h,use ^f^'l^^.cc and per-

^^''^'"'•V;;^''^.^ specious theory ^j^ -''^ [l^fibjl-ty ot divorce does
Ronmns.adds j^^;.\^ aeinonstrates that the hbe.i>

extenuated. The) aie n 1 .. to be supported by

..Tl,at no authonty b... . ,,„;,,„i«ro, ulucl-.

■ir,;!;r;ir^;;^incoMe...>,a..,oc

once made. . ^ ^^,,., of just interpretation.

.qivit accorchn<^ to the ^ i^

bidden by the text of I > ^^ui .^ .^^ -^;:j;''^^i-i:^ ^^ntal ami

.'While divorce .^'^ ;vn ^^^^ andbiaiich mil i ^ j j^^

divorce xv.th '-'"=^"-\=^r^: incdl.gJther'' by the l>^^'^\\^^to one ancTther.
eonju,al relations aiet-cft^^ ^^ ^c.^^^^^ ^Lrests and

,,,, less than 1^*;^ lV:^'^^:;\ot only an absolute ^^^^.^^^ indent obliU;^-
Marria^^e ^;>'^t,^";^tK^ creation of new, ]ouit ;\\\"\\'^l^troke of death,
affections, but ^l^■^/'',^,,'^ V.ture and limited only b> tU^^^V ^^v^ com-

stroyed.'

fov-

rilE U'OKLD'S CO.XURESS OF A'h'l/U/O.VS. si.'.

Tims it is seen that the most ciniiiciU minds of (lil'l'crciU a.i;os ic-
\ra.vi\ inarriaL^c as iiuiissijlublr, not from r(li;^M,,us coiisi(li.'i'atioii> .ilonc,
but because the best interests of sociii)- demand it.

Tlie history uf luankind has denioiistrateil the w isdom of this
teaching. Upon the tablets of. the world's ,slor\- it is written that, as
divorce has increased in a nation, that nation ha> fallen lower and
lower until lier loftiest luoiuimeiits erumhletl in the du>t Jn aneient
Greece and Rt)me the shattered ties of statehood were prefiijuri'd in
the broken ties of home life made ])ossible by div(jrce laws, the e(jn-
ception of which was in the \ ices of the people.

Gibbon tells us that "passion, interest or caprice suLjL^esteil dai.v
motives for the dissolution of marriage; a word, a sitjn, a mes^,iL;e, a
letter, the mantlate of a freedman, declared the separation; the most
tender of human conneclit)ns was tlej^radetl to a transient sociel)' of
profit or pleasure."

And, Oh, what a vital subject is this for consideration in these
times, when the lre(|uenc}' of ili\orce in this lantl of progress is be-
coming' alarming— threatenin<;', as it docs, the \ery foLiiulalion of so-
ciety Too many seem to lor;^et that soeifty does not e.xisl except in
the iiulividuals that compose it. The slate is \irluous or lackiuL;- in
virtue as the inili\idual elements — the pi:o|)le - are \irtuous or other-
wise. Individuals are virtuous or otheiwise as the home from which
they come is the seat of virtue or the den of \ice. Hence, the home is
the foundation of society, from which must m) forth the men and
women of the world.

Divorce strikes at the \er)- heart of the home; it is a keen.swortl
which sexers e\'ery home tie; it is a demon with clo\en hoof which
stamps out ex^ery vestii^e of hoiue life.

What do the people think of the record lor the twenty years prior
to l8S6 ( the latest com|)lete statistics ) of :;_'S,7i6 (li\orces in the L'nitetl
.States? 0\-er 328,000 homes destro}'ed and eliminated fore\X'r as com-
ponent factors in civilization.

But this is iu)t the worst. In 1S67 there were O.'Av- I'l 18S6
there were 25,535 divorces, an increase of ~2 percent — an increase more
than twice as threat as the L;row th in population, and representiiii,^ a
ratio to niarriaijje of as hitj^h as one to nine. To the person whose
daily paper brinies in <^lowin<:j headlines the story of marital infelicit}-
told to the pul)lic in the divorce courts of the countr)', it is needless
to say that the number of divorces ha\e not decreasetl since iSSO.

llow long can society stand this drain upon its resources? 1 low-
long can the patriotic America:) people see with comi^osure the
divorce courts of the land severing husband and wife; dri\ing one or
the other to the asylum ov the grave, and drixing heli)less and inno-
cent children, — God knows where?

Docs it not bring a blush io the cheek to tliid new states allowing
divorce upon a residence of six, aiul even three, months, with other
conditions so easy that there are attracted to their borders hundreds,
aye, thousands of divorce seekers, not only from our own land, but

ir 11 111 I' t il "

Fciundation <>£
ISo-'iety,

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846

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Remedy for
Divorce.

inviting from foreign lands its decaying nobility, whose lives are such
that in their own country the courts will not grant them relief? And
is it not a serious condition when a new state will be boldly put forth
as the Mecca of dissatisfied husbands and wives, in order that they
may spend their money in procuring a divorce within its borders, that
their wealth may add to the general prosperity? God help the state
whose material progress is based upon the money spent by non-resident
applicants for legal separation from husband or wife.

The provisions of the different states regarding divorce and the
causes for which the same may be granted are greatly at variance. .So
that those who cannot establish a case in the state of their residence
can readily acquire a residence in some other state, and thus reach the
desired end. The want of uniformity in our laws upon this subject'is
the cause for much of the fraud perpetrated and the perjury com-
mitted in establishing a residence and furnishing the necessary proofs
in order to obtain a decree.

If we look for the causes which produce the deplorable condition
existing, we find that they are legion; but far above all other causes
we find divorce itself breeding divorce and we find public sentiment
upholding, or at least permitting, existing conditions.

What is the remedy? As a first step, strike from the statute books
all of the provisions permitting divorce for inadequate causes. Re-
(juire that all petitioners for divorce be bona fide residents of the state
in which the action is commenced for a period of at least two years
preceding the application. Require personal service, unless the peti-
tioner can show by com])etent evidence that such service is impossible;
and when service is made by publication, the defendant should have a
reasonable time, even after the decree, in which to apply for a rehear-
ing. These changes should come from the legislature. But what is
needed even more than legislation, is a proper administration of the
laws. It is bad enough that a legislature should permit persons who
have resided in the state but a few months to seek relief in the courts,
but it is scandalous to see a temporary residence, publicly known to be
adopted for the sole purpose of procuring a divorce, treated with all
judicial dignity as being a good faith residence required by the
statute.

These changes can be brought about only by the people them-
selves, by creating and maintaining such a public .sentiment as will
force the legislatuies and the courts to a fuller recognition of the over-
whelming importance of this great question. Laws, to be effectual,
must go hand in hand with public sentiment. Those that are not sus-
tained by the approval of the masses of the people will fail of enforce-
ment. Therefore, the crying need of the hour is a healthy, active,
aggressive public sentiment. Public sentiment is the life current of
society; it affects individual action in private life; it enters the jury box
in our civil courts; it wiiispers to judges upon the bench; it stalks
boldly into the halls of legislation, both state and national. Public
opinion reaches the national conscience, and it is this conscience that

f 1!

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

847

must be reached, must be quickened, must be brought into more a tive
operation for the public good.

The divorce laws and their administration being corrected, \vc need
more stringent laws in most of the states concerning the duty of the
husband to support his wife and family. It is a sad commentary upon
our legislation that in most of the states of the union a husband may
desert his wife and family and refuse to aid in their support, provided
he has no visible property subject to the process of the law. A law is
needed which shall provide that such desertion is a crime and whereby
such a man may be put to work under the supervision of the state and
by which the proceeds of his labor may be applied to the support of
his family. In nearly every state the inmates of the penitentiaries are
earning money which goes into the state treasury. These earnings
might, under proper legislation, be applied to the support of those
dependent upon the person who earns the same. We nee-" a law and
a public sentiment to sustain it which will brand desertion as much a
crime as horse stealing, and we need more considerate regard for the
duties which the husband and father owes to wife and children.

The demand for this comes from the mothers of the land who
labor hard from early morn until late at night to support starving chil-
dren. It comes from the almshouses and orphan homes where may
be found the cruelly deserted offspring of unpunished husbands. It
comes from the insane asylums where minds, shattered by a load too
great to bear, live in dismal misery. It comes from graves all over the
land where weakened bodies and broken hearts have sought eternal
rest

The state should provide suitable hospitals, or places of reform,
for drunkards. Treatment should be provided looking toward a cure,
and where it is demonstrated that cure is impossible, they should be
treated as wards of society and maintained under such control as
would enable them not only to earn sufficient for their own support,
but also to aid in the support of their families.

I do not believe in paternalism in government, but if some of our
ardent socialists would exert their energies in bringing government to
a proper exercise of the legitimate functions of the state, they would
confer a greater favor u|)on the world than by painting the brightness
of the day of universal ownership. If some of the money expended
in building almshouses and jails were applied in an intelligent effort
toward the prevention of crime, it would be better for humanity, and,
as prevention is of greater importance than punishment, society should
apply the remedies at the very base of good or evil for society, the
family The integrity of the family should be firmly established, and
everything that tends toward disintegration should be carefully
guarded against.

"The solidity and health of the social body," says William E.
G'adstone, "depend upon the soundness of its unit; that unit is the
''amily, and the hinge of the family is to be found in the great and
profound institution of marriage." Instead of protecting this great

Duty of
HuHband.

the

Reform for
Drunkatda.

Preyentionof
Crime.

848

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

BrightneeB o{
the Fn tare
Dimmed.

^f li

Active
operation
qaired.

Co-
Be.

"unit" of society, the American people are courting national danger
by at least a tacit indorsement of existing divorce laws and their ad-
ministration.

To the thinking men and women of the time, this is the greatest
social question of the age. Others there are which require attention,
but they are in a certain sense temporary, or due to local causes. The
evils of divorce are as widespread as our land and they hang, like a
dark cloud, not only over the presen*, but dim the brightness of the
future.

We are building a mighty nation for the present and for the ages
to come. Oliver Wendell Holmes, when asked at what time the train-
ing of a child should begin, replied: "A hundred years before he is
born.'' We are laying the foundation of the education of children of
the next century. We are creating the environments of future gener-
ations. Will not this thought urge the people of this generation to
eliminate everything that is a menace to society of the present or of
the future?

To cope with an evil so widespread requires the active co-opera-
tion of men of all classes and all creeds, and, therefore, the Catholic
church holds out her hands today to all men and women, regardless of
race or creed, and implores their active united endeavors in behalf of
a mighty reform in the divorce legislation of the country. Arouse a
healthy public sentiment which will fill the air with the voice of con-
demnation of legalized polygamy. Let it enter our political conven-
tions, go boldly into our legislative halls, seek the sanctums of our
editorial writers, touch the hearts of judges on the bench, inspire the
thoughtful, sincere men in the pulpit, and, above all, let it reach deep
down into the hearts of the men and women, the husbands and wives
of our land. Let a healthy Christian sentiment maintain the sanctity
of marriage against the devastating inroads of materialism.

The Late Rev. Bro. Azarias.

Tfhe Religious graining of Children.

Paper by the late BROTHER AZARIAS. Read by REV. JOHN F. MUL>

LANY, of Syracuse, N. Y.

HE sincere members of all Christian denomina-
tions hold religion to be an essential element
of education. They are convinced that they
would be guilty of a gross breach of duty were
they to neglect this important element in the
training of their children. And they are right.
^^_^^__-™_ Consequently any system of education from

^'/il^fl|^HP^^ which religious training is eliminated were in-
' ' ' adequate and incomplete and an injustice to

the child receiving it. Education should de-
velop the whole man. Intellect and heart, body
and soul, should all be cultivated and fitted to
act, each in its own sphere, with most effi-
ciency. And so the inculcation of piety, rever-
ence and religious doctrine is of more im-
portance than training in athletic sports or mathematical studies,
.vioreover, other things being equal, that is the best education which
gives man, so to speak, the best orientation; which most clearly defines
his relations with society and with his Creator, and point.; out the way
by which he may best attain the end for which he was created.

Now it is only religious teaching that can furnish man with this
information, and it is only in religious observances that man c'\n best
attain the aim and purpose of all life and promote the interests of
society. Neither ancient nor modern philosopher has found a better
solution for the enigma of life than is to be found in religion. Plato
could never imagine such a monstrous state of affairs as education
without religion. "All citizens," says this philosopher, "must be pro-
foundly convinced that the gods are lords and rulers of all that exists;
that all events depend upon their word and will, and that mankind is
largely indebted to them."

Christianity has in rr.any respects changed man's point of view.
The people of the ancient world made trees and flowers the habitation
of gods and goddesses and earth-born spirits. Their conception of
nature was pantheistic. Christianity threw a halo of tenderness and

851

Solntion foT
thp Enigma oi
Life,

ii t

l 'iU

rn', CONGRESS OF 1U-:LIGI0NS.
THE WORLDS COI^^^'

eardens ana """'V^:. "^u men to i^V^, V J.^of the forest; a r uv.—
^f Assist «";«^^^;>^ d ^ive thanks to ^'f a 1 a ^ Wordsworth

recognizes this material aspect. In

the ancient civilisations th^>'^»;.j„, „u ilo'*'\; ^' 'itflaste.l the

\Vc may trace many "| , • in our literature, ui .. ^rc and
i„al^\hati'KOodlno« *ml'';Ri „ ,hc "-"pW;' «, ;!,^f it, We
1- tU.M-c is a Spirit that w 'I Wc cannot rici ouis -,, ■ .: ,^ ty m

relation o. pag-M-P)^, ^^,,0 ;n'l--S„Skh -Uves ana
eannot gnore .t A^ ^^ '""' "fcWnE^ of the Gospel ami the

practices of the cnui ^^ "^^"^^ ,; ion Their ideal of lite s

would supersede, l^'^'^^; \,,ct without rc^^.^''''"- „/ the vital principle

part of themselves Owm^^^ '^^^"^^l^'^^miicn ou^ modern civ.liza-
Sn ancestors vvhop-ed^^i^.^, of their .<;^^ f .^^t^^e and in its essence.
fVnininff and the Christian q j^tian m its nauu ^^^ ^^q^^j

Sn o^ok at it how we w U.j;^^^ ,,Uat the .-^.^"^^i^^^'element deflect-
''"^ 'Men may now. ^l?^^"^^^^^^ entered as a ^^'^tuibin^ peculations are
would be, had Christianay no ^^^^^^. ^^ Suc j^ ^^^^ 1.

Tng human prop.^^^,^^^'" The barbarian who ck^^^^^^^ ^, fi rce

safe The work is H""^,' ^truction has been ^nn. . ^^^ ^ ^j^^e

l^ij^f^st^en^PSrri;^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

sns

r/.

crime is rampant, this is no part of Christianity. It is rather in spite
of Christia'. inllucnce. Human nature at all limes and under all cir-
cumstances remains prone to evil. Civilization, considered in itself,
only places more effective weapons in the hands of the criminal. It
is a natural good, and as such is subject to the accidents of every
natural {jood; therefore, to evil; therefore, to abuse; therefore, to crime.
Civilization, then, possesses in itself certain elements of disintegration.
Hut in Christianity there is a conservative force that resists all decay.
Christian thought, Christian dogma and Christian morals never grow
old. never lose their efficiency with the advance of any community in
civilized life. Hence, the importance for the conservation of the Chris-
tian family of impressing them on the young mind.
^ John Stuart Mill is not of our opinion. To his mind the world

\ woukl have got on all the better were there no Christian religion. It
set up, according to him, "a standard of ethics, in which the only
jworth, professedly recognized, is that of obedience." In this patron-
lizing fashion does he summarize his judgment: "That mankind owes
'a great debt to this morality and its early teachers I should be the last
)erson to deny; but I do not scruple to say it, that it is in many points
ncomplete and one sided, and that unless ideas and feelings not sanc-
ioned by it had contributed to the formation of European life and
haracter, human affairs would have been in a worse condition than
they are now." ( Ivssay on Liberty, page 94.)

liy the side of Mill's inadecjuate estimate of Christianity, let us
place another from one who has cast from him the last shred of relig-
ious dogmas. Mr. Lecky in a more enlightened sjiirit, bears witness to na a'^conservi
the perennial character of Christianity as a conservative force. He '*"
says :

"There is but one example of a religion which is not naturally
weakened by civilization, and that example is Christianity. * ♦ *
Hut the great characteristic of Christianity, and the great moral proof
of its divinity is, that it has been the main source of the mural develop-
ment of Europe, and that it has discharged this office, not so much by
an inclination of a system of ethics, however pure, as by the assimil-
ating and attractive influence of a perfect ideal. The moral progress
of mankind can never cease to be distinctively and intensely Christian,
as long as it consists of a gradual approximation to the character of
the Christian founder. There is, indeed, nothing more wonderful in ;
the history of the human race than the way in which that ideal has j
traversed the lapse of ages, acquiring a new strength and beauty with |
each advance of civilization, and infusing its beneficent influence i
into every sphere of thought and action." (Rationalism in Europe, '
pp. 3 I, 312.)

This is unstinted praise, here is, at least, one chapter of the world's
history that Mr. Lecky has not misread. Thus is it, that even accord-
ing to the testimony of those who are not of us, our modern civiliza-
tion has in it a unique element, divine and imperishable in its nature,
growing out of its contact with the Christ. That characterizing ele-

ChriBtiani ty
Consei
Force.

854

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

i "i

i I

From t h (I
f'ratile tu tliu
(irave.

i'-

Sanctnary of
a (iood Hume.

merit, its life, its soul, is Christianity. Individuals may repudiate it,
but as a people we are still proud to call ourselves Christians. We
have not come to that pass at which we are ashamed of the cross in
which .St. Paul {gloried. The teachings and practices of Christianity
form an essential part of our education. They arc intimately blended
with our whole persoiiAl life.

Christian influences must needs preside over every important act
from the cradle to the grave. So the church thinks and she acts ac-
cordingly. The newborn infant is consecrated with prayer and cere-
monial to a Christian line of conduct when the saving waters of bap-
tism are i)ourcd upon its head, and it is thus regenerated in Christ.
The remains of the Christians are laid in the grave with prayer and
ceremonial. At no time in the life of man does the church relax in
her care of him. Least of all is she disposed to leave him to himself
at that period, when he is most amenable to impression and when she
can best lay hold upon his whole nature and mold it in the ideal that
is solely hers. Therefore is the church ever jealous of any attempt on
the part of secularism to stand between her and the child she has
marked for her own with the sign of salvation through baptismal rites.
She knows no compromise, she can entertain no compromise, she has
no room for compromise, for she has no right to compromise or hes-
itate for a moment when the salvation of the child is at stake.

It is not easy to understand how a Christian can be opposed to the
thorough Christian education of the child. It is not surprising that men
like Ernest Rcnan, who abandoned Christianity, should do all they
could to oppose it. With such men it is useless to argue. M. Ernest
Renan has aired his views upon education. It goes without saying
that M. Renan excludes what he calls theology as an educational fac-
tor. He will have none of it. He divides all educational responsi-
bility between the family and the .state. He considers the professor
competent to instruct in secular knowledge only. The family he re-
gards as the true educator. True is it that the family is the great
niolder of character. The sanctuary of a good home is a child's
safest refuge. There he is wrapped in the panoply of a mother's love
and a mother's care. This love and this care are the sunshine in which
his moral nature grows and blossoms into goodness. The child, the
youth blessed with a Christian home in which he sees naught but good
example and hears naught but edifying words, has indeed much to be
thankful for; it is a boon which the longest life of gratitude can but
ill requite. Hut M. Renan wants neither home nor child Christian.
He would establish a religion of beauty, of culture, indeed, of any-
thing and everything that is not religion. The refining and educating
influence he means is the "eternally womanly" — das ewige weibliche —
of Goethe. It is a sexual influence. It is a continuous appeal to the
gallantry and chivalry of the boy nature. This and nothing more.

Is it sufficient as an educational influence? Without other safe-
guards the boy .soon outgrows the d '"i rence and respect and awe that
woman naturally inspires. That is, indeed, a superficial knowledge of

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

866

human nature which would reduce the chief factor of a child's educa-
tion to womanly iiilluoncc, unconsccratcd by roliLjioii, iiiirostraiiiod hy
the sterner authority of the father, the law, the social cusloiu.

The child of a Christian home, where some member of the family
is competent and willing to give his religious instruction regularly and
with method, might attend a purely secular .school w itliout losing the
Christian s])irit, but these conditions obtain only in exceptional cases.
What has M. Renan to say to the home in which the father is absorbed
in making money and the mother is equally absorbed in spending that
money in .vorldly and frivolous amusements, and the chiUhen are
abandoned to the care of servants? And what has he to say of the
home without the mother? Antl the home in which example and pre-
cept are deleterious to the growth of manly character? And then
consider the sunless homes of the poor and the indigent, where the
struggle for life is raging with all intensity; consider the home of the
workingman, where the father is out from early morning to late at
night, and the mother is weighed down with the cares and anxieties of
a large family and drudging away all day long at household duties
never done; to speak of home education and delicacy of conscience
and growth of character among such families and umler such coiuli-
tions were a mockery Hut IM. Renan has as happy a facility in ignor-
ing facts as in brushing away wh( te epochs of history.

Why should the state dictate what shall or shall not be taught in
regard to religion? Let us never lose sight of the fact that the people
do not belong to the state and that the machinery we call the state is the
servant of the people, organized to do the will of the j)eople. To the
j)arent belongs the right to educate the child. In the middle ages,
when certain zealots would compel the children of Jews and Moham-
medans to be educated in t'le Christian religion, St, Thomas answered
them thus: "In the days of Constantine and Theodosius Christian
bishops, like saints Sylvester and Ambrose, would not neglect to ad-
vise coercion for the education of the children of pagans were it not
repugnant to natural justice. The child belongs to the father; the
child ought, therefore, to remain under the parent's control." And
Pius IX, in our own day, April 25, 1868, gave out the following instruc-
tions: "We forbid non-Catholic pupils attendmg Catholic schools to
be obliged to assist at mass or any other religious exercise. Let them
be left to their own discretion." If the parent educates his child him-
self, all well and good. School laws are not made for the parent who
educates his own child. If he does not himself educate the child, it is
for him to say who shall replace him in this important function. In
making this decision the Christian parent is generally guided by the
church.

The church is pre-eminently a teaching power; that teaching
power extending chiefly to the formation of character and the devel-
opment of the supernatural man. Her Divine Founder said: "All
power is given to Me in heaven and on earth; going, therefore, teach
all nations " The church holds that of all periods in the life of man,

Kxrcptiunal

CUW'H,

Tho StntB and
Religiuuti
Traiaing.

r^^,,rrPF<;S OF RELIGIONS.
T^E WORLD'S CONGRESS vt

87)6 itJi^ " ^ ,

- the period of chiiai^od and youU..^^^^
Ictcr is shaping, and fa^^mat.vc^ ^^^^ ^^^isanS encourages the

is the one in wh>ch reUpon ^^^^.^j^ exhorts and en ^ ^^^^^^

to thought; and tl^ercforc t ^^^^^'^'Xa rU,ht of every

Christian paren to ^^-^^^^ ^^- 1-^^,,,, It js the natu a n,h^.^^^^
a Christian eucat on ^j^i^^aucation It i^ the ^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^

Christian child to^-^^;^'^ cnt. by the two o d ^^ ^atmn ^^^^ ^^^

bounden duty of t'^^P^ !, pVovidc his child with fhis eci t^ary

lavN and the divine law, '« lYnalienablc; being '"alienable ni ^^^^

the right being natural. »t 's mai^ ^^ ^^^^ t \?;m in the pursuit

t^theSundainental principl^^^^^^^ ^^ to hinder the ch Id -^l^^^

Christian cducafon. there '» "^„„, t of his w. 1>. „„ ,„„

to stand between 1 mand^^ ^^^ ,^^„ ,he " "*s o^/t^e scliool-

But we are \°ld tliat tn ._, ^^^ sacred a thing lo ^^^^

in Sunday-sclwol. and ttatj^e „^^ ^^ '» ^ ^"■'' rttce of that subject?
room. Can you 'n\='|,',".^„?." nine with the importance o' tn
'acred of subjects at all nkcepmg ^.^^ ^,^^ P°""jVi rive only an
^C\„ you taapne acMd able t^^ ,,^^, ,,, , "=*'' four hours of^he
holiness of «l.g'on fom t, ^^^^^ ^.^^^ '""'^^le same eminent
hour or two out of the w" ,^j i?,"" th he,^ than any we

,veck to learn "'„'J""vill bear more weight W'th tnem , ^^^^^

■authority whose words «"|'^^, ^^^^.. s^y^C^lfj^^^^'^Xtbou,'^.
^""^t "",'nil tracing children in religion by tlea parent ^^ ^^^

l=„'at^i:=£he-,^S:^^^^^^^^^^^

day in seven by Sunday sen ^j„ (Nationa Hclucation^ ^^^^^^
Kr;?arr'H£ess talW^^^^^^^^^ - -"^ ">=

tSior"-^"''" ,, ,,o,e of them the most radical, while not

e,ie&-i£iSeXi^l«^^^^
Tntg thf & of Cb^f ■ ^lU'Si- -w, and far into the

TheBnnday
School.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

857

future, the necessity of a church for the majority of mankind. He
who believed neither in a church nor a God, who would ilry up the
sources of all consolation in this life and shut out every {rlimpsc of
hope for the life to come, still considered what from his point of view
was a myth and an illusion a necessity for the well-bcin^ of society.
And Renan has expressed a similar opinion in rcf:fard to morality.
While denying its obligations he acknowledges its necessities. "Nature,"
he says, " has needs of the virtue of individuals, but this virtue is an
absurdity in itself; men are duped into it for the preser.ation of the
race."

What a shame and what a pity that men of genius should write
thus! This mode of reasoning will never do. If religion and morality
are merely a delusion and a snare, then had they better not be.
You cannot gather grapes from thorns. You cannot sow a lie
and reap truth. Think of all that is meant by such statements as
these. Can you imagine a commonwealth erected upon falsehood
or deceit enterin.', into the very fabric of the universe? It is all
implied in the assumption of Renan and Strauss. Teach a child
that religion and morality are in themselves meaningless, thougii
good enoi';'h for the preservation of society, and you sow in his
hearts the seeds of pessimism and self-destruction. Then, there are
those who, believing in religion and morality, still maintain in all
sincerity that these things may be divorced in the schoolroom. Dr.
Crosby says:

"While I thus oppose the teaching of religion in our public schools
I uphold the teaching of morality there. To say that religion and
morality are one is an error. To say that religion is the only true
basis of morality is true. But this does not prove that morality can-
not be taught without teaching religion."

It proves nothing else. The distinction between religion and
morality is fundamental. But, be it remembered, that we are now
dealing with Christian children, having Christian fathers and mothers
who are desirous of making those children thoroughly Christian.
Now, you cannot mold a Christian soul upon a purely ethical train-
ing. In practice you cannot separate religion from morality. A code
of ethics will classify one's passions, one's vices, one's virtues, one's
moral habits and tendencies; but it is quite unable to show how pas-
sion may be overcome or virtue acquired. It is only from the revela-
tion of Christianity that we learn the cause of our innate proncness to
evil; it is only in the saving truths of Christianity that we find the
meaning and the motive of resisting that tendency. Let us not de-
ceive ourselves. The morality that is taught apart from religious truth
and religious sanction is a delusion.

The history of rationalism is strewn with the wrecks of intellectual
pride. These men illustrate the revolt of reason against religion. M.
Ernest Renan is a case in point. A simple Catholic youth, holding his
articles of faith, all the truths taught by the Catholic church, he enters
upon a course of studies for the Catholic priesthood. He prays

Moral it;
the Pub
HcboolH,

in
Ho

Hl>i

-'«"—-—

Intellectnal
Calture and
Religion.

858

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

devoutly with his companions of the seminaries of Issy and St. Sul-
pice; he receives the sacraments with them; he follows all the spiritual
exercises with them; and yet a day comes when he finds that he has
lost the faith and is no longer a believer in the revealed religion.
Whence comes this to be so? The truths of religion are, many of
them, distinct from natural truths; they are above natural truths, and
yet they are based upon them. Faith supposes reason. Now, M
Renan has left us an amusing account of himself — M. Renan is amus-
ing, or nothing — and therein we learn that he began by sapping the
natural foundations on which supernatural truth rests; he played fast
and loose with philosophic truth, attempted to reconcile the most con-
tradictory assumptions of Kant and Hegel and Schelling; he repudi-
ated the primary principles of his reason, and so undermined its whole
basis that it was no wonder to see the superstructure topple over. He,
a boy of twenty, with very little strength of intellect, but with an
overweening ambition that supplied all other deficiencies, sat in judg-
ment upon all things in heaven and upon earth, especially upon the
religion which he had professed and for the ministry in which he was
preparing himself. From that moment the Christian religion ceased
to be for him an active principle. He no longer believed in the truths
of Christianity. While conforming to its external practices, the warmth
and the life of it had vanished, and his active brain, having nothing
else to feed upon, made of his religion a mere intellectual exercise, and
finally a marketable commodity, the means by which to create unto
himself a name. He placed religious truth on the same footing with
natural science and tested both by the same methods. Naturally,
truths that are deductive, based upon authority beyond the scope of
reason, vanish into thin air when one attempts to analyze them as one
would the ingredients of salt and water. They are effective only when
received with reverence, submission and implicit faith. In this manner
did Renan's faith disappear before his intellectual pride.

•" In a scientific age," says Cardinal Newman, "there will natur-
ally be a parade of what is called natural theology, a widespread pro-
fession of the Unitarian creed, an impatience of mystery and a skepti-
cism about miracles." Now, if this intellectual temper is to be looked
for under the most favorable auspices, what religious dearth may wc
not expect to find among young men out of whom all theological
habits of thought have been starved, and in whom all spiritual life has
become extinct? The school from which religious dogma and re'-'j-
ious practices have been banished is simply preparing a generation of
atheists and agnostics. There is a large grain of truth in the remark
of Renan, that if humanity was intelligent and nothing else it would
be atheistic. And yet this man, whose views I find shadowy, shifting,
panoramic and unreal, this maker of clever phrases, would promote
nothing but intellectual culture, soul culture. " They are," he says,
"not simple ornaments; they are things no less sacred than religion.
* * * Intellectual culture is pre-eminently holy. * * * It is
our religion." ("La Reforme," pp. 309, 310.) Renan holds this cult-
ure sacred, because he hopes thereby to make men atheisti".

or
one

ical
has

lark
Uild

lote
lys,
ion.

It IS

lult-

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

859

What has secularism in any of its phases to do with the saving of
souls or the fear of hell, or the doctrine of original sin, grace and re
demption, or the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity, or with
spiritual life, or the reign of the kingdom of God in human hearts?
This is a world ignored or denied altogether by secularism It has no
place for the lesson that the cross comes before the crown, that men
must sorrow before they can rejoice, that pain is frequently to be
chosen before pleasure, that the flesh and the spirit are to be mortified,
that passions are to be resisted and man must struggle against his in-
ferior nature to the death. The Christian parent and the Chris-
tian church are convinced that it is only by placing the Christian yoke
upon the child in its tender years that the c lildwill afterward grow up
to manhood or wo.nanhood finding that yoke agreeable — for the Di-
vine Founder of Christianity has assured us that Mis yoke is sweet and
His burden light, and will afterward persevere in holding all these
spiritual truths and practices that make the Christian home and the
Christian life a heaven upon earth. This is why Christian parents
make so many sacrifices to secure their children a Christian education.
This is why you find, the world over, men and women religious teachers
— immolating their lives, their comforts, their homes, their talents,
their energies, that they may cause Christian virtues to blossom in the
hearts of the little ones confided to them. This is why, in the city of
New York alone, we are witnesses, this very year, of not less than
fifty-four thousand Catholic children, in the whole state not less than
one hundred and fifty thousand and in the United States nearly eight
hundred thousand attending our parish schools at groat sacrifices for
pastors and parents and teachers. The church will always render to
Caesar the things th:it are Cnesar's; but she will continue to guard and
protect and defend her own rights and prerogatives in the matter of
education, She cannot for a single moment lose sight of the super-
natural destiny of man and of her mission to guide him from the age
of reason toward the attainment of that destiny.

We know not how forcibly we have presented the plea for the
religious training of children, but we know that we have sought to * p • i
give no mere individual impressions, but the profound convictions with Boon
which Christii parents act when insisting upon giving their children
a Christian education. Therefore, sincere Christians, whether Cath-
olic, Lutheran, Baptist or Episcopalian, be they named what they may,
can never bring themselves to look on with unconcern at any system
of education that is calculated to rob their children of the priceless
boon of their Christian inheritance. Prizing their souls more than
their bodies, they would rather see them dead than that their souls
should be pinched and starved for want of the life-giving food that
comes of Christian revelation. Therefore it is, that they cannot for a
moment tolerate their children in an atmosphere of secularism from
which Christian prayer and Christian practices have been banished.

\ w

i
i

■ ^-,. ■■— .— ^.■.■,-...,..».:^.^^,.p^

Plea for Xo^^^^t^o'^-

iVddress by REV. DR. HENRY M. FIELD, of the New York Evangelist.

A Magnificent
Spirit.

AM glad to say only one word to express the
joy that I feci in seeing such an assembly as
this gathered for such a purpose. It has
been my fortune to travel in many lands, and
I have not been in any part of the world so
dark but that I have found some rays of light,
some proof that the God who is our God and
Father has been there, and that the temples
which are reared in many religions resound
with sincere worship and praise to Him. I am
an American of the Americans. Born in New
England, I was brought up in the straitest sect
of the Pharisees, believing there was no good
outside of our own little pale. I know, when
1 was a child, it was a serious question with me
whether democracts could be saved ! I am happy
to have arrived at a belief that they can be saved,
though as by fire !

Well, then, when I went across the ocean I thought a Roman
Catholic was a terrible person. But when I came to know the Roman
Catholics, I found that I was a very poor specimen of Christianity
beside the Sisters of Charity whom I saw, and the noble Brothers
devoted to every good Christian and benevolent office. Only a few
weeks ago I was in Africa, and there made the acquaintance of some
of the White Fathers designated by Cardinal Lavigerie to carry the
Gospel into the center of Africa. What devotion is there we can
hardly parallel. I knew that some of them — the first that were sent
out — had been killed on the desert; and yet at Carthage I said to one
of the White Fathers, "Are you willing to go into all those dangers?"
"Yes!" said he. "When?" "Tomorrow!" was his reply. Such a spirit
is magnificent, and wherever we see it, in any part of the world, in any
church, we admire and honor it.

Ah! but those followers of the False Prophet, surely they have no
religion! So I said until I had been in Constantinople and in other
cities of the East, where I heard, at sunrise and sunset, the call for

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

801

ivc no

other

tall for

prayer from the minaret, and saw the devotion of the Moslems, whose
white turbans flasued in the sunlight like the wings of doves as they
swept by me, going to the house of prayer. I was told by one of the
White Fathers about the observances of the Mohammedans. He said
to me: "Do you know this is the first day of Ramadan, the Moham-
medan Lent? They observe their Lent a great deal better than w,e
do ours. They are more earnest in their religion than we are in ours.
They are more devoted in prayer. The poor camel-driver on the
desert has no watch to tell him the hour; he dismounts fiom his camel
and stands with his back to the sun, and the shadow cast on the sand
tells him it is mid-afternoon and the hour of prayer." Shall I say
that such men are outside the pale of Religion; that they are not
regarded by the Great Father as Kis children.

In Bombay I felt a great respect for the Parsees, when I saw them
uncovering their heads at the rising and setting of the sun, in homage
to the great source of life and light. So in the other Religions of the
East. Underneath all we find reverence for the great Supreme Power,
a desire to love and worship and honor Him. Of the defects of those
Religions I will not speak. There are enough to talk of them, but this
I do say here and in this presence, that 1 have found that God has not
left Himself without a witness in any ci the dark climes, or in any of
the dark religions, of the world.

Revprenco fo»
the (Ireat Bu.
preme Power.

L-

oman
omun
ianity
thers
a few
some
y the
c can
I sent
o one

spirit
in any

I; R K i

I ill'

Prof. Richard T. Ely, University of Wisconsin.

Qhristianity as a Social porce.

Paper by PROF. RICHARD T. ELY, of the University of Wisconsin.

^4.\

HRISTIANITY is a social force above every-
thing else. Its social character is a distinguish-
ing feature of Christianity. Other religions are
also social forces, but it strikes me that in the
degree to which Christianity carries its social
nature we have one of its essential peculiari-
ties.

He who would understand Christianity
must begin with a consideration of Judaism.
While, as a general principle, this is admitted
by all, it is overlooked by many in their treat-
ment of the social doctrines of Christianity.
Judaism was asocial force which worked chiefly
within national boundaries, and its aim within
the nation was to establish an ideal common-
wealtl in which neither pauperism nor plutocracy
should be known. But we may go even further
and say that it was the avowed aim that Israel
should be kept free from both poverty and riches. "Give me neither
pover*^,, nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me, lest I be
full and deny thee, and say. Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor and
steal and take the name of my God in vain." This prayer of Agur is
simply an expression of a national ideal ne\cr fully attained, but never
forgotten by noble souls in Israel. Kvery revival of pure religion
meant an effort to reach this ideal of national life. The prophets
were great social reformers who voicetl the yearning cry of the nation
for righteous social relations. The Jewish law, differing from the
Roman code of the Western World, was not chiefly negative and
repressive, but positive and constructive. It perpetually comm-inded
"Thou shalt" as well as "Thou shalt not." It was to the weak a
bulwark and to the oppressed a stronghold; to assaulted feebleness a
fortress; for all, in time of distress, a refuge. It was thus that Israel
found the law a delight. It is the social law of which we speak, and
not the ceremonial law. The true Jewish priest and prophet regarded
righteousness which did not include a brotherly aim as but filthy rags.
All the legislation of Moses had in view the developmentof a national

863

Bulwark
the Weak.

itj

'■A

■pi'

i U

%1
i :

r 4 ;

r~"

Land and In-
terest.

864

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

brotherhood, and as a means for the accomplishment of this end, it
aimed to prevent the separation of Israel into widely separated social
classes. Economic extremes in conditions were dreaded, and to pro-
duce equality of opportunity was the desire of every true Hebrew
leader. Facilities for the development of the faculties of all naturally
followed from the faithful application of the fundamental principles of
the Mosaic legislation. At the same time, the Hebrew commonwealth
was never designed to be a pure democracy. An aristocratic element
was favored, because it was endeavored to secure the leadership of the
wise and gifted, and obedience to this leadership was enjoined on all.
Sedition and rebellion were regarded as crimes. Equality of all in
faculties and in fitness for government were absurdities not entertained.

The time is too limited to allow a description of the fundamental
social institutions in the ideal Hebrew commonwealth, and It can
scarcely be necessary, as they will occur to all. The provisions relat-
ing to land and interest were, perhaps, the most important features of
the social legislation of Moses. The land belonged to the Almighty,
and it was held by the children of Israel under strictly limited tenure.
It was a trust designed to afford provision for each family. It could,
by no means, be monopolized without an infraction of the fundamental
law, and such a thing as modern speculation in land violated the con-
ditions of the land tenure. The purpose of the land was to furnish a
subsistence and to promote the acquisition of a competence, but by no
means of a great fortune.

The laws regulating interest were even more radical. Interest
was not forbidden by Moses because he failed to understand the tru-
isms iterated and reiterated by the Manchester men, who fancy them-
selves far wiser than this greatest of legislators, but because the receipt
of interest would have militated against the fundamental social pur-
poses which Moses desired to accomplish. It is, of course, conceded
that conditions were different at that time, and that capital in the
modern sense hardly existed. But altogether apart from this, it is
true that Moses wished property to be used for mutual helpfulness.
Loans were to be made to assist a brother, and not for the sake of gain.
"Thou shalt open thine hand wide to thy brother, to thy poor and thy
needy in thy land." At least two things were evidently dreaded in the
taking of interest — the growth of inequality among them and the op-
portunity it afforded for economic gain without direct personal exer-
tion.

The regulations concerning slavery were also aimed at these
dangers, and in them we find the enunciation of the truth that private
property exists for social purposes. The institution of slavery was
relatively mild among the Hebrews, and provision was made for the
release of the Hebrew bondman and bondwoman after a brief period
of service. The foreigner was excluded from this brotherhood, and
even when kind treatment of the stranger is enjoined, he, after all, is
regarded as one separated from the range of complete ethical obliga-
tion.

s
s

ti
ll

al
nl

fif

I: '

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUG/ON\

8(55

it
al
o-
;w
lly
ot
1th
:nt
the
all.
in
icd.
utal
can
;lat-
s of
hty,
\uie.
juld,
ental
con-
ish a
by no

terest
; tru-
them-
iceipt

pur-

eded
the

it is

ness.

gain,
nd thy

n the
he op-

exer-

these
private
ry was

or the

period
od, and
all, is

obliga-

Jesus came with an avowed dctcnnination to do two things -to
break down the ceremonial law, which confined within narrow limits
the circle of brotherhood rendering it merely national, and, on the
other hand, to extend to universality the benefits of the social law of
Moses. And it was of this law that he said not one jot or tittle should
pass away until all should be fulfilled. Jesus did not proclaim Himself
the Son of Abraham, which would have implied national brotherhood,
but the Son of man, which implied brotherhood as wide as humanity.
He was not, first of all, an Israelite, but a man. Who was the neigh-
bor? is a question answered in the parable of the Good Samaritan,
which enforces the lesson that any and every man, whenever and
wherever found, is a brother.

Christianity, then, as a social force, seeks to universalize the socio-
economic institutions of the Jews. Hut it must be remembered in this
connection that it is the letter that killeth, but the spirit which giveth
life. The exact law of Moses respecting land and interest, for exam-
ple, cannot be reproduced in modern society. But all who profess
allegiance to Christ must endeavor to universalize their spirit. The
church is a universal anti-poverty society, or she is false to her
founder. It is hoped that I will not be misunderstood in saying that
she also stands for anti-millionairism, because extremes arc subversive
of brotherhood.

Christianity, on the other hand, favors the development of the
most diverse social institutions and the development of a grand public
life, because these mean fraternity. What is private separates; what
is public draws together. Art galleries, for example, when private,
mea.i withdrawal and withholding the products of the mind of man,
while public art galleries signify public uses oi; that which is essen-
tially public in its nature. As asocial force, Christianity favors private
frugality and generous public expenditures. We may express all this
and something more in the statement that Christianity means social
solidarity, or it means nothing. When the founder of Christianity
said he was the Son of man, he at the same time proclaimed social
solidarity. Social .solidarity means the recognition of the identity of
all human interests, and, truly understood, it promotes the identifica-
tion of one's self with humanity. Fullness of life in every department
must be sought in human society. Wealth, art, music, literature, relig-
ion, even language itself, are all social products. What Christianity
teaches in this respect social science, rightly understood, teaches also.
Isolated life means material poverty and the absence of intellectual
achievements. Man becomes great only when humanity moves within
him. Art is great only when it is an expression of the social life.
Masterpieces of art were exposed on the highways of a nation able to
appreciate them. Literature makes epochs when in a writer the
national life pulsates and through him the nation speaks. Morality
finds its .source and its sanction in society and it is re-enforced by the
commands of the Almighty.

Individualism, as ordinarily understood, is anti-Christian, because
66

Every Man a
Brotbpr.

I-

■WWTWi

860

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIG/ONS.

Indiyidaaliaiii.

i;:

it means social isolation and disintegration. Individual liberty, as
frequently proclaimed, means the right of one man to injure others to
the full extent of his capacity and resources. The claim to this liberty
(which is not liberty at all in the true sense of the word) is anti-Chris-
tian. Individual salvation, in the strictest sense of the word, is an im-
possibility, because it implies a denial of that which is fundamental
in Christianity.

Christianity has been distinguished in the world's Parliament of
Religions into true and false — and this is well. There is false Chris-
tianity, which may be termed anti-Christ — for if there is any anti-
Christ it is this — which has brought reproach on the name of Chris-
tianity itself. It is this false Christianity which fails to recognize the
needs of others and centers itself on individual salvation, neglecting
what the apostle James called "pure and undefiled religion," namely,
ministration to one's fellows. The social life of this land of ours
would proclaim the value of Christianity, if it could in its true sense
be called a Christian land. But we cannot be called such a land. We
do not attempt to carry out the principles of fraternity, and any claim
that we do is mere ignorance or pretense — hypocrisy of the kind con-
demned by Christ in the strongest language. It docs not avail us to
make long prayers while we neglect widows and orphans in need. He
who did this in the time of Christ violated the principles of national
brotherhood. He who does so now, violates the principles of univer-
sal brotherhood.

Shall a land be called Christian which slaughters human beings
needlessly by the thousand rather than introduce improvements in
railway transportation, simply because they cost money? That is
exalting material things above human beings. Shall a city like Chi-
cago be called Christian, maintaining its grade crossings and killing
innocent persons by the hundred, yearly, simply because it would cost
money to elevate its railway tracks? To make the claim for our
country that it is a Christian land, is a cruel wrong to Christianity. If
we were animated by the spirit of Christianity, we would do away, at the
earliest moment, with such abuses as these and others which daily, in
factory and workshop, maim and mutilate men, women and children.

It is only necessary to be honest with ourselves in order to answer
questions which arise in this connection. If any one individual before
me knew that he himself, or his mother, we will say, would be horribly
mutilated or crushed to death in case some needed improvement in an
industrial establishment or on a railway were not introduced within
six months, how he would bestir himself to have these improvements
introduced! But we complacently fold our hands because some one
else, or perhaps the mother of some one else, will suffer a horrible
death. Thousands will die needlessly a cruel death within the next
six months. Who will be those thousands?

Christianity as a social force stands for progress. It has been a
characteristic of religions to give minute directions for the formation
of the social life of a nation. These minute directions and detailed

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE REUGWNS

is-
tn-
tal

of
ris-
nti-
iris-

the

ting

lely,

ours

cnse

We
:laim

con-
US to
. He
tional
niver-

beings
nts in
hat is
;e Chi-
killing
Id cost
or our
ty. H
, at the

aily, i"
[lildren.
answer
before
fiorribly
nt in an
within
ements
mc one
[horrible
he next

Is been a
^rmation
[detailed

specifications have, doubtless, in many instances promoted brother-
hood, for the time being at least, but not providing for changes Ihey standHforPro.
have later retarded progress. As Christ established a universal brother- ""'"'•
hood He could not, even for any one time, promulgate a social code,
and still less coald He prescribe legislation for all time. He gave the
spirit, however, to which the legislation of every country and ever>'
time should seek to conform, and he established a goal far in advance
of the men of the time, and inspiring all true followers with a desire to
reach this goal and strengthening them in their efforts to attain it.
He gave an impulse which can never fail to make for progress so long
as society exists.

Christianity as a social force makes not only for progress, but for
peaceful progress, which in the end is the most rapid and secure prog-
ress. He encouraged patience and long suffering along with tireless
effort and dauntless courage. Christianity carries with it, in the true
sense of the word, an aristocracy. Rulership was recognii-'.^d and obe-
dience to constituted authority taught as a Christian duty. But, on
the other hand, all kings and rulers of men were taught that they held
their offices from God as a sacred trust. We all know the parable of
the talents and its interpretation is clear. All mental and physical
strength and all material resources are to be used not for one's self, but
for the promotion of the welfare of all humanity. Inequalities in attain-
ment were implicitly recognized, but inequality was thus to be made an
instrument of progress. Ignorance finds support in the wisdom of the
wise; strength is debtor to weakness.

We can imagine Christ among us today, pointing, as of old, to
our great temples, and warning us that the time will come when one
stone of them shall not rest upon another. We can imagine Christ "WoPUntoyon
pointing to our grade crossings, and to our link and pin couplers, HypoonteB."
covered with the blood of mutilated brakemen, and crying out to up:
"Woe unto you, hypocrites, ye do these things, and for a pretense
make long prayers. We can also imagine Him summoning before
our vision the thousands who have lost their limbs in needless indus-
trial accidents, and pointing to the hospitals to relieve them and the
charities to furnish them with artificial limbs, and again uttering
His terrible maledictions: "Woe unto you, hypocrites!" We can also
imagine Him in His scathing denunciations, and heart-searching ser-
mons, 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, miii'stcred to those
who needed our ministrations — the hungry, the naked, the prisoner and
the captive. 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."

I i;fl

1 , I-

•^

Rev. James M. Cleary, Minneapolis.

The Qhurch and L^bor.

Address by REV. JAMES M. CLEARY, of Minneapolis.

' ' I

workiiifj
our, ami
11 classes
htl valid

eas

ui^flit if
associations, clioosc wise
ana toiiow the same path which with so imich
advantage to themselves and the common-
wealth was trod by their fathers before them."
Thus speaks Pope Leo XIII, in his j^reat
treatise on labor. This illustrious character,
whom Divine Providence has chosen to direct the
destinies of the Catholic church during these closing
years of the nineteenth century, clearly compre-
hends the conditions and the needs of this active age on
which he will have deeply impressed the influence of his
genius. The head of the Catholic church throughout the world, true
to his divine mission, is concerned not only about man's eternal wel-
fare and humanity's home beyond the grave, but his luminous mind
and his generous heart surrender their best and most devoted ener-
gies in the interest of human happiness while this temporal life may
last. The church of Jesus Christ is in the world to continue till time
shall be no more the divine work which Christ Himself began. "He
went about doing good." He dried the tears of human anguish. He
healed the wounds of breaking hearts. He comforted the sorrowful,
cured the sick, fed the famishing multitude, and forever sanctified
human toil by earning His daily food at manual labor. He was the
true apostle of humanity. He, the humanitarian, who forgot no human
need while directing the aspirations of immortal souls to their eternal
home. He answered the mo.st anxious questions of the human soul,
but he was not indifferent to the needs of the body. His sublime
philosophy solves the most intricate intellectual problems, and in
daily, practical life, the principles on which His religion is framed,
provide, for every human need and safeguard every human right. The Seed'

869

Provision mu
Hiiinuj

Kvery

■;

ISI
f 'I

Mi'

" " ' '!"

SVS^M

870

T//£ IVORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

liiftinu
lliu Lowly.

i I.

I 1

Kiiman Dig-
uiiy.

church which Christ founded has never made the mistake of interest
ing itself only in man's spiritual or moral welfare, and of forgetting
his physical needs.

When the church began its glorious work of ameliorating the con-
dition of mankind, of lifting up the lowly, and of planting the seed of
living hope ia human hearts wnich black despair had saddened, its first
duty was to remind man of his true dignity and worth. Paganism,
which then prevailed in the world, made gods of the emperors and
erected temples of a degraded worship in honor of some or the most
depraved monsters who have dishonored our common humanity, by
the loathsomeness of their vicious lives. Human dignity was an
unknown term. The unhappy victims of human depravity had been
"given up to a reprobate sense." God's image in the human soul had
been forgotten and man was honored or feared according to the posi-
tion he held or the power he might exercise, and not because of his
manhood, God's noolest work. The philosophers and sages of pagan-
ism proved themselves incapable of nnding a remedy for this deplora-
ble condition of human society. In fact, thev must accept the censure
which mankind has passed upon them, ancf the verdict of a brighter
and truer civilization condemns these leaders of pagan thought tor
their contempt of humanity,

Plato advocated the murder of innocent children. Seneca com-
mended the suicide, and other pagan philosophers and moralists the
commission of any crime that might bring profit or temporary advan-
tage. Virtue was not a reality, simply a convenience, in tlie estimation
of the wisest among pagans. The church began at once to assert the
dignity of the individual and to re-establish in human society true
principles of human rights.

" No man may outrage with impunity that hun^an dignity which
God Himself treats with reverence, nor stand in the way of that higher
life which is the preparation for the eternal life of heaven." This is
the teaching of Pope Leo in our age of Christian civilization, and the
same was the teaching of Peter at Rome and Paul at Corinth. •' It is
certain," says Cardinal Manning, " that in the measure in which
these truths pervade the minds of a people, in that measure they are
elevated, refined and independent. In the measure in which they are
lost, a people becomes animal, gross and intractable, or, it may be,
slavish. *' To consent to any treatment which is calculated to defeat
the end and purpose of his being, is beyond man's right. He cannot
give up his soul to servitude; for it is not man's own rights which are
here in question, but the rights of God." This teaching of Leo in the
nineteenth century consoled and ennobled the lowly at Christianity's
dawn, so that the slave in bondage could say to the proudest patrician
of Rome: "My life belongs to you, and so does all else that ends
wit' life — time, health, vigor, body and breath. All this you have
bought with your gold, and it has become your property. But I still
hold as my own what no emperor's wealth can purchase, no chains of
slavery fetter, no limit of life contain— a soul." The hitherto despised

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

S71

which

higher

This is

nd the
*' It is
which

ley are
'ley are
lay be,
defeat
cannot

iich arc

[o in the
ianity's
latrician
lat ends

pu have

|ut 1 still

)-iains of
lespised

and ill-treated slave, \yith heart throbbing under the power of Christian
emotions could now, in the comforting hope of immortality, appeal to
the intelligent judgment of the cultured pagan, " whether a poor slave,
who holds an uncpicnchable consciousness of possessing within her a
spiritual and living intelligence, whose measure of existence is immor-
tality, whose only true place of dwelling is above the skies, whose only
rightful prototype is the Deity, can hold herself inferior in moral
dignity, or lower in sphere of thought, than one who, however gifted,
owns that she claims no higher destiny, recognizes in herself no sub-
limer end, than what awaits the pretty irrational songsters, that beat
without hope of liberty against the gilded bars of their cage."

The first duty incumbent on the Christian teacher was to make
known the dignity and to establish the inalienable rights of man. It
became religion's mission to guide the human soul, to dcl^end its rights,
to guard its liberties, to teach its e.xalted worth, to show forth its
immortal life and lead it to its eternal home. Religion thus, while
proclaiming God's praises and paying fitting homage to man's Cre-
ator, became at the same time humanity's greatest benefactor. It
sought not only to lead man to heaven, but studied with devoted zeal
the best and truest interests of man on earth. The earth and the full-
ncss thereof was God's bountiful gift to man. The religion of God's
only begotten Son would fail in its mission to man if it did not apply
every sublime force at its command in aiding humanity to enjoy the
Creator's bounteous gifts, lavished upon the world with impaitial
beneficence. God created men free and equal. God stamped upon all
alike the impress of His own face. God made no distinctions of rich
or poor, of bond or free, of proud or lowly, but is the loving, gener-
ous Father of all His creatures. These maxims sent forth by the fish-
ermen of Galilee were destined to go sounding down the ages, to over-
turn the tottering temples of paganism, to dissipate the vapid subtil-
ties of a servile pagan philosophy and to establish on an enduring
foundation the universal brotherhood of man. Hence this religion
gave birth to charity for the fallen, to love for the enemy, to pity foi
the unfortunate, to sympathy for the wretched, to kindness for the
poor, to true compassion for humanity's ills. It was ambitious witnout
effrontery, covetous without avarice, zealous without fanaticism; obe-
dient but not servile, gentle but never cringing, austere but not cruel,
a conqueror but never a tyrant; at home in the hut of misery as well
as in the palace of luxury, in the wigwam of the savage or in the
abode of kings — wherever there was a man.

The task of asserting the dignity of man was but one of the solemn
duties that confronted the i;ew religion at its birth. It found the chil-
dren of toil, who formed the majority in pagan society, slaves in bond-
age to a harsh, disdainful, cruel and heartless minority. Labor was in
chains. Labor had no rights that capital considered itself in any way
bound to respect. Masters were granted power over life and limb, and
the unhappy slave dared not even assert a claim to any right or pre-
rogative in common with his master. "God has ordained," wrote St.

No Dintinc.
tiiiiiH of Uich
or I'oor.

: \

MTBH

872

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

Force of Ideas.

millions of men, who
who were inspired on

Augustine, "that reasoning creatures, made according to His own
image, shall rule only over creatures devoid of reason. He has not
established the dominion of man over man, but of man over the brute."
And this teaching of the immortal bishop of Hippo was but the
re-echoing of the voice of the earlier apostles, the universal sentiment
of the Christian church, and the only bright beam of hope or of glad-
ness that, for centuries, enslaved labor had seen through its tears.
The slaves outnumbered the freemen. The church could not advocate
the total abolition of slavery without completely overturning the state
of society and creating social anarchy. The sudden emancipation of

lad tasted only the bitterness of servitude, and
y by feelings of hatred and vengeance against
an inhuman system that had debased and despised them, would have
convulsed the world.

The church, wiser than pagan philosphy,.knew how to confer a
blessing on humanity and a benefit on labor without injustice or social
revolution. "She knew how to regenerate society, but not in rivers of
blood." "The first thing that Christianity did for slaves was to destroy
the errors which opposed, not only their universal emancipation, but
even the improvement of their condition; that is, the first force which
she employed in the attack was, according to her custom, the force
of ideas."

After having heard the oracles of paganism inventing doctrines to
degrade still more the unhappy slaves, how the aching hearts of op-
pressed humanity must have throbbed with exultant and conflicting
emotions as the teachings of St. Paul became music to their ears.
"You are all one in Christ Jesus." "There is neither Jew nor Greek;
there is neither bond nor free." The church could never forget the
sublime lesson which the great apostle gave when writing to Philemon,
the wealthy citizen of Colosse, and interceding in favor of a fugitive
slave named Onesimus, whom he had converted in prison at Rome,
and sent back to his master to be received "no more as a slave but as
a most dear brother."

The constant and uniform teaching of this human equality could
not fail to improve the unhappy condition of the slave. The laws ot
the church, regulating the marriage bond and inspiring reverence for the
home and family ties, further protected the children of the slave and
saved from hopeless servitude countless victims of "m.^n's inhumanity
to man."

This fact must not be forgotten, that the sublime task entrusted to
the church to perform was the social and moral elevation of man. The
church, faithful to its duty, could not hazard the accomplishment of
its purpose by a rash attempt at temporary advantage. The mission
of the church was to save the world, and all mankind was the object
of its anxious solicitude and care. This observation is, perhaps, neces-
sary as a reply to those who, unmindful of the spirit of the age, the
customs and ideas of men, when the church began its marvelous work,
are prone to censure religion for not having more promptly accom-
plished the total abolition of slavery.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUGIOXS.

873

"If, at the present time, after eighteen centuries, when ideas have
been corrected, manners softened, laws ameliorated; when nations and
governments have been taught by experience? when so many public
establishments for the relief of indigence have been founded; when so
many systems have been tried for the division of labor; when riches
are distributed in a more equitable manner; if it is still so difficult to
prevent a great number of men from becoming the victims of dreadful
misery, if that is the terrible evil which, like a fa'^al nightmare, tor-
ments society and threatens its future, what would have been tl'c effect
of a universal emancipation, at the beginning of Christianity, ai a time
when slaves were not considered by the law as persons but as things;
when their conjugal union was not looked upon as a marriage; when
their children were property, and subject to the same rules as the
progeny of animals; when, in fine, the unhappy slave was ill-treated,
tormented, sold or put to death, according to the caprices of his mas-
ter!" (Balmes.) Liberty, priceless boon that it is, would cease to
benefit men if the means of subsistence were wanting. Man, above all
other blessings, requires first wherewith to live, and it was imperative
that universal emancipation be the result of gradual progress upward
to be a lasting benefit to men and nations long accustomed to the
degradation and wretched dependence of vile servitude. The man
who tills the soil must learn to know how to care for the fruits of his
labor, if he will reap the full benefit of his personal independence and
freedom. To the church and to it alone belongs the undying glory of
finally wiping out the curse of slavery among Christian nations, and
on the brow of Pope Alexander III friends and even enemies of the
church unite in placing the garland of undying fame for utterly abol-
ishing, as far as lay in his power, the curse of slavery from human
society. "If men have recovered their rights, it is chiefly to Pope
Alexander that they are indebted for it,' writes Voltaire, no partial
friend to the papacy.

Thus, as the ages went on, slavery melted into serfdom and serfdom
into freedom in spite of the stubborn resistance of heartless cupidity.
In the glorious sunlight of this nineteenth century it has been our
happy privilege to behold the perfect attainment of human freedom.
When in 1888, our sovereign pontiff, Leo XIII, was celebrating the
golden jubilee of his priesthood, and men from all nations came
bearing their gifts in honor or the illustrious head of the Catholic
church, this noble hearted friend of his fellowmen declared that among
all the gifts laid at his f jcc none were so welcome as the proclamation
of the distinguished Christian emperor, Dom Pedro, emancipating all
the slaves in Brazih*

The church having taught every child of Adam who earned his
bread by laborious toil to assert his own Mgnity and to understand his
own worth, and having led a hitherto hopeless multitude from the dis-
mal gloom of slavery to the cheering brightness of the liberty of the
children of God, bravely defended the rights and the privileges of her
emancipated children. "The church has guarded with religious care
56

Gradual
Emunciputioiu

■ :i I

i :*

; M

i:'

.1 1:

■

nil

I -I I- """■*■

il I

Inlieritance
of the Pour.

RUIitij of
WaKe-Earuera,

i I i

874

THE I'/ORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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 breaci 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. The church entered the arena to bravely battle for
the weak against the strong, at a time when brute force had won the
admiration and awe of a dissolving society. Principles of right and of
justice were scoffed at, in a state of society where the worship of
Mercury the robber, and of Venus the wanton, captivated the minds
and the hearts of men. In his exhaustive encyclical on the condition
of labor, Leo XHI lays down the principle 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 cannot surrender, and which
no man can take from him, for he is an intelligent, responsible being
owing homage to God and duties to human society. His recompense,
then, for his daily toil cannot be measured by a heartless standard of
supply and demand, or a cruel code of inhuman economics, for man is
not a money-making machine, but a citizen of earth and an heir to the
kingdoii? 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. God
created the earth for man's use and enjoyment on his way to his endur-
ing home. God created plenty for all His children, and it is His de-
sire that none of His creatures shall faint by the way or go hungry to
their homes. The church protects the rights of property and private
ownership, but not so as to deprive the poor and dependent of the
actual necessities of a frugal existence.

The memory of Pope Leo XIII will live among men for his
personal worth, his exceptional intellectual gifts and his religious
fervor and stainless purity of character. But above all else he will be
remembered, as he desires to be, as the workingman's friend, the de-
fender of labor. His definition of a minimum wage, as "sufficient to
enable a man to maintain himself, his wife and his children" in decent
frugality, shows how clearly the great religious leader of over two
hundred and fifty millions of faithful believers understands the rights
of individuals and the best interests of human society. "Homeless
men are reckless," The homes of the people are the safeguards of
national stability. Religion sanctifies domestic life by sustaining the
inviolability of the marriage bond and by constantly reminding fathers
and mothers of their first and holiest duty to their offspring, the duty
of leading them to Ic .i the love of God and the love of the neighbor.
Hence the duties of the wife and mother should retain her at her own
hearthstone in the midst of her children, that she may reign as queen
of a true Christian home, no matter how humble. Family duties must

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RE/JGIOXS.

Stn

his
ious

c\c-

. to
cent

two
ghts

less
dsof
the
ithers

duty
hbor.

own
queen
5 must

be neglected and home comforts and happiness denied to the toilers,
when the wife and mother is forced from her home to aid in providing
the support of the family in the factory or mill. Just wages paid to
the breadwinner of the family would enable him to sufficiently pro-
vide for wife and children, and send from every loom in the world
mothers back to their homes to devote their first, their highest and
holiest care to the nurture and training of their children.

Labor has a right to freedom; labor has also a right to protect its
own independence and liberty. Hence, labor unions arc lawful and
have enjoyed the sanction and protection of the church in all ages.
Our times have witnessed no more edifying spectacle than the noble,
unselfish pleading of our own Cardinal Gibbons for the cause of or-
ganized labor at the see of Peter. In organization there is strength,
but labor must use its power for its own protection, not for invading KunrzW'uuhor'
the rights of others. The strike, or refusal of united labor to work, is
a declaration of war, 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 un-
justly by organized capital. • — -

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
workingman. When capital becomes timid and shrinks from the haz-
ard of investment, labor soon feels the pangs of hui"xer and the dread
specter of want casts its dismal shadow over many an humble home.

Religion is the only influence that has been able to subdue the
piide 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 de-
pendence and the rights of their common Father in heaven. The
religious teachers and guides who apply the principles of the "Sermon
on the Mount" to the everyday affairs of men, and lead humanity up-
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
heaven's choicest rewards.

lleflDnnsihiU
itieHof WL-alili.

■\U

i>,

iM»*

I 'iii

:'f

1 he f^elation Between [Religion and

(Conduct.

Paper by PROF. C. H. TOY, of Harvard University.

The Parest
Relicion

T the present time the external relation be-
tween conduct and religion is an intimate
one. All religious ministers and manuals
are also instructors in ethics; our sacred books
and our pulpits alike emphasize conduct.
This has been the case in human history a
long time, but not always. In the very early
times, in the childhood of the race, if we may
judge from existing savage life from the
earliest records of civilized peoples, religion
and morality occupied quite separate spheres,
which rarely or never touched each other.
The God was approached and propitiated by
methods known to the purest, by magic formulas
which had no more to do with conduct than the word by
which Aladdin controlled the slaves of the lamp But
the intermingling of moral and religious ideas has been par
allel with the growth of society. One test of the elevation of religion,
in some respects the best test, is the closeness of its reliance with
morality. This is equivalent to saying that religion and morality
.stand hand in hand on the same stratum of civilization; it is in gen-
eral the highest culture that has the purest religion. The union
between the two elements of life is further strengthened by the fact
that religion has given powerful sanctions to morality. By a natural
process of thought men have always identified their moral concep-
tions with the will of the Deity, and ethical rules have been supported
by theories of divine rewards and punishments.

The subject of our inquiry is to discover, if possible, the precise
relation bct., een the religions and the ethical sides of our nature, in
order that each may have due recognition and best perform its func-
tions in human development. The necessary harmonious co-operation

876

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

877

of the two can be secured only by doin<^ justice to both, by allowing
neither to usurp the place of the other.

Our thesis, then, may be e.xpressed as follows: Morality is com-
plementary to religion, or it is the independent establishment of the
laws of conduct which help to furnish the content of the unrefined
religious ideal. Religion, properly speaking, has no thought conteni, M.miiiiy com.
it is merely a sentiment, an attitude of soul toward an idea, the idea of pi''";|'.i|<,Nry <<>
an extra human power. The religious sentiment does not know what
is the ethical character of its object till it has learned it from human
life. Morality is the human reflection of divine goodness, produced by
the same human endowments whence springs the sentiment of relation
to God. Or, to state the case more fully, the content of the conception
of God is the perfect ideal in truth, beauty and goodness, as given by
science, aesthetics and ethics. Let us look at certain facts in man's
moral religious history which appear ot illustrate our part of this
thesis.

First, it may be noted that, in the ancient world, about the same
grade of morality, theoretical and practical, was attained by all the
great nations. The great teachers in Egypt, China, India, Persia, Pal-
estine and Greece show remarkable unanimity in the rules of conduct
which they lay down. The common life of the people was abo'ut the
same in all lands. Whatever the status, a member in a given class in
one country is not to be distinguished on the ethical side from his con-
freres elsewhere. Judean and Persian prophets, Chinese and Greek
sages, when they are called on to act, .-how the same virtues and the
same weaknesses. The higher family life, as far as we can trace it,
was the same everywhere.

The moral principles regulating commerce and general social rela-
tions were scarcely different throughout the ancient civilized world, if
we compare similar periods and circles. David acts toward his ene-
mies very much as does one of the Homeric chieftains or one of the
heroes of the Mahabharata. The internal politics and court life of
Judea reminds us of the parallel history of China, India and P^gypt.
The prevarication of Jeremiah and the trickery of Jacob may be com-
pared with the wiles of Odysseus and with double-dealing the world
over. Instances of beautiful friendshi}) between men like those of
Jonathan and David and Damon and Pythias, are found c\erywhere.
We find charming pictures of home life in Plato, in Confucius, in the
Old Testament.

Special laws were the same throughout the world. Slavery,
polygamy and child slaughter were universal, yet everywhere yielded
gradually in part or in whole to the increasing refinement and the
increasing recognition of the value of the individual. Tiie position
of woman was not materiall)' different in the different i)eoples. Not-
withstanding certain restrictions she played a great role, not only as
wife and mother, but also in literature and statesmanship, among
P^gyptians, Chinese, Hindus, Greeks and Romans.

From this ethical uniformity wc must infer that the moral devel-

' '

'!;i'

1 11

{

m 11

I i

It i! i:

i. \\ !.

^^H

■ i V

• \

878

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Pnro Mural
Cmlci.

opment was independent of the particular form of religion. Under
monotheism, dualism and polytheism, whether human or zoomorphic
images of the deity were fashioned or no images at all, with varying
methods of sacrifice and widely different conceptions of the future life,
the moral life of man went its way and was practically the same every-
where.

Another fact of the ancient world is that the ethical life stands in
no direct ratio with the religiousness of a people or a circle. While
ancient life was in general deeply religious, full of recognition of the
deity, there were several great moral movements which were character-
ized by an almost complete ignoring of the divine clement in human
thought. These are Confucianism, Buddhism and Stoicism, and Epi-
cureanism. Whatever we may think of the philosophic soundness of
these systems, it is undisputed that their moral codes were pure and
that they exerted a deep and lasting influence on ancient life. They
all arose in the midst of polytheistic .systems, against which they were
a protest, and they attained a moral height and created a type of life
to the level of which society has not yet reached. We may set the
phenomenon over against the picture of kindliness and honesty whicii
sometimes presents itself in savage tribes, every act of whose lives is
regulated by religion.

Turning to modern Europe, it is evident that progress in morality
has been in proportion to the growth rather of general culture than of
religious fervor. If religion alone could have produced morality the
crusades ought to have converted Europe into an ethically pure com-
munity; instead of which they oftener fostered barbarity and vice.
The Knights Templar, the guardians of what was esteemed the most
sacred spot in the world, came to be, if report does not belie them,
shining examples of all the vices. Medieval Rome was a hotbed ot
corruption. Protestants and Catholics alike burned heretics.

The English Puritans of the seventeenth century were the most
religious and the most barbarous and unscrupulous of men. In
our day the same evil spirit sometimes disfigures our political assem-
blies, and appears sometimes also in our religious bodies. Trades ant!
professions are characterized by certain virtues and vices, without
respect to the religious relations of their members. In a word, religion
has, as a rule, not been able to maintain a high moral standard against
adverse circumstances, and has not extended its proper influences.

Let us take some typical case of moral rule. The idea of honesty
assumes the existence of property, and of property belonging to
another. In an unorganized communism, or in the case where I alone
Typical Moral ^'» owuer, there can be no such thing as dishonesty. Thus, in a family,
a father cannot be dishonest toward the children absolutely dependent
upon him. Further, the idea of property is at first physical, non-moral,
involving the mere notion of possession.

A dog or a savage has a bone. He thinks of it simply as some-
thing good, as the means of supplying a want. Another dog or savage
snatches it. What is the feeling of the original possessor? Simply

Uulo

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

S7»

nder
rphic

2 life.
:very-

ids in
While
jf the
ractcr-
[lunian
lI Kpi-
iicss of
irc and
They
ey were

of life
set the
y which

lives is

morality
z than of
ality the
urc com-
and vice,
the most
lie theni.
lotbcd of

the most
men. In
,al assem-
rades and
s, without
d, religion
rd against
ucnces.
of honesty
longing to
ere I alone
in a family.
■ dependent
, non-moral,

y as some-
ag or savage
31? Simply

that he has lost a good thmg, and that he desires to get it back. If
he fails to recover it his judgment of the situation is twofold; he says
to himself that he has suffered loss, and that the invader is an enemy
of his well-being. In all this there is nothing ethical; but the success-
ful marauder in his turn suffers similar loss, and makes similar reflec-
tion. When this has happened a number of times, the difference
between the brute and the man begins to show itself. The former
keeps up the struggle from one generation to another without ceasing;
the latter reflects on the situation.

The savage after awhile acquires permanent property, a bow and
arrow, the loss of which involves not merely a momentary but a per-
manent failure of resources. He perceives that he secures the greatest
good for himself by an understanding with his fellows which assumes
to each the use of his own possessions. As social relations have be-
come more numerous, the advantage of such an arrangement becomes
more and more evident, and the respect for the property of others be-
comes an established rule of the community. The moral sentiment
now makes it apparent, at first dim and untrustworthy, but gathering
strength with every advance in reflection and intelligence, until finally
the rule of life is embodied in the law, "Thou shalt not steal."

From this point the progress is steady, with the growing estimate
of the worth of the individual, and the increasing dependence of mem-
bers of the community on one another, the rights of property are
more clearly defined, and there is a greater disposition to punish the
invasion of these rights. Recognition of the property rights becomes
a duty, but always under the condition that gave it birth, namely, the
well-being of the community. So soon as it appears that this right
stands in the way of general property, it ceases to exist. Society, for
example, does not hesitate to seize the property of an enemy in war,
or to confiscate the property of its own citizens by fines or taxes. Or, in
another direction, we do not hesitate to take what is not our own if we
have reason to believe that it will not injure the possessor, and if thert;
is a general presumption of his consent, as when, in passing by a field,
we pluck an apple from a tree whose owner is unknown to us.

In the same way the duties of truthfulness and of respect for human
life have arisen, and these are limited by the same condition. The
right to slay a criminal by legal process, to slay an enemy in war, to
slay a midnight burglar or would-be assassin is recognized by all codes
as necessary to the existence of society. Men everywhere claim the
right to state what is contrary to fact in certain cases, as, to enemies
in war, to maniacs, in fiction and in jest. The statement of a novelist
that a knight called Ivanhoe followed King Richard to Palestine, the
declaration of the poet that the waves ran mountain high, the asser-
tion of Tallyrand that language is meant to conceal thought, though
all contrary to fact, are not injurious, for they deceive nobody, and
the obligation of truthfulness results from its bearing on our well-be-
ing. Under certain circumstances a man may conceal his opinion
without offense to his conscience, namely, when he is convinced that
such concealment will work no harm.

The Uulo of
Life.

r„, WORLDS com.Ess Of RBUOtO^S.

^^ i^*.nt is violation of

..Uhc. a. two s^-^S.tS^irCr^;:SU sj^
truthfulness-- when a n^anf^om hi^^P ^ J ^t to ^^ ""^er-

his silence will b^. "'''^ f^ses n^uases which ^e Knows to ^^^^^

science.art. orrehgion he "^^^^^^^^ ^^^il^ 1 e employ thc"i ^^^^.^^^ ^
stood byhi« ^"S^more subtle form of untru^^^^^^^ ^^^ tear

sense. Ti^^-^Vtv rns S mind away from certamcv'ci .^^^^^^^^
"-V.^^''^f:l^\ri:o nion. This procedurejs fa a t , ^^

iind away from certam -v-..^^ .^^
'""\f cKa" his^ophMon. This procedurejsjatal^t^^^.^^^^^ ^^^, ,^

l^J*^ ^S; it Jbscures thou,
ano ^r - „t,. one s sell, i

.,s procedure is ^jtal to V- , j^

recognition of the di^n y ^^^^^ ^^^^^

o^ ^Ji^^y- ^. liw of growth governs the h story r^l-it is

mere desire or instinct. controlled bV J^on ^^^^,^

determmcd its PJOP*;;, ■ ^ ^lane. First, it nu.si "^ \ ,i Ueing of its

The standard ot goou is ^ocietv for the pertecun^ v^
„bseTva\ion of what is "f do ^-n ^^^^^^ 'f 'It^d' " -S of o^n'Js

Only IS It to t>e oo established, l.o "» ^. less 1 wish

standard has been P/^^<^'°j;X inefficacious in condv^Jt^' ^^ ^^^^^^^

A f undamcntally wrm ^ ^^^^.^ ^^^,^^, f^r J*^^ ^ Jr^onsciousness.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

SSI

At the same time the content of justice is determined by social rela-
tions. It is only by experience that \vc can say that we owe just so
much to each person. When we have determined this we have de-
termined everything. There is nothing higher than this. Love can M,,r,.v,iNamB
do no more than recognize the rights of every being, for to do more fo'riiiKiuTjuB-
would be wrong. Mercy is only a name for a higher thought of jus- *"^'''
tice; it is the recognition of the fact that under the circumstances the
delinquent deserves something different from that which rough justice,
or what passes for justice, has meted out to him.

Finally, a great motive for right living is supplied by experience;
namely, the hope of worldly well-being or salvation. Enlightened ob-
servation more and more shows that happiness attends virtue. This is
not to be set aside as merely refined selfishness. It may take that
shape in its cruder forms in what is called the "Poor Richard" system
of morality. But it is properly that regard for self-development which
all the highest schemes of life recognize as a fundamental and neces-
sary principle. It is contained in the beatitudes of the Sermon on
the Mount and in the ethical systems of Plato, Zeno and Kant, and it
is not inconsistent with the purest unselfishness. V/hat is more, from
it the mind passes naturally to the broader ideal of the well-being of the
world as the aim of life and the basis of happiness.

Religion, the sense of relation to the extra-human power of the
universe, introduces us to a new social complex. In morality the par-
ties are man and man; in religion, man and God. In our moral rela-
tions with a pers n or government there are two classes of influence to
be considered — the moral power of the personality, and a restraining
or impelling power of a physical control over us. The second of these
is what we call sanctions, with rewards and punishments. These,
again, are of two sorts, internal or organic, and external or inorganic,
and it is only the first thought that can be called moral.

Thus let us suppose that it is better for a college student, physic-
ally and intellectually, not to study after midnight, and that he does
stop work at that hour. Whether this is a moral process depends on
the consideration which has formed his habit. If he has himself,
through observation of his life and that of others, reached the conclu-
sion that late study is injurious, and has therefore avoided it, or if he
has on reflection followed the advice of others as probably wise, he has
acted as a moral being; but if his conduct has been determined solely
by his fear of incurring penalties, or by his hope of securing rewards
held out by college rules, it is non-moral.

In the sphere of religion the two sorts of sanction are what we call
natural and supernatural. The laws of nature ma>- be considered to be
laws of God and the natural penalties and rewards of life to be divine
sanctions. Obedience to these laws is a moral act, because it involves
control of self in the interest of organic development, liut super-
natural sanctions are inorganic and non-moral, since they do not appeal
to a rational self-control. He who is honest merely to escape punish-
ment or receive reward fixed by external law is not honest at all. lUit

A Nhw Social
Complex.

.. ,i:

• ■ !

] I

II H

SnnctiouH.

882

T//E IVO/iLD'S COxWGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

he 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 super-
natural sort that is meant. It is an interesting question how far the
belief in these is now morally effectivj. That it has at various times
been influential cannot be doubted. In the ancient world and in medi-
eval Europe the deity was believed to intervene supernaturally in this
life for the protection of innocence and the punishment of wicked-
ness; but this belief appears to be vanishing and cannot be called an
effective moral force at the present day. Men think of reward and
punishment as belonging to the future, and this connection is probably
of some weight. Yet its practical importance 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 future. 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 convic-
tion of the religious world that the future life must be morally the
continuation and consequence of the present. This must be esteemed
a great gain — it tends to banish the mechanical and emphasize the
ethical clement in life and to raise religion to the plane of rationality.
Rational religious morality is obedience to the laws of nature as laws
of God.

We are 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.

I''urther, the consciousness of the divine presence should be the
most potent factor in man's moral life. The thouglit 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, shall be, if received into the soul as a living, everyday
fact, such a purifying and uplifting influence as no merely human rela-
tionship has ever engendered.

In the presence of such a communion, 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.

ives
ious

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ay agree.

X^e Essentials of Religion.

Paper by REV. ALFRED W. MOMERIE, D. D., of London, England.

E WHO have attended the sessions of
these congresses have, I think, learned
one great lesson, viz., that there is a
unity of religion underlying the di-
versity of religions, and that the im-
portant work before us is not so much
o make men accept one or the other
of the various religions of the world
as to induce them to accept religion
in a broad and universal sense. This
lesson which we have learned here,
we shall, I hope, teach elsewhere, so
that, from the Hall of Columbus as a
center, it will spread, and spread, and
spread, until it at last reaches the
furthermost limits of the inhabitable
globe.
There is a story told of a man of a theolog-
ical sect of Great Britain, in the extreme North
of Scotland, whose special pride was that they were the sole
possessors of the true religion. But there was a gradual fal'ing away
from their ranks until there were few of them left. A gentleman called
upon an old lady one day and inquired as to the progress of that re-
ligion. She told him that about all there was left of the once flourish-
ing community was "myself and Jock" (meaning her husband), "and
I am not so very sure of Jock," she added. My own views at one time
very much coincided with the old lady's. I remember one day, when
a boy, I had occasion to spend several hours with a liberal-minded
clergyman. We talked of many things and of many people, and
among others of Kingsley. I had been brought up in an Evangelical
school. My friend held a high opinion of the great canon's works. I
said "Yes, I suppose Kingsley was a good man, but he had no religion."
The clergyman quietly replied, "What is religion?" Now, will you
allow me today to ask that question? What is religion? The majority
think it is a pleasant ceremony for use in a church. I don't much blame

883

What is llo-
ligion?

! 1

ii!

y !

turn

HSt

T//Ii WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

them, for it is the clergymen who are responsible mainly for the big-
otry of the laity. I am {jlad you agree with me. You have got it from
us. We have been bigots partly from ignorance, partly from our
supercilious priestly pride. We have transferred our bigotry to the
laity. We have kindled their bigotry into a flame. But there Iiave
been one or two glorious exceptions. I should like to quote you two
or three verses from one of your own bishops:

The parish priest

Of austerity,

Climbed up in a high church steeple,

To be nearer Gtxl,

.So that he might hand

His Word down to the people.

And in sermon script,

He daily wrote

What he thought was sent fron; ^caven;

And he dropped it down

On the people's heads

Two times one day in seven.

In his age God said

"Come down and die;"

And he cried out from the steeple,

"Where art Thou, Lord?"

And the Lord replied,

"Down here among ^Iy people."

Now, who are God's people? What is religion? Perhaps we may
be able to arrive at a definite answer to this question if we try to dis-
cover whether there are any subjects in regard to which the great re-
ligious leaders of the world differ. Let me read you two or three
extracts. The first words are taken from the old Hebrew prophets:

"To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? saith
the Lord. I delight not in the blood of bullocks or of he goats.
. Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me;
your new moons and Sabbath I cannot away with. Cease to do evil;
learn to do well. Seek judgment; relieve the oppressed; judge the
fatherless, plead for the widow."

Zoroaster preached the doctrine that the one thing needful was to
do right. All good thoughts, words and works lead to Paradise. All
ZoroHstor and evil thoughts, words and works to hell. Confucius was so anxious to
(iiiutama. ^^ men's attention on their duty that he would enter into no meta-

physical speculation regarding the problem of immortality. When
questioned about it he replied: "I do not as yet know what life is.
How can I understand death?" The whole duty of man, he said,
might be summed up in the word reciprocity. We must refrain from
injuring others, as we would that they should refrain from injuring us.
Gautama taught that every man has to work out his salvation for him-
self, without the mediation of a priest. On one occasion, when he met
a sacrificial procession, he explained to his followers that it was idle to
shed the blood of bulls and goats, that all they needed was change of

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

SS.i

Ijciirt. So, too, he insisted on the iiselessiicss ol I'.isls iind [)ciiaiiccs
jirid other forms of ritual.

" Neither j^'oinjf naked, nor shavintj the licad, nor wearing; matted
hair, nor dirt, nor roii^di f,'arments, nor reading tlic Vedas will cleanse
a man. ♦ ♦ * Aiif^er, drunkenness, envy, dispara^nn-^r others, these
constitute uncleanness, and not the eating of flesh."

He .summed up his teaching' in the celebrated verse:

To cease from sin,

To get virtue,

To cleanse the heart,

That is the religion of the Huddhas.

And in the farewell address which he delivered to his disciples he
called hi.s religion by the name of Purity. "Learn," he exhorted, "and
spread abroad the law thoughtout and revealed by me, that this pu-
rity of mine may last lonjj and be perpetuated for the {food and iiap-
piness of multitudes." To the sameel'fect spoke Christ: "Not every-
one that sayeth unto Mc, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kinj^dom of
heaven, but he that doeth the will of My I'ather." Mohammed a^ain
taught the selfsame doctrine of justification by work:

" It i.s not the flesh and blood ye sacrificed; it is your piety, which
is acceptable to God. * * * Woe to them that make a show of
piety and refuse to help the needy. It is not righteousness that ye
turn your faces in prayer toward the Last or toward the West, but
righteousness is of those who perform the covenants which they have
covenanted."

This was the teaching of the great religious teachers of the world.
But v'lese old forms of religion are hardly now recotini/.able. Vou r.
have only to read Uavies Book on Buddhism and the great poem rieiy.
to which reference has been made, and you will sec how, in modern
times, there is a wide departure from the original Buddhism and
Mohammedanism; how far they have diverged from the original plan
of their fathers. And the .same is true of Christianity. Christ taught
no dogmas, Christ laid down no system of ceremonialism. And yet,
what do we find in Christendom? For centuries His disciples engaged
in the fiercest controversy over the question, "Whether His substance
(whatever that may be; you may know, I don't) was the same sub-
stance of the Father, or only similar." They fought like tigers over
the definition of the very Prince of Peace. Later on Christendom was
literally rent asunder over the question of "Whether the Holy Ghost
proceeded from the Father to the Son" (whatever that may mean).
And my own church, the Church of England, has been, and still is,
in danger of disruption from the question of vestments— and clothes.

Now, these metaphysical sublctics, these questions of millinery,
were started by theologians. They may be useful or not, that is a
matter of opinion, but they had nothing whatever to do with religion
as religion was understood by the greatest teachers; the true religion
which the world has had. That is a fact which all the great religious

i i'

%*■-'.; Ill i

fir

•?

i I!

SS()

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

world have

agreed

upon, that concUict wa^' the only

id KeiiKiun.

!. I

teachers of the
thing needful.

But it may be objected that a religion of conduct is nothing but
morality. Some people have a great contempt for morality, and I am
not surprised at it. They are accustomec'i to call men .noral who re-
strain themselves from murder and manage just to steer clear of the
divorce court. That kind of morality is a contemptible thing. That
is no. real morality. We should understand by morality all-around
good conduct; conduct that is governed only by love, and in that true
sense there is no such thing as mere morality; in that true sense moral-
ity involves religion. Don't misunderstand me; I am far from denying
the importance of an explicit recognition of God. It is of very great
importance. It affords us an explanation, a hopeful explanation, of the
mysteries of existence which nothing else can supply.

But explicit recognition of God is not the beginning of religion.
That is not the first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and
afterward that which is spiritual. " If a man love not his brother whom
he hath seen how can he love God, whom he hath not seen?" Nor is
an explicit recognition of God the essence of religion. Who shall
define the essence of religion? If a man say that he loves God and
hateth his brother, he is a liar. It is by love of man alone that religion
can be manifested. The love of man is the essence of religion. Re-
ligion may be lacking in metaphysical completness; it may be lacking
in original consistency; it may be lacking in aisthetical development; it
may be lacking in almost everything; yet, if lacking in brotherly love
it would be mockery and a sham.

The essential thing is in right conduct; therefore it follows that
there must be implicit recognition of God. I tell you there is a strange
Menare Lovers surprise awaiting some of us in the great hereafter. We shall discover
that many so-called atheists are, after all, more religious than ourselves.
He who worships, though he know it not, peace be on the intention of
his thought, devout beyond the meaning of his will. The whole thing
has been summed up once and forever in Leigh Hunt's beautiful story
of "Abou Ben Adhem."

Lovers o f

as
so
in
us.

ern:
crit

logi

What Christianity H^s Wrought U

/America.

Paper by DAVID JAMES BURRELL, D. D., of New York.

-II ;

OD be praised for this Congress of Religions.
Never before has Christianity, the only true
religion, been brought into such close, open
and decisive contrast with the other religions
of the world. This is, indeed, the Lord's con-
troversy. The altars arc built, the bullocks
slain, the prayers offered, and the nations stand
beholding. Now, then, the God that answcr-
eth by nrc, let Him be God!

The Christian religion makes an exclusive
claim. It is not first among equals, but the
only one. Upon that arrogant claim it stands
or falls. The one trust which it holds in com-
mon with all other religions is the being of
God. Its differentiating truth is God mani-
fested in flesh, as it is written: "God so loved
the worH that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever be-
lieveth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." By that
truth Christianity is separated from all other religions by an infinite
and bridgeless gulf. If that be false Christianity is as foundationless
as the stuff that dreams are made of; if that be true Christianity stands
solitary and alone as the religion that has power to save. We believe
in God, but in that God alone who once became flesh and dwelt among
us. Christ 13 everything to us — first, last, midst, and all in all.

But how shall the validity of that truth be demonstrated? By its
influence upon individual and national character. The world will ulti-
mately believe in the religion that produces the highest type of gov-
ernment and the best average man. All religions must submit to that
criterion. By their fruits ye shall know them. Daniel Webster said:
"I have been able to hold my own in controversy with mere theo-
logians, but there is one thing that silerce^ me. I have an old uncle,

887

riiriritianity
ExcluHivu.

888

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

God 18 in tlio
American ('on-
atitation.

Joiin Colby, up among the New Hampshire hills, whose simple Chris-
tian life puts all my arguments to shame."

This is indeed the crucial test. The God that answereth by fire —
the fire that burns up impurity and selfishness — let Him be God!

A like result is obtained when a frank comparison is instituted be-
tween Christian and non-Christian nations. It is enough to say that,
without a solitary exception, the most highly civilized and humanized
nations are such as lie within the sunlit circle of Christendom. For
our present purpose, however, we must concentrate our thought upon
America, the youngest of the sisterhood, a mere infant of days.

Ours is distinctly a Christian nation. President Dwight, of the
Columbia Law school, than whom there is no more competent author-
ity in these premises, says: "It is well settled by decision of the courts
ot various states that Christianity is a part of our common law." We
need not, however, fall back upon the rulings of courts and legislatures.
The history of America ^ives proof on every page that the Gospel of
the crucified Nazarene is interwoven \,'ith ; ■■\. entire national fabric.

If it be objected that the name ot " .. " ..ot in our national sym-
bols we answer: Would that it were there; but its omission is of little
practical moment so long as God Himself can be shown to rule in the
genius of our government, in its management of civil affairs and in the
life and character of the people. In humbh: recognition of the divine
favor this claim is fearlessly made.

The Discovery. At the very outset we trace the hand of Provi-
dence in the discovery of this land. All things, in the divine economy,
occur in fullness of time. Up and down along the coast of this western
world cruised many a bold mariner; but the terra incognita was wait-
ing for its hour. When all the burdened lands were groaning for
deliverance from their surplus populations, the hour struck; the hour
struck, "and God's man appeared, bearing in his hand the red-cross
banner. The cruise of Columbus was a missionary enterprise. The
conquest of America was a conquest for Christ.

It would be interesting to conjecture what vou!
result had the Celts or the Norsemen, Eric the P ■•
Sigraat been permitted to effect a landing and r; n c-r Pagan altars
along the Atlantic coast. This, however, could nc. o,

God moves in all things; all obey
His first propulsion from the night.

The hand of Providence is traced in the settlement of the country
and in the development of our American life and character. h\ glanc-
ing at the successive migrations hitherward one is reminded of that
old time Pentecost, when strangers came from everywhere, Parthians,
Medesand Elamites, Greeks, Arabians and dwellers in Mesopotamia,
all seeking the place of worship. It is ou'' humble prayer that the
baptism of heavenly fire and power may ^c^t :; >on them all.

The place of honor is accorded to the l' r .an. to the Huguenots
and the Beggars of Holland, all of whom were i -gi^ Ives from civil and

have been the
thjhardy sonsof

THE VVORLUS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

SS'.)

religious oppression. The influence of their sturdy devotion to truth
and righteousness has been a potent influence among us.

Aye, call it holy ground,

The spot where first they trod,
They left unstained what there they found.

Freedom to worship God.

The people of America are a distinct people; a conglomciatc
tormed of the superflux of the older lands. If ever it was proper to
characterize this people as English, or Anglo-Saxon, it is certainly no
longer so. The Anglo-Saxon element in our population is relatively
slight. The mingling of many bloods has produced a new ethnic product,
which can be aptly designated only as American. The process of as-
similation still goes on. The seas are dotted with ships from every
quarter of the globe bringing the poor and weary and disappointed,
eager to renew their hopes and rebuild their fortunes in the land which
gives an ungrudging welcome to the oppressed of all nations. And
surely this is not without the gracious ken and purpose of God.

The bridge of an ocean steamer affords a standpoint from which,
looking down into the steerage, one may behold at a glance the most
serious problems of American politics. Here is our hope and here is Americn'B
our danger — the source of our national strength and of our utmost Hopennd Dan-
weakness. The best and worst are gathered here — youth and vigor in ^'""
quest of golden opportunities; poverty and decrepitude fleeing from
the ills they have had to others that they know not of. In view of the
possibilities thus suggested we should indeed be at our wits' ends were
it not for our confidence in the God who has made and preserved us as
a nation. In Him we trust.

It is a fact of prime importance, furnishing, perhaps, a key to the
problem, that, with scarcely an exception, the dominant races of his-
tory have been of mixed blood, such as the Germans, the Romans and
the Anglo-Saxons. Proceeding from this fact, Herbert Spencer has
ventured to express the hope that out of our conglomerate population
may be evolved in process of time the ultimate ideal man. If so,
however it must be brought about through the assimilating power of
human equality, which has its reason in our filial relations with God. In
other words, religion furnishes the only guaranty of our national wel-
fare and prosperity.

At a critical period in the history of France a member of the Corps
Legislatif arose and said: "Fellow citizens, I offer this resolution:
' There is no God.' " The cry was caught up and echoed by the popu-
lace: "No God! No God!" It was shouted by the surging mobs
along the streets. God was violently disowned and His ordinances
tumultuously swept away. A woman of the demi-monde was carried
in triumphal procession to Notre Dame and enthroned as Goddess of
Reason. Liberty, Equality and Fraternity glared meanwhile in grim
satire from the dead walls. That night the reign of terror began, and
the gutters of Paris ran red with blood. One such experiment will

;ll J

>Mi^ni

^ii

Ml
i

[-1^1

890

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

M «

Ita

. \ %

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1 -'

Enuality i s
BrotherhcHHl.

answer for all time. It was a true word that Mirabeau uttered: " God
is as necessary as freedom to the welfare of a popular government."

The whole world has learned that freedom is an empty sound if
truth and duty have no part in it. Therefore, we are wont to say in a
broad but real sense ours is a Christian nation. The heterogeneous
multitude have come hither to rest beneath the aegis of the great truth
which Jesus of Nazareth proclaimed when with His face toward the
West, he stretched forth His pierced hands as if to gather all the scat-
tered peoples unto Him. " I, if I be lifted up," said He, " will draw all
men unto Mc."

The life blood of popular government is equality. In this lies
tlie rationale of individual and civil freedom. But equality is only an-
other name for the brotherhood of man, and the brotherhood of man
is an empty phrase unless it finds its original grounds and premise in
the Fatherhood of God.

The earliest formulation of this principle is in the preamble of our
Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are born
free and equal and with certain inalienable rights. Between the lines
of that virile pronouncement one may easily read St. Paul's manifesto
to the Athenian philosophers: "God hath made of one blood all na-
tions of men for to dwell upon the face of the earth." God, the All-
Father, revealing His impartial love in the cross, becomes the great
leveler of caste. In the light of His countenance, shining from Gol-
gotha, the mountains are brought low and the valleys are exalted.
Back of Runnymede and the Reformation is the voice of the divine
oracle. The accursed tree is the Charter Oak of popular rights.

This is distinctly a religious principle. Wherever a constitutional
government has ignored its birthright, to-wit, the Fatherhood of God,
expressing itself in the brotherhood of man, through the Gospel of
that only-begotten Son who is Brother of all — it has had but a brief
and troubled life. Republicanism is anarchy with a latent reign of
terror in it, unless this truth is at its center, shining like God's face
through the mist and darkness of chaos. A common birth is the sure
ground of mutual respect. All advantageous conditions go for naught.

The rank is but the guinea's stamp;
The man's the gowd.

No man can trace a prouder lineage than the believer in a true
democracy, for he is " the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam, who
was the son of God."

In pursuance of this underlying fact of the divine paternity our laws
are intended to be so framed, as to give no man an advantage over his
fellow. The jurisprudence of America is essentially Biblical. It gets
its form and spirit from the Decalogue on the one hand, the Sermon
on the Mount on the other, and the character of Jesus as the living
exponent of both. Thus the republic, to the very breath in its nos-
trils, is Christian. Its ideal is suggested by its earliest name, San Sal-
vador.

II
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T//E IVORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 81)1

A free republic, where beneath the sway

Of mild and equal laws, framed by themselves,

One people dwell and own no lord save God.

Institutions. If we turn now to the distinctive institutions of our
country we shall find them, with scarcely an exception, bearing the
sign manual of Christ.

First of all, the American home. Where all men are sovereigns,
all houses are palaces. The hut becomes a cottage where there is no
feudal mansion. There are lands where homes are merely dormitories
and refectories; where social clubs and gardens supplant the higher
functions of domestic life. But the American lives at his home. It
is his castle and his paradise. The humblest toiler when his day's work
is over makes it his El Dorado.

His wee bit ingle blinking bonnilie.

His clean hearthstane, his thrifty wifie's smile,

The lisping infant prattling on his knee.

Do a' his weary carking cares beguile

And make him quite forget his labor and his toil.

The heart of domestic life is the sanctity of wedlock as a divine
ordinance. It may be noted that in lands where God and the Bible
are reverenced, wife and mother and home are sacred words. The in-
fluence of religion may be but an imperceptible factor in the peace
and happiness of many homes; yet the Gospel is their roof tree, and
their purest happiness is but a breath from the garden before that
home at Nazareth, where the mother of all mothers ministered to her
Divine Child.

The next of our American institutions which finds its sanction in
religion is the public school. The distinctive feature of our national
system of education is civil control. This is in the necessity of the
case. As every American child is a sovereign in his own right, born
to his apportionate share of the government, it is primarily important
that he should be educated for his place. Longfellow says:

There is a poor blind Samson in this land.
Shorn of his strength and bound with bands of steel.

Who may in some grim revel raise his hand,
And shake the pillars of the commonweal.

The blind Samson of America is enfranchised ignorance. It was
in wise apprehension of this danger that our Puritan forefathers
required every fifty families to hire a pedagogue and every hundred
families to build a schoolhouse. The teaching of religion was com-
pulsory in these early schools, but, as a rule, under such conditions as
abated all danger of denominational bias. There were no Godless
schools. Indeed it may be seriously questioned whether at this
stage of Christian civilization there can be any such thing as a God-
less school. Remove the Bible from the curriculum if you will, you
cannot eliminate God from history and science. His name shines from
the current pages of our text books like the sun, reflected from the
heavens on a starry night.

Tlomp \ h
AiimricHii's
ParadiHe.

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ill

Irl

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if'' !

i 1

(lovprnment
Impartial to-
nanl all Kelii;-
ioDH.

893

T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELICWNS.

i '^f

Observe, however, it is not proposed to alienate religion from
national affairs. On the contrary, by their mutual interdependence
the wise and effective influence of each upon the other must be greatly
enlarged. It could not be otherwise. True religion is all pervasive;
it touches life at every point in its circumference, physically and intel-
lectually, socially and politically, every way. As the atmosphere
presses upon the human body with a force of fifteen pounds to the
square inch of surface, so religion presses upon the body politic, and all
the more if it be free as air. The establishment as usually found rep-
resents not religion in a larger sense but only a small denominational
part of it. What right has a sect to grow fat at the expense of the
great body of religionists? Every farthing taken from the national
exchequer to foster an establishmeut of this sort is a wrong against
the public conscience.

The just attitude of the government toward all religious bodies
whose tenets do not contravene its welfare, is impartial sufferance and
protection. Church and state are co-ordinate powers, each supplement-
ing and upholding the other and both alike ordained of God. It is,
therefore, the duty of all religionists to sustain the government, to obey
dignities and recognize the authority of the powers that be. We are
bound to "render unto Cicsar the things that are Caisar's." On this
the church recognizes the function of the civil administration as the.
impartial champion of the religious rights of all.

In this view of the inter-relation of the church and states lies the
function of all moral legislation. The Sabbath law, for example, is
defended on the ground of the individual right to rest and worship
without disturbance. By the recognition of thi:: principle the influ-
ence of the churches is enlisted in civil reform. Under it has grown
up the organized charities which cover the land. The church with-
holds her grasp from the public treasury; the state confiscates no
ecclesiastical holdings. The humblest body of believers is secure in its
rights. The government is bound to defend it in the exercise of its
religion, however peculiar, so long as this is not in contravention of
the fundamental principle of the state or dangerous to its welfare.
This is involved in the very thought of religious freedom. And these are
the boundaries of the American establishment which, when realized,
must furnish forth, as we believe, the theocracy of the Golden Age,
the Commonwealth of God.

Thus we close where we began, with Christianity at the center.
Christ, the great leveler, is King over all. The cross, the great evan-
gelizer, throws its luminous shadow over courts and legislatures, homes,
workshops and schoolhouses, from the lakes to the gulf, from Sandy
Hook to the Golden Gate. San Salvador is our country's name. Land
of the Saviour may it ever be!

* ;t ,* .ti*

p^eligious Y)uty to the N^§i*o-

Paper by MRS. FANNY B. WILLIAMS, of Chicago,

y^-kj^

.■^.Mir HE strength and weakness of the Christian re-

^j("(jlg||pP*-'''^ML ligion as believed, preached and practiced in

yl^Jg^^ ..^BSfci ^^^^ United States, is aptly illustrated in its in-
^-""'^ i^^Btf'^^^ fluence as a civilizing and educational force

among the colored people of this country. The
negro was brought to this country by Chris-
tians, for the use of Christians, and he has ever
since been treated, estimated and gauged by
iffTUKI^^^^HP^ what arc called Christian ideas of right and
%-^j^^jf'. W^^y wrong.

The negro has been in America so long
and has been so completely isolated from
everything that is foreign to American notions,
as to what is compatible with Christianity, that
he may be fittingly said to be entirely the pro-
duct of Christian influences. The vices and virtues of the American
negro are the same in kind and degree as those of the men and women
from whom he has been learning, by precept and example, all that he
knows of God and of humanity. The fetiches and crudities of the dark
continent have long since ceased to be a part of his life and character,
he is by every mark, impulse and aspiration an American Christian,
and to the American church belongs the credit and responsibility of all
that he is and is to be as a man and citizen of this republic.

Religion, like every other force in America, was first used as an
instrument and servant of slavery. All attempts to Christianize the
negro were limited by the important fact that he was property of a
valuable and peculiar sort, and that the property value must not be dis-
turbed, even if his .soul were lost. If Christianity could make the
negro docile, domestic and less an independent and fighting savage,
let it be preached to that extent and no further. Do not open the
Bible too W'ide.

Such was the false, pernicious and demoralizing Gospel preached
to the American slave for two hundred years. But, bad as this teach-
ing was, it was scarcely so demoralizing as the Christian ideals held up
for the negro's emulation. When mothers saw their babes sold by

893

The Nopro
a Pnduft of
Christiiiii 1 u
fluence.

I , 'I

"ills

ill!!!

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8$)4

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Th ' Nosi
DiK'ile.

t II

:t|i

Christians on the auction block in order to raise money to send mis-
sionaries to foreign lands; when black Christians saw white Christians
openly do everything forbidden in the Decalogue; when, indeed, they
saw, as no one else could see, hypocrisy in all things triumphant
everywhere, is it not remarkable if such people have any religious
sense of the purities of Christianity? People who are impatient of the
moral progress of the colored people certainly are ignorant as to how
far talse teachings and vicious examples tended to dull the moral
senses of the race.

As it is there is much to be unlearned as well as to be learned.
That there is something higher and better in the Christian religion
than rewards and punishments is a new lesson to thousands of colored
people who are still worshiping under the old dispensation of the slave
Bib'e. But it is not an easy task to unlearn religious conceptions.
"Servants, obey your masters," was preached and enforced by all the
cruel instrumentalities of slavery, and by its influence the colored peo-
ple were made the most valued slaves in the world. The people who
in Africa resisted with terrible courage all invasions of the white races
became through Christianity the most docile and defenseless of serv-
ants.

Knowing full well that the religion offered to the negro was first
stripped of moral instructions and suggestions, there are thousands
of white church members even who charge, or are ready to believe, that
the colored people are a race of moral reprobates. Fortunately the
negro's career in America is radiant with evidence showing that he has
always known the difference between courage and lawlessness of all
forms, and anarchy in this country is not of negro origin nor a part of
his history.

There was a notable period in the history of this country when
the moral force of the negro character was tested to an extraordinary
extent and he was not found wanting. When the country was torn
asunder by the passions of civil war, and everybody thirsted for blood
aiid revenge in every violent form, when to ravage and kill was the all-
controlling passion of the hour, the negro's opportunity for retribution
was ripe and at hand.

The men who degraded the race and were risking everything to
continue that degradation, left their widows, their daughters, their
mothers, wealth and all the precious ir.terests of home, in the keeping
of a race who had received no lessons of moral restraint. It seems but
tame to say that the negro race was loyal to that trust and responsi-
bility. Nowhere in Christendom has such nobleness of heart and
moral fortitude been exampled among any people; and a recollection
of the negro's conduct under this extraordinary test should save the
race from the charge of being lacking in moral instincts.

There is yet another notable example of the moral heroism of the
colored American in spite of his lack of real religious instruction.
The African Methodist Episcopal church, with its million members,
vast property in churches, schools, academies, publications and learned

t-i

THE WORLD'S COi\'GRl£SS 01' KElH;n)\S.

SUo

and

ction

|/e the

men and women, is an enduring; monument to the ri^fhtcous protest of
Christians to establish the mean sentiment of caste in rclitjion and do-
{Trade us to a footstool position at the shrine of Christian worship.
The colored churches of all denominations in this country are not evi-
dences of our unfitness for religious equality, but they arc so many
evidences of the negro's religious heroism and self respect, that would
not brook the canting assertion of mastery and superiority of those
who could see the negro only as a slave, whether on eartii or in
heaven.

There is another and brighter side to the question as to how fai ^ jj,,j ^^^^^^
the Christian religion has helped the colored people of America to siae.
realize their positions as citizens of this proud republic. Enough has
already been said to show that the colored American, in spite of all
the downward forces that have environed him, must have been sus-
ceptible to the higher influences of the false teachings thereof.
Though the Bible was not an open book to the negro before emanci-

[)ation, thousands of the enslaved men and women of the negro race
earned more than was taught to them. Thousands of them realized
the deeper meanings, the sweeter consolations and the spiritual
awakenings that are a part of the religious experiences of all Chris-
tians. These thousands were the nucleus out of which was to grow
the correct religious life of the millions.

In justification of the church it must be said that there has always
been a goodly number of heroic men and saintly women who believed
in the manhood and womanhood of the negro race, and at all times
gave the benefit of the best religious teachings of the times. The
colored people gladly acknowledge that, since emancipation, the
churches of the country have almost redeemed themselves from their
former sin of complicity with slavery.

• The churches saw these people come into the domain of citizen-
ship stripped of all possessions, unfurnished with intelligence,
untrained in the school of self-sacrifice and moral restraint, witii no
way out of the wilderness of their ignorance of all things, and no lead-
ership. They saw these people with no homes or household organiza- rp,,p upKros
tions, no social order, no churches, no schools, and in the midst ol t)utfit Mfgr.'.
people who, by training and instinct, could not recognize the man-
hood of the race. They saw the government give these people the
certificate of freedom and citizenship without telling them what it
meant. They saw politicians count these people as so many votes,
and laughed at them when pleading for schools of learning for their
children.

They saw all the great business and industrial organizations of the
country ignoring these people as having any possible relationship to
the producing and consuming forces of the nation. They saw the
whole white population looking with distrust and contempt upon these
men and women, new and untried in the responsibilities of civil life.
While the colored people of America were thus friendless and without
status of any kind, the Christian churches came instantly, heroically

'■ i

''!|^

806

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RdLIGIONS.

\}\

i k

What Further
Cun iteligioD

:;■■

i;i!

li:

and jJowcrt'uUy to the rescue. Tliey bejjiiti at once not only to create
a sentiment favorable to the uprising of th'.'se people, but began the
all-important work of building schools and churches.

Tliey aroused the philanthropic impulse of the y\merican people
to such a degree that millions of money and an army of men and
women have covered the hills of the South with agencies of regenera-
tion of the white and black slaves of the South. The churches have
vied with each other in their zeal for good work in spreading the Gospel
of intelligence. Going into states that knew nothing of public school
systems they have created a passion for education among both races.
States that have been hostile to the idea of universal intelligence and
that at one time made it a criminal offense to teach black men and
women to read and write, have, under the blessed influence of the mis-
sionary work of the churches, been wonderfully converted and arc now
making appropriations for the education of colored children and
founding and maintaining in.stitutions that rank as normal schools,
colleges and industrial schools.

Whatever may be our just grievances in the southern states, it is
fitting that we acknowledge that, considering their poverty and past
relationship to the negro race, they have done remarkably well for
the cause of education among us. That the whole South should com-
mit itself to the principle that the colored people have a right to be
educated is an immense acquisition to the cause of popular education.

We are grateful to the American church for this significant change
of sentiment, as we are grateful to it for making our cause and needs
popular at the fireside of thou.sands of the best homes in the country.
The moral force that vouched for the expenditure of nearly $40,000,000,
voluntarily given for educational and church work in the South during
the last twenty-five years, is splendid testimony of the interest felt by
the American people in the cause of the intellectual and moral de-
velopment of the negro race. Bearing in mind all this good work
done by the churches since emancipation, it is proper to ask, what can
. religion further do for the colored people? This question is itself
significant of the important fact that colored people are beginning to
think for themselves and to feel restive and conscious of every limita-
tion to their development.

At the risk of underestimating church work m the South I must
.say that religion in its more blessed influences, in its wider and higher
reaches of good in humanity, has made less progress in refining the
life and character of the white and colored people of the South than
the activity of the church interests of the South would warrant us in
believing. That there is more profession than religion, more so-called
church work than religious zeal, is characteristic of the American
people generally, and of the southern people particularly.

More religion and less church may be accepted as a general an-
swer to the question, *' What can religion further do to advance the
condition of the colored people of the South?" It is not difficult to
specify wherein church interests have failed and wherein religion

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

807

could have helped to improve these people. In the first place the
churches have sent amon^' us too many ministers who have had no
sort of preparation and fitness for the work assigned them. VVith a
due rejjard for the highly capable colored ministers of the country, I
feci no hesitancy in saying that the advancement of our condition is
more hindered by a large part of the ministry intrusted with leader-
ship than by any other single cause.

Only men of moral and mental force, of a patriotic regard for the
relationship of the two races, can be of real service as ministers in the
South. Less theology and more of human brotherhood, less declama-
tion and more common sense and love for truth, must be the qualifica-
tions of the new ministry that shall yet .save the race from the evils of
false teachings. With this new and better ministry will come the reign
of that religion which ministers to the heart and gives to all our .soul
functions an impulse to righteousness. The tendency of creeds and
doctrine to obscure religion, to make complex that which is elemental
and simple, to suggest partisanship and doubt in that which is uni-
versal and certain, has seriously hindered the moral progress of the
colored people of this country.

The home and social life of these people is in urgent need of the
purifying power of religion. We do not yet sufficiently appreciate the xho nVoto's
fact that the heart of every social evil and disorder among the colored n^i'h"ho1^'^"
people, especially of the rural South, is the lack of those inherent moral
potencies of home and family that are the well-springs of all the good
in human society.

In nothing was slavery so savage and so relentless as in its at-
tempted destruction of the family instincts of the negro race in Amer-
ica. Individuals, not families; shelters, not homes; herding, not mar-
riages, were the cardinal sins in that .system of horrors. Who can ever
express in song or story the pathetic historyof this race of unfortunate
people when freedom came, groping about for their scattered off-
spring with only instinct to guide them, trying to knit together the
broken tics of family kinship? It was right at this point of rehabili-
tation of the home life of these people that the philanthropic efforts of
America should have begun. It was right here that religion in its hu-
manitarian tendencies of love, in its moral direction and purifying
force, was most needed, and still is most needed. Every preacher and
every teacher in the South will tell us that preaching from the pulpit
and teaching in the schoolhouse is but half done so long as the homes
aro uninstructed in that practical religion that can make pure and
sacred every relationship it touches of man, woman and child.

Religion should not 'cave these people alone to learn from birds
and beasts those blessed meanings of marriage, motherhood and fam-
ily. Religion should not utter itself only once or twice a week through
a minister fiom a pulpit, but should open every cabin door and get im-
mediate contact with those who have not yet learned to translate into
terms of conduct the promptings of religion,
67

'it

] 'i

i <

! .

The Catholic Church and the N^gro Race.

Address by REV. J. R. SLATTERY, of Baltimore, Md.

Natare Against
Slavery-

N the eyes of the Catholic church the negro is
a man. Her teaching is that through Christ
there is established a brotherly bond between
man and man, people and people.

Just as in the order of nature \vc have a
common origin, so in the order of grace wc
have a like source and the same channels of
salvation. The same divine banquet is offered
to black and white. The same divine bless-
ings of grace and eternal life belong to both.
As St. Paul tells us, "For you are all children
of God by fai* 'n Jesus Christ, for as many of
you as have baptized in Christ have put

on Christ. ^ is neither Jew nor (ircck;

there is neither bond nor free; there is neither male
nor female."

From these Christian principles it follows that there can be no
slave, save him who is in bondage to sin, for as Leo X. declared, "Not
the Christian religion only, but nature itself cries out against slavery."
Our Christian advantages flow from our spiritual birth and adop-
tion into the family of God. It is from truth that comes our dignitj',
not from color or blood.

From the beginning the church has labored to carry out these
principles. In writing to Philemon, St. Paul insists that they who have
an intercommunion of faith should have also an intercommunion of
charity. Christians vied with each other in manumitting their slaves;
the church itself having ordered it to be proposed to Christians as a
proper legacy in their wills.

Bishops even, Ambrose, Augustine, Hilary and countless others,
melted down the consecrated gold and silver, alienated the gifts and
ornaments of their basilicas, in order to redeem slaves. Two orders
were established in the church for the redemption of slaves— the Or-
ders of the Most Holy Trinity and of Our Lady of Mercy.

Furthermore, by restoring free labor, which had died out under
Roman Caesarism and Roman slavery, the church raised the dignity of

898

THE WORLD'S CONGhESS OF RELIGIONS.

W.\\\

the workman and struck at the same time the deatlikiiell of shivery.
After tlie rise of iie^Mo shivery in the fifteentii anil sixticiilh i\;ntiuies
the Catliolic churcli applied her ^reat principles of Uu' natural unity
of tile human race and the same supernatural destiny to thai inlamous
traflic. Url)an V'lll., lienedict XIV. and (irej,M)r>- XV'l. condemned it.

W'iierever the Catholic church has inihience llure is no ni'^ro
([uestion. lirazil, l)y a stroke of the pen, ematuipated her slaves, while
the United .States waded throu^di oceans of blood to emancipate them.
Whatever misery afflicts Spanish America, the Catholic instinct of
human equality has delivered it from race antaf^'onisms. There is no
ne^ro problem in Catholic South iVmerica.

Tile Catholic church forever restricts bonda^fe to bodily service,
the bondman bein^ in her eyes a man, a moral beiiif.; with a conscience
of his own, which n(j master under any cloak may invade, i-orshe has
the one law for master and slave, one code of morality binds l)oth;
each is accountable for his own deeds before the Just Jud<fe. "(jtxl,"
says St. Augustine, "^ave man dominion over the irrational creatures.
but not over the rational." The church, moreover, alway. insisted on
the Christian marria^re of the slave, thereby holding- that he is a person
and not a chattel.

I"'or she teaches that marria^^jc is a free contract, into which none
but persons can enter. Catholic theologians also hold that the minis-
ters of marri ige are the contracting parties; now none but persons can
be minister^ of the sacrament. Hence, in blessing the marriage of the
negro slaves, the holy church recognized their manlioi ' nul external
liberty.

It may be well, however, to emphasize the position of the Catho-
lic church still more. She asserts the unity of the race. The negro,
then, is of the race of Adam, created by the same God, redeemed by
the same .Saviour, and destined to the same heaven as the white man.
In matters of morality she makes no difference. The Decalogue of
Moses (jbliges blacks as well as whites; the precepts of Sunday wor-
ship, of Friilay abstinence, of Lenten fast, bind the blacks as strictly as
they do the w hites. l-'or both races have the same baptismal, marriage
and burial services, the same doctrine, the same sacraments, the same
worship, the same communion, the same {)romises, the .'iame privileges,
the same hopes.

A i)en picture may describe the negroes as numbering eight to
nine millions; li\ ing in one section of our land, and that the least
Catholic, just emerged from slavery, enjoying the franchise; learning
how to read and write; two-thirds of them living on plantations; one aiul
all made to feel a frightful ostracism, which ilescends so deep
as toexclude them, in some places, from public conveyances; a people
one-half of whom have no religion, and the other half are professing
only a shade of sentimental belief. Yet there is a cheerful \iew to be
taken. They are not rebels against public authority. The)' are law-
abiding citizens. They love the worship of God; in their childish way
they desire to love God; they long for and relish the supernatural;

Tlio K(|uality
of the .NcKrii
Kucv.

i' ft

•J ■

riio Huinnii
Itltri' (III)'.

i!' I

ran!!

JMK)

7///-: ii'OKi.P's r<hV(;/:/:ss of h'r.i.K.ioxs.

tlicy willin^jly listen to the \Vi)r(l of (io'l; tluir lu-.irts l)iini lor tin-
better t;ifts. They are h;ircl working;; patiently and lori>;i\ ins'lv dolluy
bear th.eir wrongs.

It is related ol Miehael An^eU) tliat ^oin^ aloiij.; tlu- streets of
Rome he espied a rttu^;h, unhewn bloek of marble. " i'luie is an
an^el hidtlen tlieii-." he said, pointing to (lie stout-, li.aiut; had it
brought to his studio the immortal artist soon be^an to i hip it and
to haek it and to shape it, till tinallythere eame forth fioui it tlu- fault-
less an};el in marble whieh his prophet e)es had sim-u in it.

A similar bloek of marble is the ne^ro; far h.irdei to work up(Mi
than the farrara lump of Miehael Anijelo, beeause the i liisi I must be
applied to the human lieart. Ami has the neijro a himiau heart .'' Is
he a niani' \'es, thank (iod; he is a man, with all the alfcitions and
lon^'in^s, all the faeulties and (pialities of human kind. lUliold, tlu-ii,
it is his manhood that is the Inst ^^round of our hope

The future of the ni'}.;ro appe.irs, then-lore, liopelul, for it n-sts
principally «)n the ^reat truth that the hum.in r.u c is one Tlu k- is
one Lord, one (iod, one hather of all. hrom this \\i- rise to tlu- su|Hr-
natural destinj' t»f our e<Mnii!on hum,init\': ( )ne jesns ( lirisl. oiu-
ehureh, one life of prob.ition, one hea\i'U, »uu- lull. 1 he ui-<.^ro has
everything that makes a man, e\er\thini; that makes ;i Chrisiinn.
As the ne^ro passed out of slawry it was tlu- (alholu- t liureh
which couUl say to hin\ with the apostle, in his new rei, iiou, " lor yi-
have not received the spirit of bondaj^e a^aiii to fear, biii ye lia\i-
not receiveil the spirit of adoption wliereb\-\\e ir\', .Aiiit.i! hatlur!"

Yes, the human race pretlestiuatel to t'hristi.iii immi i- and so .ad-
mirably reco^ni/eil by the church is the foundation of our lutpes. I he
negro's heart, like the white man's, is essentialU l;i)oiI. Ilirc \\i- have
a foothohl. (irace, we know, builds upon nature.

The manhood of the ne^ro race, nioreovc-r, is a truth of relit^ion,
and one Wii'ch Leo XI 1 1. has well insisted upon in his letter to the
bishops e,f Hrazil at tlu- time of the emaiuipation of (he sla\(s of that
country. " It was sin, " he writes, " w liich deserved the iiaiiu- of sl,i\ cry;
it was not natural. I-'roni the Inst siii came all e\ ils, and cspet i.illy
this perversity that there were men, who, lort^etfiil of tlu- oriLjiiial

tlie\' should uati

Dro

thi

'K.

hive dcme, io promote mutual kindness and mutual !es|;iet, lollowin}.j
their evil desires, bejjan to think of other nu-n as their inferiors and to
hold them as cattle born to the yoke." And the arquiiu-ut which we
hear so often in political ajjitation and read so miuli in the public
press, vi/., that by nature the black man is inferior, I .t-o .\II1. decl.ircs
an outraj^e on our common humanity.

Qhristianity and the Social Question,

Paper by PROF. F. G. PEABODV, of Harvard University.

to Uk-

I tlial

l.ivciy;

)r(iiil'ly

itiirally

ami l<»
\icli \vc

l)vil)lic
Icclarcs

y^M %^ j;' _. ,__ ' "'- ''M'- •" *'''■ liistory of liiiiiiaii lliou^^lit is

/y?flN^^^*^ "'"""^K, iiiarkcd hy oiu: central prolilc.iii which slaiuls
V^Bifi _^^^pgfi\ "I't Iroin a distaiicx' a^^ainsl the lioii/oii of the,

past as the (lutliiie of soim- iiioiiiitaiii stands r)iit
miles away, aj^aiiist the sky. In onea^fe,as in
that of Luther, the center of luiropean thou^Iit
lay ill a proMein of theology; in another n^c,
as iii that of Kant, this coniniatidin^f interest
was held l)y a (piestion of philoso|)hy; fifty
\ ears later, in the time of Darwin, the critical
|)rol)leiii was one of science, and hoth the
theologian and philos(Ji)her had to recast their
formulas mider the neu thou^dit of evolution.
And now, fifty >ears later still, with a distinct-
ness hardly reached hefoie, a new era finds its
ceiitei of inti-rest in a new proMein.

\\\- do not have to wait for the philosophic historian to look back
on our t inie, as vc look hack on that of Luther, or Kant, or iJarwin, for
the mark which must always stamp the present aj^je. It is already past
■ I doul)t what the ^reat Master of the a^es, in His division of labor
throuj.;!) the histor)' of man, is proposing that this special aj^e of ours
shall ;1<J.

The center of interest, alike for philosophers and agitators, for
thinkers an i workers, for rich and poor, lies at the present time in what
wi' call the ' .^ociaI (piestioii." The needs and hopes of human society,
its ine(iuah;ies of condition, its industrial conllicts, its dreai.is of a
l)ett(;r order these are the themes which meet us daily in the books
and magazines, the lectures and sermons, which speak the spirit of the
present ac^e. Never before in the history of the world were the moral
sense (;f all classes thus awakened to the evils of the present or the
hopes of the future.

( )iic(.- the relations of rich and poor, or employer and cmj)loye,
were re;^r;irded a.s, in large degree, natural conditions, not to be
changed, but simply to be endured. Now, with a great suddenness,

»0l

The Ho«ial
QuMtloo.

( I; : '

i I

II !

I <

■■ '• ifi

H t

mtmmmmMttmtUi^

hi !

902

T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

there has spread through all the civilized countries a startling gospel
of discontent, a new restlessness, a new conception of pliilanthropy.

The same subjects are being discussed in workingnicn's clubs and
in theological seminaries. It is the age of the social question. And
of this concentration of attention in the problem of human society
there is one thing to be said at the very start. It is to be counted by
us who live in this present age, as a great blessing. The needs and
hopes of society open, indeed, into very difficult questions, often into
very pathetic ones, sometimes into very tragic ones, but such ciuestions
have at least two redeeming traits which make the age devoted to
them a fortunate age. They are very large questions. Some epochs
in history have been devoted to questions which were very near but
very small — such as questions of personal culture or taste, and some to
questions which were very large, but very remote — such as the contro-
versies which once rent Christendom as to the interior nature of the
Not Onr- ^<^>dhead, but, for the present, we are happily freed both from small-
wivcabut oth- ness and remoteness. We are called to think, chiefly, not of ourselves,
but of others, and that gives us a large subject, and we are called to
think of others as bound up with us in the social order— that gives us a
near subject.

Mere is a situation which should first of all make us glad. A time
which thus redeems the mind from smallness and from unreality may
be a time of special apprehensions and grave demands, but it is a time,
at least, in which it is invigorating and wholesome to live. It has many
of the characteristics of the time when Jesus of Nazareth, reading the
signs of His own age, opened the book of the prophet Isaiah and found
the place where it was written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me be-
cause He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He
hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the
captives and recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them
that are bound, to jjreach the acceptable year of the Lord." VVe, too,
are set free in these days of the remoter controversies of theology, or
the narrower study of tradition and law; and are anointed to preach a
gospel of social welfare and to the healing and recovc.ing of the
bruised and broken-hearted of the modern world; antl that is what
makes this year of the Lord, to any thoughtful student of human pro-
gress, an acceptable year in which to live and to learn.

But now, as we thus observe the signs of the times, a further
question presses upon us. What has religion to say to this problem
of the modern age? What has Christianity to do with these things?
What is the attitude of Christ's disciples toward these varied pro-
grammes of reform ? And. as we face this question, there opens up
before us. first of all, two ways in which Christians have often tried to
answer it; or, to speak more accurately, have often avoided the
answering of it and shirked the real issue in the case.

On the one hand, the Christian may try to dismiss the question
from his mind. "Why," he may ask himself, "should such worldly
problems as wealth and poverty, capital and labor, intrude themselves

spel

and
And
:icty
dby
i and

into
.tions
cd to
)Ochs
xr but
mc to
^ntro-
A the
small-
selves,
led to
cs us a

/\ time
ty may
a time.
s many

A found
me bc-
or; Hii
to the
y them
"e, too,
o^^y.or
reach a
of the
IS what
an pro-
further
l^roblem
things?
lied pro-
]\>ens up
tried to
Ided the

[question
worldly
Lmselves

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

903

Value of the
IndiTiduiil.

into the sacrcdness of my worship? In the church I am thinking of
my soul; elsewhere I will think of my business. In worship let me
find peace with my God. Peace with my employers, my tenants, my
lands, is a matter, not of the church or the Lord's Day, but of the
market and the mill.

Often enough have Christians pursued this policy as to worldly
affairs. Often enough has the language of religion been kept clean of
the phrases of the street, and worship has seemed to become more
sacred thereby. But the inevitable reaction has to come from such a
view. If the Christian church is to have no interest in the social dis- f,. , , ,„

111 r^i-11 1 i' nurches lii'

tresses and problems of the time, then those who are most concerned dififerent.
with such distresses and problemsvvill have no interest in the Christian
church. The simple fact which we have to face today is this, that the
working classes have, as a rule, practically abandoned the churches
and left them to be the resorts of the prosperous; and the simple
reason for this desertion is the neutrality of the churches toward the
social problems of the time.

This personal method of Jesus has been taken up into the history
of the world. The new value of the individual has become the key
of modern thought. A new brotherhood, a new philanthropy, sprani
from this root of the worth of even the humblest soul. The Protest
ant Reformation was an appeal to the individual reason. Modern
philosophy, modern jurisprudence, all alike have accustomed us to
this sense of the individual as the center of concern. "The move-
ment of progressive societies," says Sir Henry Main in his "Ancient
Law," "has been uniform in one respect. The individual is steadily
substit (1 lor the family as the unit of which civil laws take account "
So far, II, the metluxl of Christ seems 1 > stand apart from the prob-
lem of sut iet>-. It sccnis to confirm ' hristians in their neutrality to-
ward social questions ami needs. What has the church, from this
point of view, to do with socia' (juestions? The chinch has but to
deliver the message ol Christ for ilie saving of the individual soul.

liut in reality there is one whole si. !'M)f the teaching of Jesus which
such a view entirely ignores. Suppose oui; goes on to ask humbly:
Why does Christ thus appe.i to the individual? Why is the single
soul of such infinite worth to \ lim? Is it for its own sake? Is there
this tremendous significance about my little being and doing that it
has its own isolated worth? Not at all. A man's life, taken JDy itself,
is just what it seems, a very insignificant affair. What is it that gives
significance to such a single 11 It is its relation to the whole of
which it is a part. Just as e,i>_li 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 indi-
vidual in the organic life of the social world. "We are members one of
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 relationship the individual finds the meaning and worth of
his own isolated self. What is this conception in Christ's own

i. i'

i( •

i ' .

i t

1 i. I

%'■':

THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

A Complete
Social Order.

language? It is his marvelous ideal of what he calls "the kingdom ol
God," that perfected world of humanity in which, 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 one thing to desire. It is the good seed of
the future; it is the leaven dropped into the mass of the world; it is
the hidden treasure, the pearl or 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 commonwealth, this king-
dom 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. VVe
have seen that He was the great individualist of history. VVe now
sec that He was the great socialist as well. His hope for man was a
universal hope. What He prophesied was just that enlarged and con-
solidated 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 gre^t socialist of history?
Are we confronted with an inconsistency in Christ's doctrine of
human life? 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 opposed 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 king-
dom of God set before each individual? To free him from all narrow-
ness 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 com-
mon life working as a motive beyond all personal desire, even for holi
ness itself. " I sanctify Myself" — that is the way in which the com-
mon life is to be saved. The individual is the means; the kingdom
of God is tli^ 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 Qncc the most positive of individualists and

n ol
ody,
lete.

The
id of

it is
\y, as
come

king-
susbc

iplc of
)ciety?
\. Wc
Jc now
1 was a
nd con-
e all the
be one
that of
ihet of a
1 minds,
iiice of a

the same
peal thus
^v can fie
history?
Ictrine of
.KC of the
y, that of
liul that of
■ich other,

Because
s tHe Uing-
lall narrow-
s of jesus,
Itheir sakes,
,f the com-
[cn for holi
\^ the com-
ic kingdom

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

905

the most visionary of socialists. His first appeal is personal: "Sanctify
thyself." His second call is the common life: "For their sakes" —
and the end and the means together make the motto of a Christian
life — "F"or their sakes I sanctify Myself." Such is Christ in His deal-
ing with the social question. He does not ignore the social problems
of any age, but He approaches them 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 Caesar 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 universal principle, the principle of .sanctifying one's self for oth-
ers' sakes, the twofold 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 inilividual — his character, his liberty, his enlargement of life — and
then out of this individual sanctification will grow the better social
world."

Such, I say, is Jesus Christ in His relation to human society. i\w\
now, having unfolded before ourselves the principle of His teaching,
let us go on to see its ]>ractical application to the questions which con-
cern the modern world. Here is the Christian, facing the modern so-
cial order, aiul asking himself how its serious issues and plans are to be
met. How pressing, how burning are these questions which thus sur-
round us, and in some of them each of \xz has his inevitable part. On
the one hand, there is the problem of poverty, and on the other the
problem of wealth, each with its own perils, both to the persons in-
volveil and to the welfare of us all. There is the problem of the em-
ployer and the problem of the employed, each with its responsibil-
ity, its irritations and its threats. And then, growing out of all these
conflicts and equalities of the time, thf-rc are the dreams of some trans-
formed future, when there shall be no rich and no poor, no employer
and no employed, but all shall find the peace and leisure which now
seem, to all almost alike, denied. How baffling and perplexing, how
tragic and hopeless often appear such questions to the student of the
time. How varied are the panaceas proposed, and how bitter the dis-
putes.

What has Christ, let us ask in the first place, to say to the prob-
lem of poverty? What is the Christian's way of dealing with the
poor?

Christian charity meets a drunken woman in the streets, as di .1 a
fair young girl the other day, takes the poor slatternly wretch gent'y
round the waist, walks down the crowded thoroughfare and puts the
half unconscious woman to bed, warms some soup, leaves her to sleep,
and then from day to day visits the home until for very love's sake the
better life is found and the devil of drink cast out by the new affec-
58

Reform Bo
gias Ht Homo. \\^

Christian He-
form.

il! i i

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i
If

Sell-Help.

' I

411- -« 'S rr:^. - ^^»S ' ""'"

»"" '^'?^ iSTame ofT"" »' ^'^'T''' "f K now « turn, on the
other hand, to "« opjjos e <.nd «^,^^ ;, t„e Chr.st.an thco'y °t^^ ^^^^^^

St^nrthp^f;-„.Ti\rtSreltrhrnW^^

into the heart of mod^J^^^ ^^^"j \hc solemn vv.s«^^«m o U m ^^^^ ^.^^^
and we begin to "^^^^ f "^i^cy who have "^^^^f,^,*^,'^,^ directed, not
AUuBes of said: "How.hardlyshaU til y j^^^^ { tandperls of wealth.

■ fc» "S i: oni^'a^HnU .^Ue the .o.

-«SSs; »-th:n.no.^^™5^^:-r

.,. Mo^^tHc severe^t^-- t\| g^S S^^^^^^^^
"""•■f • ''<Lo°Ucity and^ympathy. te^P^'fdrty and luj,^^^^ .^ ,, ,^

disadvantages, and the^ ^^^^^^ i^ he abolished. Wealth

the most serious ot mooern f should D^ aDoiiMi

' But this is not saying thatricn higher virtues of ic an ^^^

only provides a f^^^^^.^^^f^^^^^^^^ of

^espoSty to their God.

THE IVORUrS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

is
ng

rue

\ar-

ect-

tate

lop-

him

unto

ntbe
igain,
,ca\th

some
jry of
Chvist

all its

eating
I worUl,
lien H^
c Uing-
tcd, not

Nvealtb.
inctness

Is ot this
he word

Lell face
"ouv time
jposes to
^idcdness.
is under-
cry hard.
lIso many
question

Wealth
te. and the
Ihas gained
leriences ot
lanv oppo'-
]k Ciod, did

they owe

What, then, docs Christ ask of the rich? lie asks that they shouUl
take the place in the organism of modern society which ni> one else
can take so well. If wealth will not do its dut)-, then Christ sweeps
it aside as a hindrance of the comint^ kin<,rtiom, as He did with that
young man who had great possessions. Hut if the rich will but meet
the rare opportunity which the new times afford, then Christ stands
for the right of each part in the welfare of the whole.

Christ calls the rich, that is, to say, to the extraordinary privilege
and happiness of the wise uses of wealth for the common good.
Wealth i.^ like any other gift of Goil to you, like your health, or your
intellectual powers, or your force of character; indeed, it is often the
result of these other gifts, and the same responsibility goes with all.
They are all blessings which, selfishly used, become the curses of life.
Your bodily strength ma\- be the source of destructive passions; your
intellectual gift may leave you a cynic or a snob; your wealth may
shrivel up your soul. Hut, taken as trusts to use, the body and brain
and wealth are all alike gifts of (iod \\hicii, the more they are held
for service, the more niiraculousl)- they emich and refresh the giver's
life.

Thus, to rich and poor alike Christ comes with His twofold doc-
trines of society. And now take tiie same teaching into tiie larger
world of our modern industrial affairs. How does Christ enter into
the economic problems of modern life? How does He deal with the
relations of enipk)yer and employed? What are His rules of trade?
Who, in short, is the Christian man of business?

At first sight there might seem to be no such thing as Christianity
in business. What is the business world, one asks himself, but a
scramble of self-interest, a victorx' of shrewdness and cunning, a close
shading of one's conduct between what is absolutely illegal and what
is ju.st within the limits of the ganie? What is modern industry, in
short, but the new way of warfare in which the armies of great cor-
porations are pitted against each other and where the great generals
get the glory and the private soldiers do the fighting and suffer the
loss?

Such is the first look of the business world, a mere field of battle.
And yet 1 suppose that if Jesus Christ could eonu' again into the
modern world He would at once recognize that the gre.il piesent op-
portunity for bearing witness to Him was in the Inill^t of this battle-
field of modern industrial life. There are three wa\s with which you
may deal with such problems as the business world of tod.ay affords.
One is to run away from them as the earl\- monks ;ind hermits ran
away from the world of earlier times. It was so i)ad a world that they
could not concpier it and so they tied to their ca\es and monasteries
to escape its attacks.

Precisely this is the spirit of the new monasticism, the spirit of
Count Tolstoi; the spirit of many a communistic colony, calling men
away from all the struggle of the world to seclusion ancl simplicity. It
is a beautiful dream, this of retreat from all the strain of life, and yet it

Christ Culls
the Hlch.

ii; !

:*■■

Ill

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS.

is none the less a retreat. It is not fij^htiufj the battle of life, but it is

MonHHticiBin running away. It does not solve the j)roblein of tiie modern world; it

RnoHAwiiy. leaves it for other jjeopie to solve. The unholy people have to work

hard so that the saints may be idle. The battle has to go on and the

best troops are not in the field.

A second way to deal vvitli the world is to stay in it, but to be
afraid of it. Many good people tlo their business timidly and anxiously,
as if it ought not to interest them so much. That is a very common
relation of the Christian to business, lie thinks it is somehow wrong
to care so much for his business, lie hears this world and its affairs
spoken of as a vale of tears, a pilgrimage to some better home, but
still he feels the joy of business effort, and in the strain of business
competition he has to give ten hours a day to things which on Sunday
he condemns, anil so his life is hopelessly divided. He can be a Chris-
tian only half, much less than half, the time. His religion and his
business are enemies. The world he has to live in is not God's world.

There is a third way to take the world of business. It is to believe
in it; to take it as the test of Christian life in the modern age. It is
not all clean or beautiful, but it has the capacity of being shaped to
worthy and useful ends. It is as when a potter bends over his lump
of clay and finds it a shapeless mass that soils the hands which work
it, yet knows that his work is not to wash his hands of it, but to take
it just as it is and work out the shapes of beauty and use which are
possible within the limits of the clay. So the Christian takes the bus-
iness world. In this warfare of industry, which looks so shapeless
and unpromising, the Christian sees the possibilities of service. It is
Tho^ riiris- not very clean or beautiful, but it can lie shaped and molded into an
tiiiuHTiiHk. instrument of the higher life. That is the Christian's task in the
business world.

Christ comes into the business world of today and, seeking the
man who wants to be His disciple, says to him: "This world of affairs
is not to be abandoned, or yet to be feared; it is to be redeemed. En-
ter into it. lie 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 your business: "Am I in it
hindering or helping the better life of men? Am I in any degree
responsible for the entls of the present industrial system, or am I les-
sening them by the niethods of my own? Is my success at the cost of
my employes' degradation, or do they share the satisfaction of my own
prosperity? In short, am I helping to make this world 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.

Individualism means self-culture, self-interest, self-development.
Socialism means self-sacrifice, self-forgetfulness, the public good.
Christ means both. Cultivate yourself, He says, make the most of

,g the
Lffairs
Kn-
las the
And
ot My
11 in it
degree
' 1 Ics-
cost of
ny own
world,
Then
further
(usiness

lopment.
Ic good.
Iniost of

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

S)(Y.)

yourself, enrich yourself, and tiien take it all and iiiiike it the instru- ,„,
rnent of self-sacrifice. Give the perfect developed self to the perfect of ( hriHi.'"***"
common good. The only permanent socialism must be based on per-
fected individualism. The kingdom of God is not to come of itself;
it is to come through the collective consecration of individual souls.

.Such, I suppose, is the message which Christ has been fnmi the
beginning trying to explain to this world. Over and over again the
world has been stirred by great plans of external change, political,
legislative or social plans, and always Christ has stood for internal
change, the reformation of the community through the regeneration
of its individuals. So stands Christ today. To every outward plan
which is honest. He says: "Go on and God speed y(ju with all your en-
deavors for equality, liberty, fraternity, but be sure of this, that no
permanent change will rule the lives of men until men's hearts are
changed to meet it." You may accomplish the whole programme of
a revolutionized society, but it will be neither a permanent nor a hap-
py order until you have better men to use it. The kingdom begins
within. The wedding garment makes ready for the wedding feast.

My friends, it is time that the modern world heard once more, with
new emphasis, this doctrine of Christ, which is so old that to many
modern minds it may seem almost new. We are beset by i)laiis which
look for wholesale, outright, dramatic traiisfonuations in luinian affairs,
plans for redeeming the world all at once, and the cUl wa)- of Christ,
the way of redeeming one soul at a time, looks very slow and unpict-
urcscjue and tiresome.

None the less, believe me, the future oi the world, like its past,
lies in just such inward, personal patient, spiritual reform. Out of the
life of the individual flows the stream of the world. It is like some
mighty river flowing through our midst which we want to use for daily
drink, but which is charged with poison and turLid with refuse. How
shall we cleanse this flowing stream? Try to filter it as it sweeps by
with its full current; but the task is prodigious, the impurity is jjcrsist-
ent, the pollutions keep sweeping down on us frcMU the sources of the
stream. And then the wise engineer seeks those remote sources them-
selves. He cleanses each little brook, each secret spring, each pasture
bank, and then from those guarded sources the great river bears down
purity and health to the great world below. Scj the meth(jd of Christ
l)urifies the modern world. It seeks the sources oi life \\\ the individ-
ual soul, and then out of the myriad such springs wiiich lie in the
hearts of men the great stream of human progress flows into its own
purer and broader future and the nations drink and arc refcshcd.

spiritual Re-
form.

[<■ !

V:'-

I
I

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■!n. i'
I, ■

■cmtmmmi.

1 i:|

i: 1 :i

♦o the Temple of Thotmes
Entrance to tne i*:* r

i^.

[Religion and the Erring and C^^"i>rial

Classes.

Paper by REV. ANNA G. SPENCER.

' Wv

UK words " crriiit;" aiul " criminal " while they
iKivc a constant meaninj^s ha\ c also a variable
application. That is to say, sin and crime are
aiwaj's understood to be ilepartures, of lesser
or <,aeater dej^ree, by an individual from the
accepted moral standard of his time and peo-
ple. Since, ho\ve\er, moral stanilards change
nith changing social conditions and intellect-
ual conceptions, the act thought sinful or judged
criminal in one period by one nation may be
deemed innocent or even noble in another
era and place. The contrast, for example, be-
tween the ancient Greek and Jewish customs
and legal codes in respect to child-life are a
striking proof that the differing moral standard
of two races lead to this widely different con-
ception of sin and crime. To the Jew, who defined the state in terms Different De.
of morals, one of the chief duties of mankind was to replenish and finitions of
multiply the people of the earth, and hence every act which tended
toward the lessening of population, whether committed before or after
the birth of a chikl, was deemed by them a crime and punished severely.
To the Greeks, on the other hand, who defined the state in terms of
the intellect, the ([uality not the cjuantity of its citizens was the chief
concern, anil therefore they commended, not blamcil a parent who
destroyed a feeble, ill-formed, or otherwise defective infant; and some
of their noblest moralists approved the common practice of destruction
of life before birth — Aristotle even recommending that it may be made
compulsory whenever the population of a city threatened to exceed the
limits which would secure pecuniary ease and comfort to all the free
people of that community.

The element of time in its influence upon moral standards, and
thus upon the definition of vice and crime, is as conspicuously shown

911

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i y

THE WORLD'S CONUJiESS OF RELIGIONS,

Moral Ohli
Kotiou UU'
(.'bauKeablo.

in the history ot human slavery as that of racial peculiarity just noted.
Slavery, which was rightly characterized in both England ancl
America during the abolition movements as "the sum of all villainies,"
was at first a great step upward in human progress toward justice; a
great step upward from the stage of development which preceded it,
in which all enemies captured in battle were tortured and slain, ancl
in which thousands upon thousands of the poor and helpless were
butchered in times of peace to make a tyrant's holiday. The unex-
ampled heinousness of American slavery consisted in the fact that it
was the most monstrous anachronism of moral history.

Vice, sin and crime are then, always and everywhere, acts done by
the one against the common moral sense of the many, as that sense is
expressed in social custom or code of law. This moral consensus,
itself, however, is but a part of the chan.^iig thought of growing
humanity and must, therefore, manifest all the varieties of era and
race and condition which mark all other forms of human development.

The essence of moral obligation is eternally and universally the
same: "Do that which thou seest to be right." The definitions of
what constitutes right action are as numerous as the distinct types of
social relation. This sense of moral obligation, which is the root of
all personal and social ethics, is a part of religion's own being; that is,
if religion be defined, as in this parliament it has supreme right to be,
in its largest terms. So defined religion is tlic conscious response of
the human being to those universal pov. ers which make, for cosmos
out of chaos, for moral order out of persoiuil » illfulness, for good out
of evil, for beauty out of ugliness. This response of the human being
to "whatsoever forces draw the ages on," has been intellectually the
philosopher's attempt to explain the universe and man's relation to it;
it has been morally the struggle to make the life obedient to the higli-
est law of right perceived; it has been emotionally the yearning of the
, human heart to feel at one with the central Heart of all life, and to
picture that idea in worship and in art.

Accepting this definition of religion, we find that the sense of obli-
gation to do the seen right, whatever that may chance at any given
time and place to be, that sense of moral obligation which is the es-
sential root of all ethical development and which gives us the words
sin and crime themselves, is religion's contribution to moral science.

Not only does religion give ethics its root, but it has also played
an enormous part in the variations of the moralstandardsof the world.
R^t^t'°E^'! ^^^^ student finds it hard to accept even so excellent a guide as Mr.
icB. ' Lecky when he separates primitive religion so entirely from morals as

in his analysis of pagan religion and civilization. For Coulange has
shown us how the ancestor-worship of Greece and Rome built up the
great city life of those nations, and was the root from which grew the
social customs of their dual civilization. It was only when the ethnic
religions of the pagan world were dying, that they ceased to have in-
fluence over the moral life of the people.

Religion has often indeed been called upon to give a divine sanc-

:. ;S

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF KKLIGIONS.

!»I3

cd.
uul

cs,

;; 11
I it,
and
vcrc
ncx-
at it

icby
ISC is
nsus,
>\ving
\ and
ment.
y the
ons of
pes of
oot of
that is,
: to be,
mse of
cosmos
)od out
n being
illy the
)n to it;
ic hit;h-
g of the
;, and to

; of obli-
ny given
s the es-
he words
cience.
o played
he world,
e as Mr.
morals as
ilange has
lilt up the
grew the
the ethnic
to have in-

ivine sanc-

tion to actions* already done from pressure ol social e.\i^encies or mis-
takes; but, looked at critically, these exigencies will often prove but
the reflex or resulting tendency of the religious ideas of the people.
As, for instance, the suttee of India was not suggested in the larly
Vedas, whose spirit would intleed condemn it. On the contrary, the
Hindu Scriptures recommending the burning of widows on their hus-
band's funeral pyre were written after this, and assisted and encour-
aged, suicide of widows had become a common fact. Hut the child mar-
riages and the ill treatment and suffering of widows which resulted in
the suttee were the outgrowth of some tenots of the earl>' Hrahmanical
faith. It is therefore strictly true to say that while the fust relation
of religion to the erring and criminal classes is that of suppljiiin; the
sense by which we distinguish lietween right and wrong, its second re-
lation is that of a subtle and interior element in varying moral detini-
tions. Ancestor worship is the moral side of the religion of people
who are in the early patriarchal order of society; and hence the prim-
itive penology of most people is the science and art of i)unishment
within the family and for sins against the family. When the father
was priest and king the prison and the penal code of custom were only
the family provision for dealing with its refractory members. In this
form of human association there was no written code of law. no trial,
no assigmnent of one specific penalty to one somce of wrong-doing.
The offender against the reigning family jiowers met with instant
judgment and personal penalty. Prisons were private in those chus,
places in which the offender languished or died in secret excepting
some important member of ancnemy's family who was held lor hostage.
As the patriarchal order of society began to enlarge anil differen-
tiate into the two departments of church and state, there began to be
a division of evil-doing into two sorts, namely, ecclesiastical offenses,
or sins against the religious ideal, and civil crimes, or sins against
the public well-being, as defined by a legal code or a well-known
custom. In this process religion played a great accompanying ])art,
for it was only as the family gods began to enlarge into those of the
city, and even the common god of many allied cities, thus weaken-
ing the bond of ancestor worship, that the state v.as born. And it
was only as the religious ideal separated from a distinct locality
and assumed a more spiritual significance that the church was born.
As the ideal of religion began to include a sense of relation to uni-
versal powers, with which not only one family alone, but all human-
ity, was connected, the individual sense of moral obligation was
directed toward the state instead of, as formerly, solely toward the
kindred of blood relationship.

The sharpest contrast between the ancient and the modern treat-
ment of the criminal and vicious lies in this, that in the old civili-
zation the offender was at the mercy of the hasty and individual
judgment of his superior and ruler, while in modern civilization the
meanest and worst of evil-doers has the protection of a recognized
code of law which is based upon the agreement of many minds and

Tlio Mo ml
Hi.lo of H...

i MU

:|!

Ij:

* ■

E r

nn(y
Erring.

tu tho

914

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

vvills. And as wc have seen, this change is chic-Hy due to the twin
eiihirj^enient of the social and religious ideas by vvhicii the state took
the place of the narrow family rule, and the church took the place
of the local family altar.

The history of modern penolof^y is so much a part of the social
and moral history of the leading Christian nations that it must be
traced almost exclusively in Christendom. And this is so not, as
some think, because Christian ethics are alone sufficiently advanced
to apply the doctrine of human brotherhood to the sinner and the
criminal. Other than Christian teachers — the noble Stoics, the ^cn-
tlc Buddhists, the duty-loving Confucians and other strivers after
Truth and Right — have taught that the mightiest and the best of
humankind owe duty most sacred towaril the feeblest and the worst.
Hut our western civilization has attained most completely of any
the new order of society, in which the individual, not the family,
is the sorial unit. And therefore it is our civilization which must
first work out the proDlcn, of the just and wise relation of the state
toward the individual I'.o is criminal and vicious.

Rome, because of !ier governmental genius which has led the world
in all forms of political Jevelopment, shows the beginnings of modern
penology better than any other nation. We must, tlierefore, trace a
further relation, of religion to the criminal and erring classes through
the changes which supplanted the Gra^co-Roman civilization by medie-
val Christianity. In Rome's cosmopolitan life many different relig-
ions were allowed to thrive, ajidthe priests and rulers of those religions
had freedon. to punish all offenders against their own authority; that
is to say, ail religious sins, according to their own discretion. But the
Roman imperial government arrived at a certain moral consensus of
many nations in what is called the " Law of Nature." This was ob-
tained by selecting the rules of conduct and social usages common to
all the important nations represented in the empire, ami setting them
down in a written code. This soon established tlie fact that certain
violent crimes of murder and robbery were condemned by a general
moral senve. Then carne the distinction between offenses against the
state, or the community at large, and offenses against individual per-
sons. An offense against the state was punished by a single act of the
state, a sentence against the offender, usually of death or expatriation.

The offense against the individual person was earlier subject for
jurisprudence proper; in other words, for the assignment of a recog-
nized punishment to evch sort of offense. We iiiid that in Anglo-
Sa.xon law a sum was placed on the life of every fiee man according to
his rank, and a corresponding sum on every wound that could be in-
flicted on his person, and for nearly every injury that could be done
to his civil rights, honor or peace. The Roman "Twelve Tables " al-
lotted with equal care tne money price of smaller thefts and other
offenses against privaU; person and estate. Thus was introduced the
idea of money in connection with punishment, which in earlier times
had been almost solely corporeal.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

!)!,■)

T r i 111 i t i V e

The first ^rcat step in the legal restriction of the personal will of
the reijfning powers in respect to sin and crime was taken when Rome
separated the "free-born" from the slaves of a family and declared the
former released from the father's control, and snbject only to the state
for punishment of graver offenses. This established the public prison
in addition to, and often in place of, the private dungeons of the family.

The prison, howe\er, niaile a comparatively small showing in the
old world's paraphernalia of inmishment. The death penalty uas so
freely used and physical torture of all sorts was so marked a feature pri'JiuB'Fi.w!
of punishment that the prison in the older times was most t)ften only
a place of temporary detention for those on the way to cruel and fatal
suffering. The idea of impiisomnent as itself a punishment aside from
any hardship of tt)rture \.o be sidTered by the prisoner, is essentially a
new one. There seems to have been bi:t one public prison in Rome
at the time of Juvenal, her methods of i)unishment b\- transportation,
by enforced exile, by penal lal)or on public works and in mines and
granaries at a distance from the great cities (methods, be- it said in
passing, copied by most modern states'), relieving her population from
the support of the crimimal class.

When the Cihristian church ascended the throne of the C;esars
there was no innnetliate change in the methods of punishment although
gradually a very diflerent scale of \irtues was evolved, leading to a
very different definition of the criminal and erring classes. The feudal
-■•j-sleni which represented the state during the medieval sjstem of
Christianity marked indeed a retrogression anil not an advance from
the ancient Roman code of offenses and offeiulers. l"or again the
l)rison liecamc; a secret jiart (.)f the family stronghoUl, and again the
criminal and erring at least of the lower classes were delined ina])olit-
ical sense almost e\clusi\el)- in' the individual judgment of the
reigning family heail, wlio could punish almost unrestrainedi}- accord-
ing to ins will. The Christian church in the meantime delined the
criminal and erring in an ecclesiastical sense by its own standards and
punished them in its own as secret places of torture, and by a will as
unrestrained. The to us almost incredible rights of the feudal lord
over his vassals aiul his villian's person and estate jiroxe that the
power of the chieftain class t)ver ofl'entlers leads alwaws to abuse and
tyranny. And the to us almost unimaginable tortures of the inipiisi-
tion prove that the jjcrsonal ]x)wer of the priestly class over offenders
results in a confusion of the nun-al sense.

The only chance for a just and wise science of penology lies along
the path which I'agr.n Rome openeil in her "Law of Nature;" that is,
in the development of a "common law" of righteousness based upon
the more universal elements in human thouglit and action, on which
to found a comnion code of punishment. When the Roman law was
re-established in Christian courts, just as the Dark Ages lightened
toward the dawn of our modern da\-, a fresh start was taken toward
this universal moral standard, and the consequent rational definition of

Cliristiiin Ko-
foruiMtirudual.

cruiie

and sill and the resulting human treatment of the criminal and

■ii'i' ]

W] \

'■■ ■ ' . 1, ■■ ■

'lis

f r ■■

f -I

■H

Spvcn Stops
in I'riikm Ko-
fi Tin.

The ParitADH
and the PiU
griniB.

910

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

crrinj^ classes. Modern progress in penology is marked by seven dis-
tinct steps, namely:

I'^irst. The establishment of the rights of all free-born men to a
trial by law .

.Second. The abolition of slavery which brought all men under
;egis of one legal code.

Third. The substitution of the penalty of imprisonment for varied
forms of physical torture, and the limitation of the death penalty to a
smaller number of crimes and those more generally condemned by
all men.

Fourth. The recognition of national responsibility toward of-
fenders, by which each state accepts the task of controlling and
caring for its own criminals instead of transporting them outside its
bounds.

Fifth. The acceptance of the principle that even a convicted
criminal has rights, rights to decent and humane treatment which
social custom must regard.

.Sixth. The inauguration of a system of classification not only of
offenses as more or less heinous, but of offenders as more or less guilty
according to circum.stan^es.

.Seventh. The beginning of experimental efforts in industrial
and educational directions toward the reformation of the criminal and
erring; that is, their making over into an accepted model of citi-
zenship.

In Massachusetts Bay Colony, where no one could vote who was
not a free householder and a member of the church, all ecclesiastical
offenses were punished by the magistrates as regularly and often more
severely than those crimes which were specially committed against the
state. The religious life of Protestant New England was therefore for
many generations organically bound up with the definitions and
administration of its penal and correctional codes. And it is instruct-
ive to note the fact that the difference between the harshness of the
I'uritans and their laws and the more humane statutes of the Plym-
outh Pilgrims was exactly matched by the difference between the
religious bigotry of the former and the remarkable toleration and
breadth of the latter in church, creed and idea.

The radical changes in the treatment of the criminal and err-
ing classes which mark so conspicuously the last forty years— changes
which have revolutionized this branch of social relation — all proceed,
whether consciously or not, from one fundamental principle, namely,
that every man and every woman, however criminal and erring, is still
a iTian and a woman, a legitimate member of the human family, with in-
alienable rights to protection and justice; who must, indeed, be iso-
lated from the rest of the world, for society's sake and perhaps for his
own; who must be taught the majesty of the law and subjected to
moral discipline, but who is entitled to the best possible chance for
moral improvement.

]V\cin prom a Christian Point of \/'\^w.

Paper by REV. THOMAS S. BYRNE, D. D., of Cincinnati, Ohio.

for

R. President, L;ulics and (ii-iUlrim'ii: I
stand lien- as a representative ol an
aneient laith and a venerable cliureli,
upon whose altars the sun never sets, to
h'ly before )oii in plain words the teach-
in<r ot" that chureh concerning man and
his rel.itions to his God a subject as-
suredly of supreme importance to us all,
whether for our peace in this work!, or
our happiness in t!ie next.

iMan, according to Catholic teach-
in^-, is the crown and perfection of
all thin_Ljs in the visible creation, lie is
created with a no!)le purpose andahit^h
tlestiny in the ima^e of God and after
His likeness. He is dowered with the
;r of intellect and will, settin<r him abo\e
:reated thintjs of earth and making him
(joiilikc in his nature. He lonijs to reach the
higher and better thint^s to which, by an imperative and ever-uri^eiit
law, he necessarily aspires. He lias cravin<rs of the soul which no
created tiling is adequate to satisfy. The greater his natural endow-
ments, the hiyjher their cultivation, the broader his knowledi^e, the more
ample and penetrating his intellectual swin^ and reach, the deeper ami
more exhaustinij will be the sense of a purpose unfilled, of unsatisfied
yearniuLj and baftletl hope. .Splendid intellectual i;ifts and exceptional
mental trainin^f; moral refinement, culture and wealth; social pre-
eminence and commanding; political power; [rreat civic achievements,
and the nu)st coveted prizes of fortune all these but serve to accentu-
ate and render more sensitively acute thcjse wastini,^ lon^int^s and that
fruitless reaching out after an object that will satisfy the cravint^^s of
the .soul and satiate the hunger of the heart. He makes his own the
words of disappointment and l)itterness uttered by the ancient kint;:
" 1 heaped toj^ether for nn'self siher and i;i)ld and the wealth of kinj^s
and ijrovinces. Ami whatever mv eyes desired 1 refused them not,

'917

Cnivitius of
UicSdiil.

i ' i

II ►>

kh\

t' I ■!:

mmm^mmmm

Very Rev. Thomas S. Byrne, Cincinnati.

THE WURLirS L'0.\C.R1 SS Ul- kl.l.lC. li).\S.

!tli)

ami I withheld imt m\' heart from L-iijoyinL;- c\i'r\- pleasure, liut I saw
in all thiiij^s \anily and xexation of spirit, and nothini; was lastiiii^-
under the SUM. "And thus his mind opens to the hopelessmss of his
efforts and to the utter ina(le(iuae\- of himself and all thini4s \ isihle to
I)rins4" hmi happiness and |)eace." Like St. Augustine of old. exhausted,
disappointed, almost ho|)in,t( as^ainst hope, he is forced to lift his heart
to (iod and sa\: " I'hou hast made us for Thyself, and the heart is
restless until it iuuls peace in TIuh

111 ma\' cr\',

eace, peace.

when there is no peace," nor cm there he until the capacities of the
soul are hlK'd h\ an ohject so excellent and so perfect that its posses-
;i\e complete contentment in this world anil the promise of

sion w II

the \ isioii ol

lor

i"\- in tlu- next. And if the cal)acitie^

and as

pirations

of the- soul, its imiierative demands and unsatisfied desires; its hopes
and lon;4iiii;s, are not to he j^ratil'ied and an ohject supplieil them eitlier
ill this world or in tlu' next, or rather parti.dly in this lite and full\- in the
life to come, of such mai;nitude and power, of such transcendent lieauty
and incomparahle perfection, as to llll the intellect with kiiowiiiLj, the
heart with loving', and hush, in the traiuiuil si'renit)- of coni|)lete
])ossession, the clamorous cravings ol the soul, then is man, in spite of
his si)leiidid ijilts and royal pnro^atixes, literall)' and emphatically
the most imix.rU'ct and stunli'd lieiiii^- in all xisihle cre.itioii; for then

)iccls in the visible uni\erse, fail to

will man, and man alone, ol .all ol)|

fultill the purpose for which by nature he is desii^ned and for which
his e\ery aspiration is almost an articulate prayer.

The Catholic sa\s man has a liiL^h destinx' that he can reach, ii
noble purpose that he can achieve; tli.at he may eiijo)- here on earth
a serene peace and contuleuti}' look foiuartl to the surpassing' jo_\- of
living;" fore\-er in the smile of (iod ant! in the ecstas)- of llis love. That
such comictioii, lio\\e\er, and confuleiit lio[)e lia\e ne\er been reachetl,
and cannot be, b\- the unaided jiowers of man, the cr\- of discontent
and fruitless endeavor that has Ljonc up from the heart of man from
the bct^innini;, aiul the bootless i^ropinq; in the dark in search of an
(H-iicle to answer the questionings of llii' soul, dispel its mists, and
tram|uilize its misj^iviiiLis, abundant !)• pioxe.

It is bex'oiitl exi)ri'ssi()n sad to reail the histor}- of reli,L,nous sys-
tems, lab(jrioiisl)' thought out by man in his ])ri(.le, by which he h.is
sought to make, not man to the likiuess ol (iod, but (iod to the like-
ness of man. The reliL^ious liistoi}' ol the world is Tilled with the
narratives of wrecked systems, as proiidl)' and conlideiitly launched
in their day as are e(iuall\' pretentious SN'stems in our own, and these,
like their prototypes, buffeted b_\' wiiul and wave, are as surelv iles-
tined to vanish in the sea or to strew the shore.

Man will be religious. It is a necessity and law of his beiiif^, and
if he cannot rise to (iod, he will strive to dr.iw down (iod to himself.
"Loril, teach me to know mvself, teach me to know Thee," was the
pravxT that went up from the soul of the i;reat bishop of Hippo, and
the pra\'er to which he ^ave utterance has ever been the universal cry
of the heart of man — to know one's self, to know Cjod. Gud and self

A Ilixli Dos.
tin.v.

i t !■

;

\ 'F'

nP""

920

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

II
ft

f
I

f -■

arc the two cardinal objects of man's knowledge to which all his intel-
lectual efforts converge and upon which they terminate. Once reason
has dawned on him and the mind opens and expands to the signifi-
cance and deep meaning of all he sees around about him, to the order
and beauty, the variety and splendor, anil the lavish profusion of vis-
ible blessings, a knowledge of which is borne in upon him by eye and
ear, andevcrj- avenue of sense, he asks himself and must askhimself the
(luestioii: Whence all these strange surroundings hearing upon them
the marks and tokens of a higher intelligence and tlie e\'idence of law
ami order, pvupose and design? And he must ask iiimself the still
more momentous question: Whence do 1 come? Whiiher am I go-
ing? Am I, as the pantheist says, the most perfect manifestation of
tile l)i\iiie ICssence, spirit of Its spirit and intellect of Its intellect?
Or, to go to the other extreme of the scale, less flattering to tiie pride
and \ anity of man, ,im 1 i)ut matter and sense, with a soul wholl)' de-
pendent upon and the product of the digestive organs and a com-
plex s\stem of nerves with functions centering in the brain?

1 luue l)een urging the inadeipiacy of all created things to satisfy
the cravings or meet tlie exigencies of the nature of man, and the con-
se([uent need of a supernatural purpose and object to complete the life
Siipprnniunii of tile soul aiul fill its aptitudes and powers. The supernatural ele-
Miln"""" '" '"•-'"'^ ''' '"''"* '^ ])recisely what the world is losing sight of in its eager
and absorbing pursuit of what gratifies sense anil brings to the natural
man an exliilaraliiig, insiilious, and evanescent enjoyment; and with-
out the supernatural there can be no adequate ex|)lanation of man's
existence here on earth, no interpretation of life that will satisfy the
reason, no oi)ject that will give full swing to the powers of the soul or
bring peace and serene contentment to the heart.

Tiiis has been the Catholic view of man from the beginning, and
its importance cannot be overestimated. It lies at the very root of
religion, anil any error or shadow of error here vitiates and distorts
the entire c\cle of relations of man to his God. The ideas of man
and (iod are correlative and inseparable; they come and go together,
and a defective knowledge of the one necessarily implies an imperfect
understanding of the other.

To arri\e at a knowledge of man in his primitive state, and of his
prerogatives of nature and grace, it will be necessary to study him in
revelation and as he has been restored, lifted up to his former estate
and re-established in his privileges by our Lord Jesus Christ. From
what has i)een given back we can determine what had been taken
away, since his renewal in Christ is, within certain limitations, a resto-
ration to his primal condition. According to Catholic teaching, the
first man was created in the image and likeness of God. " Let us
make man to our image and likeness," are the words that record the
Divine i)urpose, as expressed by (iod Himself, And the record goes
on to say tli.'.t " (iod formed man of the slime of the earth anil breathed
into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul," thus
making a cW^v distinction between body and soul, the former having

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

921

been formed of the slime of the earth and the latter immediately
created by God and breathed into the inanimate clay, and by its pres-
ence illuminating the countenance and every feature with the glow
and radiance of life, and making the eye resplendent w ith the light
and intelligence of the rational, thinking, loving soul that looked out
from it. This is, in brief, a statement, according to Catholic teaching,
of the origin of man, and no theory yet advanced has been able satis-
factorily to account for his existence in any other way. It ii;is never
been, nor can it be, scientifically established, that man is the i)ro(Uict
and most perfect result of evolution. Apart from tiie antecedent and
intrinsic difficulty of the production from inorganic matter of an in-
telligent, thinking principle with the power of seizing ant! compre-
hending, analyzing and comparing truths wholly inmiaterial, ideal
and intellectual, and passing judgment upon them and their manifold
and varied relations one to another — apart, 1 say, from so stupentlous
a difficulty standing at the very threshold of the iiuiuirj- the facts
upon which science professes to rely for its inductions and conclusions
to establish such a theory are confessedly either wholly wanting, or
altogether inadequate. And until such facts are produceti, of which
there is no assuring promise for the future from the experience of
the past, we may be permitted to accept what we hold to be the Di-
vine record of the origin of man, and to profess a belief which has
been the tradition of ever)- race and j)eople from the beginning until
now, and which we see no reason to doubt will continue to be so until
the end.

y\nd it is precisely the fact that the soul has been created byGoii,
and is not the product of inorganic or any other form of matter, that
gives it its dignity and puts upon it the seal and the glory of the
Divine likeness. It is an active, energizing, thinking spirit, created tiie'aou
for the body yet capable of an existence wholly independent of
matter, constituting man a rational being and giving him pre-eminence
and sovereignty "over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air,
and the beasts and every creeping thing that moveth upon the earth;"
a spirit whose highest power and most splendid endowment are
thought and intelligence.

There is a second endowment or faculty of the soul which consti-
tutes it in the likeness of God and necessary in man to the exercise of
his sovereignty over inferior creation. He has the great and i)erilous
prerogative of freedom of choice between good and evil. Na\', so
untrammeled is he in the exercise of this gift that he can, if he will,
lift his hand against the very God who called him into being. When
God placed Adam in Paradise He commanded him not to eat of the
fruit of the tree that was in the midst of the garden, and 1 le warned
him that on the day he did cat of it he should die the death, thus wit-
nessing to the power of free will in the first man, by laying upon him
a precept and attaching a penalty to its violation We have, there-
fore, the testimony of God Himself to the existence of the jiower of
free choice in the head of the human race. Moreover, free will is im-

DiKnitj o f

l"l! ■

";;l

! i

i 1
^1

f 1!

1 .

J! I

King O V f r
Created ThinKH
of the Earth.

022

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

plied in the very notion of a spiritual soul; for just as the intellect in
its operations is not frttered by sense, but views objects that are borne
in upon it first in one light and then in another — in their concrete
existence, in tiieir abstract definitions, and in all their multitudinous
relations — so also is free will, being like the intellect a jjower of the
soul, above and beyond the limitations and the bondage of sense.
Nay, more, free will is the very condition of all morality whatsoever.
It lies at the basis of civic virtue and social purity, of domestic peace
and the sanctities of home. If this were not true, then would words
of eulogy extolling the virtues and achievements of great men be
meaningless verbiage, our courts of justice an elaborate farce, and our
prison system a colossal tyranny. \\y intellect and will, by knowledge
and the power of free choice, man rises to a sublime dignity and to
the likeness of an AUwise am! i'rovident God. We say of everything
around about us, of the tiny blade of grass of the field and the majestic
tree of the forest, of the falling a])ple and the sidereal systems moving
in space, that all are manifestations of design and intelligent pur|)ose,
because they are untler the dominion of law, work toward a definite
end, and subserve a higher purpose. The power of apprehending and
understanding the relations between cause and effect, of adapting and
adjusting means to an end, is, if not the ver\' definition of intelligence
and free will, at least their adecpiate description. y\iid in this man is
like unto Ciod, Whose presence, shut out from us by the veil of the
visible universe, is lumincnisly revealed in the laws by which tliat uni-
verse is governed, and in the order and beauty which bring tlie opera-
tion of these laws within the domain of sense and tii rough seiis'e to
the intelligence of man. Such, according to the Catholic idea, is the
nobility, such the dignity and pre-eminence of man. He is set as a
very king over the created things of earth, yet responsible for the use
of them to the God who gave him so royal a supremacy.

A third natural attribute of the soul, widch constitutes it in the
likeness of God, is its immortality. It shall never see death. The
body will go i^ack to the earth whence it came, but the spirit will return
to the Ciod Who gave it, says the Holy Ghost. And this is what we
should antecedently expect and conclude from the nature of the soul
and its asjjirations. Simple in its essence, it cannot perish of itself
by disintegration; nor can it be destroyed except by the Creator Who
called it into being. But this He will net do, for, as I have said, He
has imbedded in it high hopes and divine aspirations; a conscious-
ness of a capacity for better things; a hunger for knowledge nothing
created can satiate; a yearning for an object adecpiale to fill the great
void of the heart and worthy its best love. y\ll these unsatisfied crav-
ings of the soul must be stilled and extinguishetl if it be not immortal,
and a notable i-xception be madi- to the ordinary dealings of Provi-
dence as we see them revealed on every sidi; o( us. ICvery thing in
the universe fulfills its pur])ose in its appointetl time and place, ami
moves by fixed laws to the l-\u\ which by its nature i', is dt-signed to
reach. And is it to be said that the soul alone, the very flower and

;t »n
orne
crcto
I nous
i the
icnsc.
jevcr.
peace
wortls
en be
u\ our
pledge
antl to
ythinj^
lajestic
noving
inpose,
definite
ing and
in<^ and
lliaence
man is
il of the
hat uni-
c oiiera-
sense to
a, is the
set as a
r the use

it in the
tlu The
ill return

what we
f the soul

of itself
ator Who
; said, He
:onscious-
:c nothint,'

the great
shed erav-

immortal,

„f rrovi-
: thing in
place, and

csigneil to

flower and

T//E WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 903

perfection of the creation about us, sliall never reach the higli (Icsliii)-
to wliich, in virtue of its transcendent powers and almost di\ inc i)rJ-
rogati\es, it is urged and impelled by a law as unvarying and imprratix e
as that which draws the needle to the pole or holds the earth in its
orbit? No, the constant and unfailing traditions of the families of

en, whether living in the light of (iod's countenance or walk

mu' 111

the shadow of death, is an abiding and ubiciuitous witness that an All-
wise Providence has made the belief in the immortalit)- of the soul a
part of the primiti\e rexelation of nature and heritage of all mankiiul.
He has put into the soul beliefs and hopes, aspirations and tendencies,
which, were the soul not immortal, would be wholly without explana-
tion and destitute of an\- adetpiate, rational purpose.

Intellect and will and the immortality of the soul, arc, the Catholic
says, the three natural endowments which in man are the image of
(jod. These perfections all men have in connuon with Adam. liut
Adam had a superadded perfection. lie was, as the Council of Trent
says, "hoh" ami just," or pleasing to (iod. This supernatural perfec-
tion is called, and is, in matter of fact, sanctif\ing grace, which made
yXdam's likeness to (iod fuller, more perfect and transcending than
any natural gift, no matter how excellent, in that it lifted him abo\e
his own nature into a higher and diviner life, and established him in
the love and friendshi[) of Cjod.

We are told liy St. Paul that as (;nc man by his offense wrought
the condemnation of all,so\lid our Lord by His justice work the justifi
cation of all. What Adam forfeited Christ regained. What Christ
regained, St. Paul tells us, is the privilege of being the sons of (iod
and joint heirs with Christ, and of this, he says, the IloIxCihost givetli
testimony. (Jhrist, therefore, restored what had been lost, purchased
with His blood what had been forfeited b\- sin. Through Him man
regainetl tiie sonship and friendship of (iod, and is, or can lie if he will,
constituted in the supernatural life of grace. Hence these privileges,
being a restoration of what had been, were the prerogatives of .Xdam.
Again, .St. John says: "We know that when He shall appear we shall
be like to Him, because wc shall see Him as he is;" that is, we shall enjoy
the beatific vision, to which therefore Adam, in virtue of original jus-
tice, hail a claim, and whi'di he might have attained had he been loyal
and abided in humility and the friendship of (iod. The condition of
man in Paradise has been described as one of "original justice," l)y
which is meant not only -hat man was free from natural impulse or
tendency contrary to (iod and His law, but that he lived in closest
union with Him. This prixMege was the free gift of (iod. It was in
no way due to man's nature or implied in it, or necessary to its integ-
rity. It was a gift ovc. and above man's nature, which he could not
secure by any effort of his own. It lifted him above human nature,
and made him, through grace, a partici[)ator in the divine. It was a
supernatural gift of the divine grace and con^lescension superadded to
the natural endowments of man. That man was so lifted up into a
screner atmo.sphcrc and a diviner life, and made in a sense Godlike, is

ImiiKiMif (ioil,

ih'

n f I

924

^.rr-ifP^^ OF RELIGIONS.
THE WORLD'S CONGRESS Ot

I ,.'

.., of theologians, but .uintc«.a, art of the

A.ul this \>V;^^'^ "^^i^i, ' ot- Catholic theolo« . 1 '^^ ^^^ ^li,.;,,,
I'anthcis.n a.ul ^1^^ \^;\\ ^'' ,^.,,.,,a.-y identity ami ^ V"^ '^>f ,„.,„. ,vhcve-
error ol I'anthe.sm .s the "etc J .„t ^?^'*^'^.*^'''"fthe divine na-

natuvc- and the "-^^.^^ the partic.pat.on of tl jU^ ^^^^^.^_
r»n....iBm ,s. Cathohc theology tici^^^ ^^^ ^^ "^*"; .tv'nv effort or exercise
^\^^ ture, t»Y-'S^S^;n ouVl not become man « by any ^^^^^ ^^^ ,,^,_ ,,a
rity of his n'^fnre, am ^^^ ^^^.^^ ,,,i,jcu .s spontaneous

of his aptitudes an nvcr ^^ ^^^^^^ ,, the 1

which he could of hnuse't ^^^j^^,^

and gracious U'^V rher ife of sanctifying grace AY"\-^^Ji^,a an in-
Hesides the higher tc> reternatural. H.^ '^^c' j-|,^a

privileges and in^'"^'"'!^.^;,;,! '• l^Vstanding, and his l^^f^V He was
lused ^ft of '<-t;S the niiural andsuivernatu.aW d.r. , ^^

with wisdom n '"^".;;-,„s of concupiscence. ';,. ...^co reason

Exempt from ^-^:;^^X^ the control ^^:^l^'^;^l:^^,,,.\X^ being
and lower impulses e e suggestions The rca^ ^^^^^^ ,,,^,^

and obedient to ,t^/"^,\ ,^.,. i^ the soul, yielded '^ ;Y,-aintition .>r tur,
the -r vssion oK.od s la. m^^ Vj"\"« Xut eace and har-

obedie, e to its A^'^'\';'- ,,. „riclc of intellect. All was i ^.^

l-'>--^ ^'^ ^'^ ^fi:^';^;. "-ne- •" ^^^^ T?i m^S^^. vlmg against

again and the la\\ ' ^^^^^ mankind. , . , li^.s when they say

from the evils a"^\ '' '^, Sly, is the meaning of ^;^*^?^^ liUeness ol

Such. then, ^^''^^^^'f 'tui c""^^'^"*'''^ " '^ -^ M nning. three

that Adam was -'••^^^t^\\^^" J^ d^ "^ ^he late Cardinal ^l:^«^\' -^;, i,,a
God. 1 Ic I'- •-l;;r;,e^ perfect in body -"/^^ ^ \,i,^i e^V whereby

perfections: '», ''^^ ;, ^^ u J Holy i;Pi"\th, ^J "" ^^"^' ^^'^^^ '" ' •''"
, the higher per^eaam ^^^„,,ified. and the passion ^^^^^ ^ ,rtection

his soul was oruereu '^ ^vill. ihiraiy. " ,. • | „iy and

Adam, though uc yen ^^^^ "^^^'^f-^^f' favor by acknowl-

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

Kllu-r
an in-
. fiUccl
le was
issi«)ns
reason

, bcinu

joyous

or turi
lul har-

no cx-

aj^ainst
ccn the
fii these

ath antl

they say

eness ol

i<r. three
, he had
whereby

x\ ill pcr-
crfcclion
)ody and
a natural
J indwell-
iniortality

privilci^ed
,'e himself
acknowl-
of subjec-
c through
a sweet al-
{ a life un-
thc fricnd-

035

ship of God— in spite of all these fjifts and the confident hope of their
c(»ntinuance, his freedom of will was not on that account (liininisjied
in power or limited in scojjc, and he was free to retain or reject the
blessinj/'i he enjoyed. Hut if he would remain in possession ot tlu in
he must be honest enough and humble enough for humility is hut
honesty and truth— to recognize that they were the free, spontaneous
gilt of (iod, and that he was but the handiwork of his Maker. Ills
endowments of nature and prerogatives of grace were so many and
so transcending that unless he abided in humility there was dan-
ger of his losing sight of the fact that he owed them all to another.
lie was like what we hear of the scions of great houses, who, comii\g
by birth into the heritage of abundant wealth, exceptional privileges
and historic and honored name, fail to keep in mind that the vast ad-
vantages the)' enjoy and the eminence and distinction that give hister
to their blood, are not due to their own merits, but to the talents, virt-
ues and splendid achievements of great ancestors, (iod put Adam
on trial, as I le had done the angels. He put his humility to the proof,
lie gave him an opportunity to show himself worthy his inheritance
and manifold benedictions. He exacteil but a nominal acknowledg-
ment, by which lie reserved His right. His very generosity and good-
ness, which should have filled the heart of Adam with an unceasing
song of praise and thanksgiving, and an abiding memory of his sur-
passing privileges, seemed, if I may use the worcl. a temptation to his .WumonTrini.
weakness, in spite of the many sta\s and supjiorts by which his will
was steadied anil strengthened. I'orgetting his lowly estate and un-
mindful t)f his blessings, he wantonly transgressed the light command
that had been laid upon him as a test of his fidelity and gratitude.
And so man's first sin was committed, and the human race, in its head,
uascutoff ;i(»m the friendship of God anil cast cnit from an inherit-
ance of countless benedictions. Original justice was forfeited, and to
it as its opposite, succeeded original sin, which thereby became the
heritage of all mankind. The transgression of the law in Adam was
our sin. We arc not, indeed, guilty of Adam's actual and personal
sin, since our wills had no part in its commission; nor can original sin
in Adam's descendants be called sin in the strict antl rigorous sense of
that word. These terms denote the state to which Adam's sin reduced
his children. The act by which sin was committed is one thing; but
the state to which man is reduced by the commission of that sin is
ipiite another. The one was transitory in character; the other is per-
manent, and man is rightly called a sinner as long as he abides in a
state which is the consequence of sin. yVdam, by his act of disobedi-
ence, turned from God and forfeited his supernatural prerogative of
sanctifying grace, a.u' his [)osterity in consequence is born into the
state of deprivation or original sin, which was the penalty of his
offense. Excepting then the Blessed Virgin, who by special i)rivilege,
and because of her high office, had the fullness of grace from the first
moment of her existence, all the children of Adam are under the dis-
ability of his transgression. He was the head of the human family,

I'MI !

■iP

! .il

'.,

iijiS

1 1

ill'!

Ill''

■ ■■■ II

9^»0

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS.

find ill him was contained the whole human race. Tliis is the mcati-
in<^ of St. I'aul when he says that one man's olfcnse wrought the con-
demnation of all. And a^ain: "As by one man sin entered into the

)on all mankind, in whom
lad three perfections his
perfection of sanctifying^

world, and by sin death, so death passed n
all have sinned." Man, as has been saiil,
natural perfection as man, his supernatura

fjrace, and his preternatural perfection of inuuunity from concu-
piscence, from bodily ills and death. Tiie last two were lost. In con-
cupiscence and the contlictinfif laws of the hij^her and lower nature
man still bears about him the memorial and the conse(iuences of the
primal sin. Adam, by that one act of ilisobedience, and in him his
entire posterity, fell from his hi^h eminence to the level and condition
of the natural man. Nay, more, his intellectual powers became en-
feebled and his will infirm once the elevatiufr inlluence and co-opera-
tion of a tliviner and hi^'her life no longer illuminated and sustained
them. In a word, he was strippetl of his pre-eminent privilej^'cs and
disinherited of the promises of his l<"ather. lie had committed an
act of treason, and throujfh it wrouj^ht our spiritual attainder.

Man having forfeited the supernatural life, it was impossible for

him by his own efforts to aj^ain enter upon it. It was simply beyond

his powers. I lis condition was one of deprivatit)n of what was not a

V t ■. f.i P'lrt of his nature, to which as man he had no ritrht or claim, and which

F<»rf<'it or Urn { , , '. , . , . ». • ,

SiiuBrnaturiii lic could not rcf^am by any power ol his own. Vet it must not be sup-
' ''■ posed that man's nature was by such loss corrupted or poisoned in its

root. His intellect was still intact in all its natural powers, though
less luminous, less penetrating and more liable to error because of the
absence or the supernatural li^ht that had been put out in the soul.
I lis will was vacillatinjf and unsteady, yet free and potent to choose
between ri^'ht ami wron^, ^ood and evil. The will was not, as one of
the reformers asserted, a dumb beast, the slave and s])ort of any rider,
malicious or benevolent, who mi^dit leap into the saddle. Neither was
man's nature essentially vitiated or ciiatifj^ed, so that from i^fenerous
wine it became acid vinejjar, as another reformer put it. The effect
of original sin was simply the deprivation of God's f^racc and the con-
sequences which such deprivation implied. He possessed, through
the free gift of God, what was above his nature and beyond its limits,
what conferred upon him supernatural dignity and eminence, and all
this he lost by original sin. He was incapable, in his fallen state, of
making re[)aration for his offense or of recovering sanctifying grace.
God might have left man in this condition of exile with the evidences
and tokens upon him of high lineage and noble descent, yet disinher-
ited and stripped of his supernatural gifts and with only the hope of
such reward as his natural virtues might merit. Hut in His great mercy,
which is beyond bound or measure, God restored to him his forfeited
privileges, and gave him the means of again living a supernatural life
and of entering into the eternal inheritance for which such life is a
preparation. "His exceeding charity," says St. Paul, "wherewith He
loved us when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together in

an-

ti-
the
loin

his

r'inu
ncu-
coii-
itvirc
t the

1 his
ition

2 cn-

iiined
s and

Cll ill!

)lc for
cyoiul
; not a
which
)c sup-
.1 in its
Lhovi^h
t of the
\c soul,
choose
1 one of
y rider,
licr was
onerous
,c effect
the con-
throu^di
ts limits,
;, and all

state, of
u^ «race.
evidences

disinher-
i hope of
;at mercy,

forfeited
atural life
:h life i!^ '^
rewith He
jgether in

T///-: WOK ID'S CONGRESS OF RELIUIOXS.

Christ, by whose }»racc you are saved. " Af^ain, Ciod could have waived
His rij^ht to a satisfaction involving,' thi- death ol His Divine Son, l)iit
thi.s He dill not see fit to do. In His Infinite wisdom He retpiired an
atonement adi(iu;ite to the offense committi'd, and this could hu made
only hy oiu- e<|ual in dii;nity to Hiuiscll. llu' distanci- hctwic n (iod
;in(l man is simpl\' iurmitc. To hriiiLj toircther these two extremes,
severi-d by sin, in the bonds of lovi; to devise a method ol atonement
i)y which luiile man should offer adiMinate rt-paratiou for sin to an in-
finite (iod, was a work W(Mlh>' of l)i\ ine wisdom, omnipotence and
l()\e. And this is precisely what was .leconiplished in the Incarn.ition

mercy and truth

)f tin- Son of (iod. Heaven and earth touched,
met, justice and jjcace kissed;" (iod and man were liid<ed toj^cther i
the l)on<ls of iiulissoluble union. The di\ ine nature assunieil the hu-
man in all its plentitude and powers, and of these two natures by a
mysterious union, analat^ous to that which exists between body and
soul, and technically calU-d 1)\- theoloLjians h\'postatic, resulted the one
personality of Christ, the acts of whosi- human nature had an infinite
worth, inasmuch as the\' were the acts of a I'erson who was (iod. The
sufferint^s and blood of Christ, though onl\- 1 1 is huiuan nature sul'fered,
had a di\ine value, because the acts take on the charactir of the Per-
son, and the I'erson who suffered was di\ine. IJy this ni)steryof love
the ri^dit of man to enti-r ai;ain into his forfeited inheritance was pur-
chaseil. In Christ the hea\enlv harmon\' of our n.iture was restored.

As He was the fullness of revelation, bein^, as St. lohn sav;

■thi

unicii

Ad,

un was stripped

sax-

one l)\' one.

tor the fruits of

'hriMl.

Word made flesh," S(, was He the pattern Man. He was the New
.Adam, in Him the race of man was born aL,faiu, and tluouj^h Him
men, one b\- one, may ^;ain the preroi;ati\es of L,nace and friendship of

(.."hrist's redem[)tion haxi- to be applied to men indi\iduall\-, internally
comnumicated to the soul and made one's own. As Adam, had he re-
uiained faithful, would have transmitte<l to his posterit>- iiuli\ idually
his preternatural and supernatural preroij;atives and bk'ssin^s, so also
Christ, the .Second Adam and our .Spiritual iit'ad, hy an ecoiioni)' es-
tablisheil 1)\' Himself, confers spiritual sonship and su|)ernatural life
on men, one b\' one. The ijrace of redemption is the fountain of life
eternal, «)f which every man may freely drink if he will, but no man's
will is constrained, and the divine bounty is forced on noone. i\iul this
supernatural life of _i,n-ace is, I re[)eat, literally made one's own, and is an
iidierentand an intrinsic ciuality of the soul, constituting;" it in the imaj^e
of (iodandrestoriiiLj in it the di\ine likenessaudtheharmon\' aiul beauty
of heaven. Men must be born into this mysterious and higher life.
"Unless a man be born aLjain of water and the Holy Ghost he cannot
enter into the kin<j;dom of God," are the words of Christ Hiiuself lay-
\\\g, down the condition of its attainment. To sh.ire the fruits of re-
ilemption, theii, man must have a new birth through water and the
Holy Ghost, in fact, if possible, but if not, at least in will and desire;
and if a new birth then a new life, and therefore new capacities and
powers, new hope.s and aspirations, new instincts and cravings. The

:|4Ml I i

I '1 ■

•mmm

<»2S

T//£ WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

life into which man enters by this mysterious and heavenly birth is the
life of the spirit of which St. Paul tells u^ so much, and hence liis
whole bein^ is spiritualized and lifted to a upernatural plane. Jlis
soul is cleansed of all sin; his intellect acqu res a clearer and a larger
knowledge and a surer and steadier grasp >i truth; his will is move
firm and stable; his heart is purified; his affections and emot<"nip are
chastened; and, if true to his privileges and to himself, he lives verily
in an atmosphere of tn.th, strength, purity and peace.

The grace of God is around about us all. It encompasses us as an
atmosphere. It is as warm as the sun and as luminous as litTht. The
universe is a reflection of the presence of God. Every man born into
the world \ias the natural law of God written in his heart and speaking
a language of warning and menace in his conscience. The reason
rightly exercised, can read the pre; jnce of God in the works of His
Frpewnithft hand, SO that every soul has an illumination through reason and con-
Wiiiof ciirwt. science and the visible universe, revealing the existence of an over-
ruling Providence. Moreover, the Holy Ghost speaks without ceasing
in the soul of every man born into the world, leading him to know God
and to believe in Him, to love Him and to serve Him. But all who
are savecl must accept the blessing with the full and perfect freedom
of their own will. Grace is ready at hand to fill the reason with light
and the will with trust and the heart with love, and to bear man up
among the wearing trials and harassing warfare of life; but grace wi I
not force man's will or constrain his freedom. The free use of such
graces, together with the grace of prayer, is never denied or impossible
to any man, so that there is no soul who does not receive sufficient
grace to be saved if he is docile to the voice of conscience and obedi-
ent to the suggestions of the Holy Ghost. And as each new light
conveys a new truth to the soul it carries with it an added responsi-
bility and a momentous obligation to follow whither the Holy Spirit
leadeth.

These graces, which are given to all men, do not, however, prop-
erly constitute man in the supernatural life. What may be called
the specific form and efificient car.sc of such life, and its sustaining
principle, is sanctifying grace; and this, e.xcept in special cases in
which God deals with souls in ways secret from us, is conveyed to man
through the sacraments or sacred rites established by Christ Himself.
Christ, of His own free will and 'Ji\^ine condescension, wrought the re-
demption of the human race, and He is, therefore, free to convey its
fruits to man in any way He in His wisdom sees fit. The primary and
sovereign rule cf belief and practice in all things pertaining to the
economy of God with man is, the Catholic holds, the will of Christ,
and not what seems fitting, or best, or most reasonable to us. The
will of Christ, once it is known, must be the supreme rule and guide.
Hence, relying on the words of Christ and His apostles, and on the
living voice and universal and unbroken tradition of the church from
the beginning, the Catholic says that Christ instituted certain specific
I, rites, now called sacraments, as means and instruments to convey the

f^taitiing
;ascs ivi
. to man
[limsclf.

the rc-
|nvey its
lavy and
Ig to the
1{ Christ.
Ls. The
ll guide.
Il on the
}ch from
specific

ivev the

TIIL WORLD S CONURESS OF RLLIUIOXS.

\Y1\)

fruits of redemption to (he soul; that the initial sacrament, !:>>' which
' e supernatural lite is horn in man, is baptism; and that this life is

the

)urished, increased and perfected by the iiulwcll

HI"" o

f tl

(ihos!; in the soul, by the f'enerosity of our own hearts and

will

loly
and

by th

e i^raccs conveye

d th

rou:

>h tl

le other six sacraments ;uul the aids

they su|)ply, according to the dispositions, the needs and the condi-
tions of men and of society. Through this su|)ernatural gift man t,

Ikes

on a new nature ami be<ji:ins a new

'Ihe theoloiiical virt

Ue:

faith, hope and charity are infusetl into his soul. The effect of t

^ of
lese

virtues IS anala<'dus to w

hat t:

ikes place in man by a repetition of acts

Mar: actpiires skill of hand and eye, facility and ])recision in any art
or handicraft, by constant and assiduous pnictice, so that what was
once diflitult and irksome comes to be done with ease and pleasure.
It is a second nature, just as one writes and s]ieaks correctly though he
takes no thought of the laws which govern the arrangement and con-
struction of language. S( niething analagous lakes place inthesoiil in-
to which the virtues of faith, ho[)e and charity have been infused by

bapt

ism.

They give the mind a sii|)ernatiiral bent, a loxc of Div'inc

truth, a realization of the objects of faith, a read\' acceptance of re\e-
lation and the c<Mmnandments of Gotl, a firni hope in I lis promises, a
manh' yet childlike and artlent affection for the person of Christ and
His blesst'd mother, and a zeal for all that concerns His <rlorv and the

honor of His name. When the innticence and beautvof the Div

lift

conferred in baptism h;i\ e never been lost or extinguished b\' mortal
sin and rareh' sullietl bv deliberate xenial faults a nrixileLiC "ranted to

the fiilelit\- of some s.iints — in such a soul there i

s an approach to the

])eace and harmony that reigiu-d in the soul of Adam before his fal

cason, Ilium

inatetl b\- faith, "oes beiore the wi

as a light in its |>a

th;

the will is docile and oliedient to the ins})irati(;ns of the Holy (ihost;
an atmosphere of grace pervades the soul, and concupiscence and the

ited 1

lower passions are clommateci Dy its presence; gladness inuiulati's the
heart ami the conscience enjoys a peace that is not of this world.

jhit this life, so precious and so full of promise, so elevating,
ennobling and refining, gi\ing so luminous an interpretation of man

ant

IS surrouiulin"s, ami

lead

111" on to lile etern;

ma\- he eiileeoletl

by neglect of its privileges and wholly lost b\- mortal sin. .^in and
sanctitv'ing grace are as opposite as light and darkness. The presence
of sin is the extinction of the spiritu.d life. In the nionunt morial sin
enters the soul through deliberate consent of the will the indwelling
Spirit of (iod and sanctifying grace deiiart, and the sonl is s])iritually
dead. Tht treasure of great price thus bartered for some bauble of
lust or pride, by a merciful and gracious dispensation of Christ, may be
restoretl throuijh an act of perfect lo\e of God or through di\in

Sin n n (1
>iii.rl i f y i n i!

i\- ill-

spired sorrow and the grace of the sacrament of penance. I'or one
guilty of sin committed after bai)tisni the sacrament of penance does
precisely what baptism does for one yet in original sin; in this sense,
that it restores and renews the supernatural life in a soul that is
spiritually dead.

1 ;

'll

iiiiii!

1 1 ..

« ,

s'X.

f %

IIVKLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

A First Prin-
ciple.

It is clear, then, that the Catholic idea of man is this: That he is
instinctively supernatural in his capacities and powers, his aptitudes
and cravings, his aspirations and aims, and that he was so constituted
from the beginning; tliat no created object can fill the void of his heart
or still the cry of his soul; that he cannot work out his evident destiny,
or accomplish the purpose of his creation without being grafted into
the Spiritual Vine, which is Christ, and drawing from it the sap and the
sustenance of his spiritual existence. To the Catholic the supernatural
is the true and only adequate interpretation of man's life; to him
thoughts, words and actions have a supernatural and momentous sig-
nificance, the knowledge and will of the agent being the measure of
their malice or merit. To him they have no real value for eternal life
unless they are in conformity with the law of Ciod, luminous in his in-
tellect, written in his heart and articulate in his conscience. His whole
being is encompassed by the supernatural and by a sense of responsi-
bility to his Creator and God. He believes that the intellect, if not
taught of God, through the living and magisterial voice of the church,
the pillar and ground of the truth, will cease tt) be a light and a guide
to the will, and jjeing once perverted will be the cause and source of
countless errors of judgment and practical life. To him Divine truth
and a Divinely ai)]winted teacher are a first princii)le, and the most
extravagant and illogical aberration of the human mind is this: That
whereas in art, in business and in all the practical concerns of life man
is guided by the application of scientific and fixed princijjles to prac-
tical pursuits and ends, in religion alone, by which man professes to
know God and serve Him and to order his whole being according to
His law, he refuses to accept its Divine Author as a teacher, to submit
his intellect to the immutable priiiciples of revealed truth, or to give
God the homage and service of his highest a\\(\ most Ciodlike endow-
ment. He professes to repudiate dogma or the eternal principles of
religion and Divine truth, ui^on which all morals must in the last anal-
ysis necessarily be based; for without (iod as a hi\\gi\er there is no
power to constrain the conscience of man, and. it not, then neither is
there moral law nor sanction for human conduct. This, as I said, is to
the Catholic the most irrational and illogicd aberration of the human
mind. As well might an architect, inspired by a beiiexolent j)urpose
to benefit his fellowmen, and with the best intention to carry his pur-
pose into execution, design IJrooklyn bridge without a knowledge of
the princijjles of mathematics; or a mechanic, impelled by motives
equally laudable, buiUl the majestic structure without adhering to the
plans and specifications laid down for his guidance. To the Catholic,
the acceptance of God as a Divine teacher, and a belief in I lis revela-
tion, lie at the basis of religion and are the begituiing of all justification.
Faith, and the truths it contains as pro])osed l)y the church, the custo-
dian of Divine truth and its living voice and infallible interpreter, a!i
exact, precise, dogmatic faith, a living, active, energetic and practical
faith, pervades his whole being and influences and gives character to
his least, as well as his most, significant action. And next, as a con-

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS

931

sequence of faith and the body of truth it contains, come the com-
mandments of God, or those rules of conduct which tjuide and direct
liim in justice and truth, and in his manifold duties and varied relations
to God and man. And then, to follow the lo<fical order, comes yrace,
in which every man born into this world lives and mines; \\hich en-
compasses him as an atmosphere; which God ^ives in amj)lest measure
to every man who sincerely wishes to be converted and livt ; which is
an antecedent contlition to the supernatural life, its bci^inniiit;-, its
cause, its sustainint^ principle and its perfection, and which unites man
to God as a child to his Eternal I*"ather by a bond as intimate as is
possible between the Creator and His creature. \\\ this rule, says the
Catholic, shall man live; by this shall he be judged.

,!i

' i.

: 11 1

I '^i^

(/)

Xhe Ultimate Religion.

!i I

'!-!'' i

Paper by BISHOP JOHN J. KEANE, of Washington, D. C.

0!,

Hrotlii'rli(io<l.

Tlic Hiiiiijui
imiily ii L iiiti

11:5;^

934

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Without OcKl.

And, therefore, \vc have seen how true it is that religion is a reality
back of all 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 cannot be
a religion.

And, therefore, again, we have clearly recognized that religion, in
TwoSides *""* 't-^'^^^ ^"^ '" *'^<^ system for its attainment, necessarily implies two
sides, two constitutive elements — the human and 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 craving, 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 freak 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 antagonism, to naturalism, to mere humanism.
While the utterances of these various philosophies have been listened
to with courteous patience, and charity, yet its whole meaning and
lias been to the contrary; the whole drift of its practical conclusion
^riinnoi Do 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 parliament, we look forward and ask, Has
religion a future, and 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 must have the great First
Cause and Last Knd 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 all the world
over that, without God, life would not be worth living.

Here \vc ha\e heard the verdict of human society in all its ranks
and conditions, the verdict of tiiose w ho have most intelligently and
most disinterestedly studied the prol)lem of the improvement of
human conditions, that only the wisdom and ])ower of religion can
solve the mighty sociiil iirobleius of the future, and that, in jjroportion
as the world advances tow .Ml! 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.

Ne.xt we must ask. Shall the future tendency of religion be to
greater unity, or to greatir diversity?

This i)arlianient has brought out in clear light the old familiar truth
that religion has a twofold aim: the improvement of the individual
and, thnnigh that, the imprt)venicnt of society and i^f the race; that
it must, therefore, have in its s\'stem of organization and its methods
of action a twofold tendenc)^ and plan; on the one side to what might

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

935

world

ranks
\y and
licnt ol
ion can
(portion
lent, the
l\ in the
[cs more

be to

liar truth
uhvidnal
Lcc; that
Inicthods
at might

How to At-

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, provision 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 solidarity pressed too heavily on in-
dividualism, at present the tendency is to an extreme of individualism
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 proc- '"J'" ♦?, ^.®''"

I- .1 --^ T-i.i tLi •! Ill- 11 ^ giouB Unity.

ess of synthesis? Is it to be by laying aside all disputed elements,
no matter how manifestly true and beautiful and useful, 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 mani-
festly from the heart of God as well as from the heart of humanity,
so as to attain to the developed and iK'rfected organism of religion?
To answer this momentous (luestion 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 uiiinforiuod or imperfectly informed .ninds,
not, however, 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 arc willing to meet the barbarian or the savage on his own low
level, not in order to assimilate our condition 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 differentiation, of accretion, of de-
velopment 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 comparison 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 .v ^R"?*''^*"*
its forms is only a rude degeneration. It has proved that pantheism sjbie View of
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 cannot even be admitted as a philosophy, since its very
first postulates are metaphysia' contradictions. Hence, the basis of
all religion is the belief in the one living Goil.

Ne.xt, this parliament has shown that humanity repudiates the
gods of the h'picureans, who were so taken up with their own enjoy-
ment that they had no thought for poor man, and nothing to say to
him for his instruction, and no care to bestow on him for his welfare.

iiH

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

riiriii i-Mity
tlio ( 'nly fruo
iiei:j,'ii>n.

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 hu-
manity, but leaves it in the dark; humanity cares nothing for him and
is willing to leave him to his unknowablencss. As the first step in the
solid assent 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 chil-
dren what they need to know and what they need to be in order to
attain their destiny; that is, belief in divine revelation.

Again the parliament has shown that all the attempts of the tribes
of earth to recall and set forth God's teaching, all their endeavors to
tell of the means provided 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 wretchedness 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 humanity's cleans-
ing and uplifting and restoration in His redemption. The world's
craving for union with the divine finds its archety|)al glorious realiza-
tion in His incarnation; and to a share in that wondrous union all are
called as branches of the mystical vine, members of the mystical
body, which lifts humanity above its natural state and pours into it the
ife of love.

Therefore docs the verdict of the ages proclaim in the words of
the apostle of the Gentiles, who knew Him and knew all the rest:
"Other foundation can no man lay but that which God hath laid, which
is Christ Je:us." 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

•Tphus <'hrist a symbol, but a personal reality. He is not a vague, shadowy person-

aiitj. ality, leaving only a dim, vague, mystical impression behind him; 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.

The wondrous message He sent "to every creature," proclaiming
as it had never been proclaimed before the value and the rights of each
individual soul, the sublimest individualism the world had 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 one fold, branches of one vine, members of one body,
in which all, while members of the head, are also "members one of
another," in which is the fulfillment of His own sublime prayer and
prophecy: "That all may be one, as Thou, Father, in Me, and I in
Thee, that they also may be one in Us, that they 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

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

pi-

liu-

ind

the

:hil-

:r to

ribes

rs to
with
]esus
gs its
Ls not
scape
Icans-
•orUVs
caliza-
;iU arc
ystical
o it the

ords of
\c rest:
which
s Christ

yth, not
person-
am ; He
chin'f^ as
definite
an, and
toward

laimin^

of each
ter heard
ch brings
alls all to
ne body,

rs one of
rayer and

and 1 in
dc perfect

unian and
unity, and

\Yi'i

unity in multiplicity, the most perfect socialism and solidarity that the

world could ever know; on its divine side, the instrumentality devised

by the Saviour of the world for imparting, maintaining and perfecting The Church

the action of the divine life in each soul; in its entirety, "the body of S."!""" ""'^

Christ," as the apostle declares it, a body, a vine, both divine and

human, a living organism, imparting the life of God to humanity.

This is the way in which the church of 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 engrafted in Him

and sharing in His life.

This is unmistakably His provision for the sanctification oi tlie
world; will anyone venture to devise a substitute for it? Will any-
one, in the face of this clear and imperative teaching of our Lord,
assert that any separated branch may choose to live apart by itself, or
that any aggregation of separated branches may do instead of the
organic duty of the vine, of the body?

Men of impetuous earnestness have embodied good and noble
ideas in separate organizations of their own. They were right in the
ideas; they were wrong in the separation. On the human side of the
church of Christ, as there will always be, as thcrj always has been,
room for improvement; room for the elimination of human evils, since
our Lord has given no promise of human impeccability; room for the
admission and application of every human excellence, room for the
employment and the ordering of every human energy in every work
that is for God's glory and man's welfare; room, not only for individual
twigs, but for strong, majestic branches and limbs innumerable; but
all in the organic unity of the one vine, the one body. For, on the
divine side, there can be "no change nor shadow of alteration," and
the living organism of the vine, of the body must ever maintain its in-
dividual identity, just as a living human being, though ever subject to
life's vicissitudes, is ever the same identical self.

Jesus Christ is the ultimate center of religion. He has declared
that His one organic church is equally ultimate. Because I believe
Him, here must be my stand forever.

ii I

111:

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Rev. John Z. Torgersen, Chicago,

(Member (ioneral Cnmniittuo.)

The End of the Parliament.

FTICR eighteen (lays, nii the evening' of Sep-
t.enjl)cr 2jih, botli the ^^rcit lialls, U'ashiii^rton
ami Cohiinhiis, were thnjiit^a'd. "Ix-ad Kindly
Li^dit" was suiif^, and tlieii the vaiioiissijeakers
wore iiitrofhiced. Tlie best portions ol tl)cir
a<hhesses lieie folhnv. President Hoiiney
presiiled.

The Rev. Dr. Monieric, Church of I'Jij^-
land, London, after alTirmin_i; that tlie parlia-
ment wa.s <,neater tlian the exposition, saitl:
i.-^ " Here on the platform have sat as brethren

the re])resentativcs of churches and scct.s
which during; b>'-^rone centuries hated and cursed one
another, and scarcely a word has fallen from any of
us which could possibly ^mvc offense. If occasional ly the
j^'F old Adam diil show itself, if occasionally somethint,^ was

rr' said wliich had been Ijctter left unsaid, no harm was done.

It only served to kindle into a (lame of 'general and universal
enthusiasm your brotherly love. It seemed an impossibility, but here
in Chicago the impossible has been realized. Yo'i have shown that
you do not believe in impossibilities. It could not ha\e been realized
but for you. It could not have been realized without jour sj-mpatliy
and your enthusiasm.

*' Citizens of Cliica^o, I conf^ratulatc you. If you show yourselves
in other things as j^reat as you have siiown yoursehes in re<;ar(lt(j this
parliament of relij^ions, most assuredly the time u ill c(jme when Chi-
cago will be the first city in America, the first city in the world."

Protup Chunder Mozoomdar, the eastern Indian leader of the
Brahmo-Somaj: "The kingdom of heaven is, to my mind, avast con-
centric circle with various circumferences of doctrines, authorities and
organizations from outer to inner, from inner to inner still, until heaven
and earth become one. The outermost circle is belief in Goil and the
love of man. In the tolerance, kindliness, good will, patience and wis-
dom which has 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

939

Influence of
the Parliament

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

PrinoeWol-
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Pang Qaang

influence will spread and spread. So many human unities drawn
within the magnetic circle of spiritual sympathy cannot but influence
and widen the various denominations to which they 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
salvation."

Prince Serge Wolkonsky, of Russia: "Should this congress have
no other result than to teach us to judge our fcllowman by his indi-
vidual value, and not by the political opinions 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 of our fellowmen whose motherland stands on the
neck of India; in the name of those, our brothers, whom we so often
blame only because the government of their countries send rapacious
armies on the western, southern and eastetn coasts of Africa. I will
express my gratitude to the congress in the name of those, my broth-
ers, whom we often judge so wrongly because of the cruel treatment
their government inflicts upon the children of the Chinese race.

"I will congratulate the congress in the name of the whole 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 humanity if those who
have attended its sessions have realized that it is a crime to be aston-
ished when wc see that another human being is a man like ourselves."

K. Hirai, Buddhist: "You arc the pioneers in human history. You
have achieved an assembly of the world's religions, and wc believe
your next step will be toward the ideal goal of this parliament, the
realization of international justice. Wc, ourselves, desire to witness its
fulfillment in our lifetime and to greet you again with our utmost
cheers and deepest admiration.

"By your kind hospitality we have forgotten that we are strang-
ers, and we are very much attached to this city. To leave here makes
us feel as if wc were parting with our own sisters and brothers. When
we think of our homeward journey we cannot help shedding tears.
Farewell, ladies and gentlemen. The cold Winter is coming on and
we earnestly wish that you may be in your good health Farewell."

Fung Quang Yu, Chinese Confucian. His address was read by Dr.
J. H. Barrows, after reading which, he said: "This address, as has
been prophesied, will wipe the infamous Geary law off the statute
books." Quang Yu wrote: "It is unnecessary for me to touch upon
the existing relations between the government of China and that ,of
the United States. There is no doubt that the Chinese minister at
Washington and the honorable Secretary of State are well able to
deal with every question arising between the two countries, in a man-
ner satisfactory and honorable to both.

"As I am a delegate to the religious congresses, I cannot but feel

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

tears,
on and
•ewcU."
1 by Dr.
as has
statute
|h upon
1 that .of
pster at
able to
a man-
but feel

941

that all religious people are my friends. I have a favor to ask of all
the religious people of America, 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 me. I am sure that the Americans in China receive just such con-
siderate treatment from the cultured people of China as I have re-
ceived from you

"The majority of my countrymen in this country 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 differ-
ences will ever interrupt the friendly relations between the two gov-
ernments, and that the two peoples will equally enjoy the protection
and blessing of heaven. I intend to leave this country shortly. I
shall take great pleasure in reporting to my government the proceed-
ings of this parliament upon my return. With this I desire to bid all
my friends farewell."

The Right Rev. R. Shibata, Japan, high priest of the Shinto sect:
" This parliament of religion is the most remarkable event in history,
and it is the first honor in my life to have the privilege of appearing
before you to pour out my humble idea, which was so v.ell accepted
by you all. You like me, but I think it is not the mortal .Shibata you
like, but you like the immortal idea of universal fraternity and brother-
hood.

"And I thank you to let me speak to you about the relations ex-
isting between your country and our own Japan, that country which
was so sound asleep until a few years ago. Japan used to be regarded
as a glorious sunrising land, but had it not been for Commodore Perry
we might have been shut out from all the light of the material civili-
zation of the present century. He, the kind-hearted representative of
the United States of America, was the peaceful yet motive power
which aroused Japan and placed her among the great nations of the
earth. It was owing to him that we have advanced to our present con-
dition of material, literary and political civilization, Japan is .sepa-
rated from America by an ocean five thousand miles in width.whjch the
Japanese only a few years ago regarded as a great mysterious expanse.
We cross over this ocean today and in a few days regard America as
our nearest nation and Americans as our best neighbors.

" What I wish to do is to assist you in carrying out the plan of form-
ing the universal brotherhood under the one roof of truth. You know
unity is power. I, who cannot speak any 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 think I represent all Shintoism, I represent only my own
Shinto sect. But who under the sun dare to except to the univeroal
brotherhood, who dare to destroy universal fraternity? So long as the
sun and ir.oon continue to shine all friends of truth must be willing to
fight courageously for this great principle.

R, Sbibata.

i If
ii'i

■''■\i

\
'i

Ifl i' !■

942

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

neorge
CaodliQ.

" I do not know that I shall have the honor of seeing you again
in this life, but our souls have been so pleasantly united here that I
hope they may again be united in the life hereafter. Now 1 pray that
the eight million deities protecting the beautiful cherry-tree country
of Japan may protect you and your government forever, and with this
I bid you a most hearty good-by."

The Rev. George T. Candlin, Methodist missionary to China:
T. " Suffer one final word of counsel, unfit as 7 am to give it: * Be not dis-
obedient unto the heavenly vision.' A very good missionary friend,
one of the oldest missionaries in China, but trained in narrower ideas,
has been much exercised about this parliament; he could not understand
it, this motly gathering of so many religious tongues, but while he was
half inclined to ascribe it to the folly of men, he devoutly believed it
might be overruled by the wisdom of God. He remembered 'the Par-
thians, and Medes, and Elamites, and dwellers in Mesopotamia,' and
what a marvel, said he, if the Spirit of God should descend as He did
on that ancient gathering and make it a latter-day Pentecost. I am
bound to say he thought that was the last thing we should be prepared
for.

"But who shall say that spirit has not been out-poured? We see
not the cloven tongues, we hear not the rushing of mighty winds; our
accompaniments are the puffing noise of locomotives, but on your
beaming countenances and in your eager eyes, yes, and in pearly tears
which held no bitterness, I have seen, methinks, the tokens of His pres-
ence. Are our hearts afire with love to man; are our zeal and courage
equal to our light; arc we afraid of nothing in this holy cause? Then
this is Pentecost and behind is the conversion of the world."

H. Dharmai)ala, Ceylon, Buddhist: "This congress of religions
Sharmapala. has achieved a stupendous work in bringing before you the represen-
tatives of the religions and philosophies of the East. The committee
on religious congresses has realized the Utopian idea of the poet and
the vi-iionary. By the wonderful genius of two men, Mr. Bonney and
Dr. Barrows, a beacon of 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-religionists, followers of
the gentle lord, Buddha Gautama, tender my affectionate regards to
Dr. John Henry Barrows, a man of noble tolerance,. of sweet disposi-
tion, 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 the presentations
of the respective religious systems they follow. You have listened
with commendable patience to the teachings 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 a material civilization, but this

I I

1' SI)

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

048

civilization by itself finds no praise at the hands of the great naturalists
of the day.

" Learn to think without prejudice, to love all beings for love's
sake, to express your convictions fearlessly, to lead a life of purity, and
the sunlight of truth will illuminate you. If theology and dogma
stand in your way in the search of truth put them aside. Be earnest
and work out your own salvation with diligence, and the fruits of holi-
ness will be yours."

Prince Momolu Masaquoi, Vey Territory, Africa. " Members and ^,;^^^ mus*.
Delegates to the Parliament of Religions: Permit nic to express, my 'J""'-
hearty thanks to the chairman of this congress for the honor coh-
ferred upon me personally by the privilege of representing Africa m
this world's parliament of religions.

"There is an important relationship which Africa ;sustains to this
particular gathering. Nearly nineteen hundred years ago, at the great
dawn of Christian morning, we saw benighted Africa opening her
doors to the infant Saviour, Jesus Christ, afterward the founder of one
of the greatest religions man ever embraced, and the teacher of the
highest and noblest sentiments 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 represented by scholarship and devout hearts,
1 wondered to myself, 'What shall the harvest be?'

"The very atmosphere seems pregnant with an indefinable, incx-

fressible something; something too solemn for human utterance, which
dare not express. Previous to this gathering the greatest enmity ex-
isted among the world's religions. Tonight — 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 another, have come
. together in amicable deliberation and have created a more congenial
spirit among themselves. May the coming together of these wise men
result in the full realization of the general Fatherhood of God, the
brotherhood of man, and the consecration of souls to the service
of God."

The Rev. George Boardman, D. D., Philadelphia, Baptist: x)r. Boardmaa
" Fathers of the contemplative East, sons of the executive West; be-
hold how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. The
New Jerusalem, the city of God, is descending, heaven, the phone;
earth, the anti-phone, chanting the eternal hallelujah chorus."

Rabbi Emil Hirsch, Jewish, Chicago: '• None could appreciate
the possibilities of this parliament more deeply than we, the heirs of
a past spanning the millennia and waiting with unbroken faith for the
coming of the millennium. Millions of my co-religionists hoped that
this convocation of the great synagogue would sou".'^' the dcathknell
of hatred and prejudice under which they suffer and have suffered
these many years; and their hope has not been disappointed. From
this place has blazed forth the fiery signal, telling the world as the

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THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Vivekananda.

Yirchand
i.landhi.

t I

torches on Palestine's hills of old did the birth of a now month, as
now of the dawn of the better day of a new love wide enough to em-
brace all the children of men.

" We, Jews, came to impart information and to get it. We have
been richly rewarded for the small contribution we have made to the
success of this ever memorable gathering. According to an old rab-
binical injunction, friends should not part without some serious
thought on some religious problem. We part and take hence all the
deep thoughts here worded, and thus we may be sure that in us will
c«>nie true the promise of the Talmud that wherever three come to-
gether to study God's law the divine Shekinah is resting upon them.
Thus let me bid you Godspeed fn the old Jewish salutation of peace."

Swami Vivekananda: "Much has been said on the common ground
of religious unity. I am not going just now to venture my own theory.
Jiut if anyone 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 or the liuddhist 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 developes after the law
of its own growth, assimilates the air, the earth, and the water
— 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 preserve 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, that it has proved to the world that holiness, purity and charity
are not tne exclusive possession of any one church in the world, and
that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted
character.

"In the face of this evidence if anybody dreams of the exclusive
survival of his own and the destruction 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,' 'Assimilation, and not destruction,' 'Harmony, peace,
and not dissension.' "

Virchand A. Gandhi, India, of the Jain sect: "If you will only per-
mit a heathen to deliver his message of peace and love, I shall only
ask you to look at the multifarous 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 ele-
phant was brought with a circus; and the people had never seen an
elephant before. There were seven blind men in the city who longed
to know what kind of an animal it was, so they went together to the
place where the elephant was kept. One of them placed his hands on

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

IM.")

the cars, the otlicr on the Ic^'s, the third on the t;iil of tlie elephant,
and so on. When they were asked by the people what kind of an an-
imal the elephant was, one of the lilind men said: 'Oh, to be sure, the
elephant is like a !)i^' winnowin^f fan.' The othrr blind man said: 'No,
my dear sir, you are wrongs the elephant is more like a h\^ round
post.' The third: 'My Jove, you are (piite mistaken, it is like a taper-
m^ stick.' The rest of them also j;;ive their different opinions. The
proprietor of the circus, who happened to he there, step])ed forward
and said: 'My friends you are all mistaken, you have not examined
the elephant from all sides. Il.id you done so you would not li.ivc
taken f>ne-sided viivvs.'

"Hrotliers and sisters, I entreat you to hear the moral of this
story and learn to examine the various relij^^ious systems from all
standpoints."

Mrs. Charles Ilenrotin, vice-president of the woman's branch of
the auxiliary, Chicago: "The place which u<jinan has taken in the
parliament of relij^ions and in tlie denominational con<^resses is one of
such ^'reat importance that it is entitled to careful attention.

"As tlay ' y day the parliament has presented the result of the
preliminary work of two years, it may have appeared to ycni an easy Mrs. Uenrotin.
thinfj to put into motion the forces of which this evening' is the
crowninff achievement, but to I)rin^ about this result hundreds of men
and women have labored. Then- are sixteen connnittees of women in
the various departments ri;[)resented in the parliament of religions
and denominational conj^Messes, with a total membership of 174.

"It is too soon to proLjnosticate woman's future in the churches.
Hitherto she has been not the thinker, the formulator of creeds, but
the silent worker. That day has passed. It remains for her to take
her rijjjhtful position in the active government of the church, and to
the question, if men will av cord that jjosition to her, my experience as
that of the chairmen of the woman's committees warrants us in an-
swering an emphatic yes. Her future in the western churches is in
her own hands, and tlic men of the eastern churches will be em-
boldened by the example of the western to return to their country,
and bid our sisters of those distant lands to ^o and do likewise.

"Woman has taken, literally, Christ's command to feed the hun-
gry, and clothe the naked, heal the sick, and to minister unto those
who arc in need of such ministrations. As her intluenceaml power in-
crease so also will her zeal for good works. The experiment of an
equal representation of men and woman in aparliamcnt of religions has
been made, and that it has not been a failure, I think, can be proved
by that part taken by the women who have had the honor of being
called to participate in this great gathering."

The Rev. Frank Bristol, D. D. Dr. Bristol began his speech with Dr.. Frank
the following qnotation:

"Then let us pray, that come it may,

As come it will for a' that.
That man to man the world o'er,

Will brothers be and a' that."

Bristol.

W i'

Jonkin Lloyd
Jooos.

"The thorough gentlemen of the world have spoken in this parlia-
ment of religions in support of religions that have made them thor-
ough gentlemen. Tolerance, courtesy and brotherly love are the in-
evitable and convincing results of the world's nearness to God, the
common Father.

"Infinite good and only good will come from this parliament. To
all who have come from afar we are profoundly and eternally indebted.
Some of them represent civilization.^ that were 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 gardens of eastern faiths,
richer gems from the old mines of great philosophies, and we arc
richer tonight from their contributions of thought, and particularly
from our contact with tliem 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 contributed to the mighty movement
which holds in itself the promise of one Faith, one Lord, one Father,
one Brotherhood.

"A distinguished writer has said that 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 darkness has passed,
the day is at hand, and with it will come the greater humanity, the
universal brotherhood."

The Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Unitarian, Chicago: "It has often
been said, and I have been among those who have been saying it, that
we have been witnessing here in these last .seventeen days what will
not be given men now living again to see, but as these meetings have
grown in power and accumulative spirit I have felt my doubts give
way and I already sec in vision the next parliament of religions more
glorious and more hopeful than this. And I have sent my mind around
the globe to find a fitting place for the next parliament. When I look
upon these gentle brethren from Japan I have imagined that away
out in the calms of the Pacific Ocean we may, in the city of Tokio,
meet again in some great parliament, but I am not satisfied to stop in
that half-way land, and so I have thought we must go further and meet
in that great English dominion of India itself. 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 parliament of religions be held on the
banks of the Ganges in the ancient city of 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 baggage behind,
going in light marching order, carrying only the working principles
that aer applicable in all lands.

"Now, when shall that great parliament meet? It used to take a

• !

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

947

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long time to get around the world, but I believe that we are ready here
tonight to move that we will usher in the twentieth century with a
great parliament of religions in Benares."

Pastor Fliedner, Spain: " From Spain, which discovered America.
I tender a farewell greeting to those who have made America what it
is today — to the sons and daughters of the Pilgrim fathers, who left
their homes in England and Scotland, in Holland and Germany, and
came to this country and here established liberty from the Atlantic
Ocean to the Pacific shore— to them I say farewell. They brought
liberty to America because they knew the fountain of liberty, even
the liberator of mankind, the author of the brotherhood of man; yea,
God manifest in the flesh, light of freedom shining into the darkness
of slavery. Spain has been down-trodden for centuries by ecclesias-
tical and political oppression, but now it has regained liberty, and is
rejoicing in this new liberty, and, therefore, it is free in that freedom
with which Christ makes all men free. God bless free America.
Adios!"

"The Rev. Augusta J. Chapin, D. D.: "The last seventeen days
have seemed to many of us the fulfillment of a dream; nay, the fulfill-
ment of a long cherished prophecy. The seers of ancient time fore-
told a day when there should be concord, something like what we have
seen, among elements before-time discordant.

"We have heard of the Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of
man, and the solidarity of the humn'. race until these great words and
truths have penetrated our minds anu 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.

"The last moments of the great parliament arc passing. We who
welcomed now speed the parting guests. We are glad you came, Oh
wise men of the East, with your wise words, your large, tolerant spirit,
and your gentle ways. We have been glad to sit at your feet and learn
of you in these things. We are glad to have seen you face to face and
we shall count you henceforth more than ever our friends and co-
workers in the great things of religion."

Julia Ward Howe, Boston: "Dear friends, I wish I had brought
you some great and supreme gift of wisdom. I have brought you a
heart brimming with love and thankfulness for this crown of the ages,
so blessed in itself and so full of a more blessed prophecy. But I did
not expect to speak tonight. I will only give you two or three lines
which very briefly relate a dream, a true dream that I had lately:

" Before, I saw the hand divine

(Outstretched for human weal,
Its judgments stern in righteousness,

Its mercy swift to heal;
And as I looked with hand to help

The golden net outspread.
To gather all we deem alive

And all we mourn as dead;

Pastor Fli?d<.

Rev. AngnHtn
J. Chapin.

Julia Ward
Howe.

■h

:IH I

to take a

nialioi) Arnett

Dr. Keane.

ntS THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

And as I mused a voice did say:

" All, not a single mesh;
This binds in harmony divine

All spirit and all tiesh."

Bishop Arnett, of the African Methodist Episcopal church: "I have
never seen so larjje a body of men meet together and discuss quer.tions so
vital with as little friction as I have seen during this parliament. The
watchword has been toleration and fraternity, and shows what may
or can be done when men assemble in the proper spirit.

" There was some apprehension on the part of some Christians as
to the wisdom of a parliament of all the religions, but the result of this
meeting vindicates the wisdom of such a gathering. It appears that
the conception was a divine one rather than human, and the execution
of the plan has been marvelous in its detail and in the harmony of its
working, and reflects credit upon the chairman of the auxiliary, Mr.
Bonney, and also on the Rev. J. H. Barrows — for there is no one who
has attended these mecetings but really believes that Christianity has
lost nothing in the discussion or comparison, but stands today in a
light unknown in the past. The ten commandments, the Sermon on
the Mount and the golden rule have not been superseded by any that has
been presented by the various teachers of religion and philosophy; but
our mountains are just as high and our doctrines arc just as pure as
before our meeting, and every man and woman has been confirmed in
the faith once delivered to the saints. I believe that it will do good
not only to the dominant race; but to the race that 1 represent it is a
Godsend, and from this meeting we believe will go forth a sentiment
that will righten a great many of our wrongs and lighten up the dark
places, and assist in giving us that which we are now denied — the com-
mon privileges of humanity; for we find that in this congress the
majority of the people represented are of the darker races, which will
toach the American people that color is not the standard of excellence
or of degradation. But I trust that much good will come to all, and
not only the Fatherhood of God be acknowledged, but the brotherhood
of man."

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Keane, rector of the Catholic university, Wash-
ington, D. C: "We leave here. We will go to our homes. VVc will
go to the olden ways. Friends, will we not look back to this scene of
union and weep because separation still continues. But will we not
pray that there may have been planted here a seed that will grow to
union world-wide and perfect? Oh friends, let us pray for this. It is
better for us to be one. If it were not better for us to be one than to
be divided our Lord and God would not have prayed to His Father
that we might all be one as He and the Father are one. Oh, let us
pray for unity, and taking up the glorious strains we have listened to
tonight, let us morning, noon and night cry out: 'Lead, kindly Light;
lead from all gloom; lead from all darkness; lead from all imperfect
light of human opinion; lead to the fullness of the Light.'

"O glorious Prince of the King above! Lift up the gates! Take

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T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

W l'.»

away all barriers and all separations and let the Kinj^ of Glory conic
to rule! He gave thanks to Ills Father that lie was to be now glori-
fied, and that the world was to be Ilis kingdom. Oh, let us pray that
that at last may be fulfilled. Lift up your gates, ye Trince. Let the
King of Glory come in. Let Him take possession. Before Him may
every human being bow. Woe to the man who would have an idea of
his own, an ambition of his own, that he would put in the place of His
royal supremacy! May He come. May He rule under Ilis scepter of
peace and love. May we all bow together, and may He reign forever
and ever."

Mr. lionney read a stanza from a poem by IMr. Joseph Cook:

" Ciocl ill all faces shine,
So make Thou all men Tliiiie,

Under one tlonie:
Face to face, soul to soul.
East to West, pole to pole.
As the ^reat af,'es roll,

15e Thou our home! "

In his closing address Chairman John Henry Harrows, D. D.,
said:

"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 occasion for gratitude than
your chairman, that he has been upheld and comforted b)- your cordial
cooperation, by the prayers of a great host of God's noblest men and
women, and by the consciousness of divine favor.

"Men of Asia and Europe, we have been made glad by your com-
ing and have been made wiser. I am happy that you have enjojed
our hospitalities. While floating one evening over the illumined waters
of the "white city," Mr. Dharmapala said, with that smile which has
won our hearts, "All the joys of heaven arc in Chicago," and Dr.
Momerie, with a characteristic mingling of enthusiasm and skepticism,
replied: "I wish I were sure that all the joys of Chicago are to be in
heaven." But surely there will be a multitude there whom no man
can number out of every kindred and people and tongue, and in that
perpetual parliament on high the people of God will be satisfied.

"We have learned that truth is large and that there are more ways
than one in God's providence by which men emerge out of darkness
into the heavenly light. It was not along the line of any one sect or
philosophy that Augustine and Origeii, John Henry Newman and
Dean Stanley, Jonathan Edwards and Channing, Henry Ward Heecher
and Keshub Chunder Sen walked out into the light of the eternal.
The great high wall of heaven is pierced by twelve portals, and we
shall doubtless be surprised if wc ever pass within those gates to find
many there whom we did not expect to sec. We certainly ought to
cherish stronger hopes for those who arc pure in deeds, even though
living in the twilight of faith, than for selfish souls who rest down on
a lifeless Christianity.

Dr Uarrowa

III!

'ni

s: |i 1

liiliii

President
Bonney.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

"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 you have furnished in
the midst of my multiplied duties. Christian America sends her greet-
ings through you to all mank nd. Wc cherish a broadened sympathy,
a higher respect, a truer tenderness to the 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 universi-
ties 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
'rce and strength of that faith in Divine Fatherhood and human
brotherhood which, embodied in an Asiatic peasant who was the Son
of God and made divinely potent through Him, is clasj^ing the globe
with bands of heavenly light.

" Most that is in my heart of love, and gratitude, and happy mem-
ory must go unsaid. If any honor is due for this magnificent achieve-
ment 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 blessing of Him who
rules the storm and holds the ocean waves in His right hand, follow
you, with the ijrayers of all God's people, to your distant homes. And,
as Sir Joshua Reynolds closed his cctures on "The Art of Painting "
with the name of Michael Ange o, so, with a deeper reverence, I
desire that the last words which I speak to this parliament shall be the
name of Him to whom 1 owe life and truth and hope and all things,
who reconciles all contradictions, pacifies all antagonisms, and who,
from the throne of His heavenly kingdom, directs the serene and un-
wearied omnipotence of redeeming love — Jesus Christ the Saviour of
the world."

President Bonney's final words. *' Worshipers of God and lovers
of man: The closing words of this great event must now be spoken.
With ine.xpressible joy and gratitude I give them utterance. The
wonderful success of this first actual congress of the religions of
the world 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 sympathy 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.

" What many men deemed impossible God has finally wrought.
The religions of the world have met in a great and imposing assembly;
they have conferred together on the vital questions of life and immor-
tality in a frank and friendly spirit, and now they part in peace with
many warm expressions of mutual affection and respect.

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T///; IVORLD'S COXCNESS OF RELIGIONS.

l).')!

"The influence which this conj:jrcss of the ichijjioiis uf the world
will c.xcrt on the peace and the prosperity of the uurltl is heyunil the
jower of human languafrc to describe. For this iiilluLiux-, borne
jy those who have attended the sessions of the parliament ol re-
igions to all parts of the world, will affect in some important cle^jree
all races of men, all forms of religion, and even all governments
and social institutions.

"The results of this influence will not only be a*, parent in external
changes, but will manifest themselves in thought, /eciing, 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 tiie approaching fulfillment of the apocalyptic
prophecy: Heboid 1 make all things new !

"The cstablishmeriL oi a universal fraternity of learning and virtue
was early declared to be the ultini.ite aim of the World's Congress
Auxiliary of the Wurld's Columbian Exposition. The Congress of Re-
ligions has always been in anticipation what it is now in fact, the
culmination of the World's Congress scheme. This hour, therefore,
seems to me to be the most appropriate to announce that upon the
conclusion of the world's congress series, as now arranged, a procla-
mation of that fraternity will be issued to promote the continuation in
all parts of the world of the great work in which the congresses of 1893
have been engaged.

"And now farewell. A thousand congratulations 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
afflict mankind. Henceforth, let all throughout the w orld w ho worship
God and love their fellowmcn, join in the anthem of the angels:

"Glory ti) Cii)(i in the highest!
Peace on earth, good will among nienl"

Rabbi Hirsch led in the universal prayer, when Bishop Keanc
offered the last petition:

" O Father in heaven, deign to look down upon Thy children and
crown the work of this parliament with Thy paternal benediction.
Grant, O Father of Lights, in whom there is no darkness, that the
seeds of light planted in our hearts may grow unto the fullness of the
light. Grant, O God of love, who hast said that " He that abidcth in
love abideth in "Me," that the germs of love implanted in our hearts
may grow into love that will link us inseparably with one another
while linking us inseparably with Thee. Bless us, O God, and guide
us all in the path that is before us. Make us faithful to all we
have heard, and grant that we, through our devious ways may, through
Thy boundless mercy, be brought at last together to love and praise
Thee forever and ever. Amen."

The great audience sang "America," and the greatest religious
gathering of the ages was ended.

Farewell!

a!"

il^ i

i 1

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III

Mil ft

t ':

: HI'

k r;

ill 1 *

if i

Rev. M. C. Ranseen, Chicago,

I Ml .iber General Committee, j

pie Denominational Qongresses.

! ii '

OST of the different relit^ious cieiiomi-
nations and oi\c,raiiizations represented
in the Parliament of Reh'^nons held
congresses of their own of sexeral days
each, mainly in the smaller halls of the
Art Institute, witii a sin^^lc Presenta-
tion Day each in a larger hal!. Tliey
be^Ljan on AuL,nist 27th and ended Octo-
ber 15th. There were forty-one in all.
The pro<i;rammes were cvidentl\-i)repar-
ed with ^reat care, and the i)apersin full,
of any cont,n-ess, would fill a volume.
ICacli conij[rcss was welcomeil i)\- the
president of the Au.\iliar\-. lion. C. C,
Honney, with an address, eharacteri/eil
reat tact, courtesy and ability,al\\ aysadmir-
adapted to time, place and occasi(,)n. Brev-
ity forbids the reproduction of the aildresses
here, rnd only all'"''s this general reference to what out^ht to have
been preserved in ^ypc in full. INIost of the follo«in<:j reports and
synopses were furnished by those who participated in the con_s:jresses,
and they may therefore be rej^ardcd as official. Some of the denom-
inations, as the I^piscopal and the i'resbyterian ( the latter with the
exception of one day. Presentation Day), and Calvinistic-Baptist, did
not enter into the movement. But most of the churches made elabo
rate preparations, and constructed excellent proj^jrammes, and executed
them with thorou^iiness, so that their proceedint^s possessed threat
value and interest.

It should be understood that stirring and inspirintr hymns and
other devotional exercises were interspersed throui,di all tnc con-
gresses, the report of which here is omitted for want of space.

i|r

i"il.i

't^ ■ I'

Ii f,

.' ! • •
I-

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ir'

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I' li M

Rabbi Joseph Stolz, Chicago,

If:

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS

955

THE JEWISH CONGRESS.

The Jewish Dcrt.)minational Congress convened in the Memorial
Art Palace, August 27th to 30th, and September 1 3th and 1 5th, under the
Auspices of the Union of American Hebrew congregations ami the Gen-
eral Conference of American rabbis. This was the first time in history
that the Jews were granted such an opportunity to declare before the
world publicly and fearlessly their fundamental doctrines, hopes and
aims, their chief spiritual contributions to humanity, their atitude
toward other religions, and the respect in which Judaism is still in-
dispensable to the highest civilization. The eleven sessions were well
attended. The essayists presented their subjects with learning, clear-
ness, courage and love, and the enthusiasm born of conviction. It was
a memorable occasion, an epoch-marking event, and noteworthy are
the words with which President Charles C. Bonncy opened the first ses-
sion in the Hall of Columbus: "The Providence of the God of Abra-
ham, Isaac and Jacob, has so ordered the arrangements of the religious
congresses under the auspices of the World's Congress Auxiliary of
the World's Columbian Exposition that the mother church from which
all the Christian denominations trace their lineage, and which stands
in the history of mankind as the especial ex[)onent of august and tri-
umphant theism, has been called upon to rpcn the religious congresses
of 1893. But far more important and sii nificant is the fact that this
arrangement has been made, and this congress is now formally opened
and welcomed by as ultra and ardent a Christian as the world con-
tains. It is because I am a Christian, and the chairman of the general
committee of organization of the religious congresses is a Christian, and
a large majority of that committee are Christians, that this day deserves
to stand gold-bordered in human history, as one of the signs that a
new age of brotherhood and peace has truly come."

The theology of Judaism was treated by Rabbi Isaac M.Wise, of Cin-
cinnati, Ohio, who defined Judaism to be " the complex of Israel's relig-
ious sentiments ratiocinated to conceptions in harmony with its Jeho-
vistic God-cognition. The God-cognition always precedes the religious
idea with its commandments and institutions. It is the principle, the
first cause and touchstone for all religious knowledges, ordinances and
institutions. All religious dogmas and practices must be legitimate
conclusions from that principle. The law of laws is, "whatever is in
my cognition of God is imperative in my religion; whatever is contrary
to my cognition of (lod is irreligious and forbidden to me." Israel did
not make its God; God made Himself k own to Israel, and its entire
religion grew out of this knowledge; whatever is not in harmony with
it is error. Therefore is Israel's religion called "Veneration and Wor-
ship of Jehovah" (Ps. xix, 10); its laws and institutions are divine in-
asmuch, as they are the sequence of this antecedent; and its expound-
ers maintain that this monotheism is the only dogma of Judaism. Its
formula is 'The Eternal our God, the Internal is one' and its categoric
imperative is ' Ye shall walk after the I'-ternal your God.' This God
of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jaocb, the God enthroned in

Tho Molli
Churcli.

! i

[i]

911

1} • ii
'ill

1; 1

s i I i

1: 1 m

il I'

■ilr j

THK WORLD'S CONLiRESS OF RELIGIONS.

the

I by

II 111,
ivci-
i(lc:il

in :i
iciicy

J)CI-

)i(U(l
^toiy.
ll(.ly

it ihc
1 i\»iin
(SsiUlc
iisticc,

|)<:toic

1 walk
un. the

11)4 (il)il

human
wliat is
ht> C()i>-

of his
\()wcvcr

Moses;

nal life.

(^I'cnlu-

IS (^OOll

ial and
)ronn)ts
1. Still
for this
reason-
h its nio-
all, cer-
crent.
)cil " that
in lUninvi
aintaineil
nil devel-
>bis. The
al, anil at
ty hunian-
nowleilge

Rabbi G. Gottheil, New York.

Mir a

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■

Doptrino of
Immurtality.

I -I

flr)S

T//£ IV0RL/)'S CONCRliSS OF RELIGIONS.

there is no true morality and piety.' 'Great is the dijjnity of labor; It
honors num.' 'He who docs not teach his son a trade, neglects liis
parental duty.' 'The world rests on three things: justice, truth and
peace.' 'Whatever would be hateful to thee, do not to thy neigh-
bor; this is the law, all else is but commentary.' 'Let thy yea be in
truth and thy nay be in truth.' 'Deception in words is as great a sin
as deception in money matters.' 'He who turns away from works of
love and charity turns away from Ciod.' 'Works of charity have more
value than sacrifices; they are equal to the performance of all religious
duties." ' Do not separate thyself from societj-.' 'Better is he who
lives off the toil of his hand than he who indulges in idle piety.' 'lie
who lives without a wife is no perfect man.' 'If thou hast the means,
enjoy life's innocent pleasures.' 'No one ought to afitlict himself by
unnecessary fasting.' 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, is the
all-embracing principle of the divine law.' 'The duries of justice,
veracity, peacefulness and charity are to be fulfilled toward the non-
Jew as well as the Jew.' 'The pious and virtuous of all nations will go
to heaven," /. c, man's salvation depends not on the acceptance of cer-
tain articles of belief, nor on certain ceremonial observances, but on
that which is the ultimate aim of religion, morality, puritj'of heart and
holiness of life."

The Doctrine of Immortality in Judaism, by Rabbi Joseph Stolz,
of Chicago: He maintained that "man's personal immortality was always
an established belief in Israel. Throughout all his long history we
search in vain for a period when this doctrine was not affirmed, be-
lieved or defended by the Jew. The voluminous literature of Judaism
is unanimous on the subject. It has the sanction of priest and prophet,
bard and sage, rabbi and people. It is confirmed by precept ami by
ritual practice. Saul would never have asked the witch of h'.iulor to
conjure up the spirit of Samuel, nor would Moses have prohibiteil "in-
quiring of familiar spirits and communing with thedcatl" had the peo-
j)le not believed in conscious existence after death. Were not a belief
in immortality current the peoj)le would not have told of the dead
children Klijah and Klisha reanimated by bringing the departed soul
back into the lifeless body, nor would they have repeated the story
that I^lijah went alive into heaven. Hannali ;^ays, ' The Lord killeth
and maketh alive;' Isaiah declares 'The tlead shall live, my dead bod-
ies shall rise;' Hozcaand h'zekiel refer to a national resurrection which
implies the possibility of the individual's resurrection; and Fsalms (i6,
'7' 49. 73). I'roverbs ( 12, v. 28), Job ( 14, v. 13-15, 49, 26, 27), Ecclesi-
asts (12, V. 7). Judaism did not stop with the last i)agc of the Bible.
Judaism is a religious force penetrating the ages, and no man, no book,
no temple, no synod, no national catastrophe and no oppression could
ever stem or destroy it. Its final word was not spoken when Malachi
closed his lips, and there is more than a fly-leaf between the Old and
the New Testaments. The interim is pregnant with development, and
many an idea that was only embryological in the Old Testament
period, there reached a fuller and more pronounced growth. Particularly

)»■ to
"in-
c pco-
bclicf
dead
d soul
storv
cillcth
id bod-
which

ms (16.
'^cclcsi-
liiblc.
o book,
n could
Malachi
)ld and
cnt, and
tament
Bicularly

Rabbi A. Moses, Louisville, Ky.

\i\

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Ti.(. Function
of fruycT.

9(50

'J//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

is this the case with the immortality idea. The Wisdom of Solomon,
tlie second and fourth Hooks of the Maccabees, the Jiook of ICnoch.tht
Testaments of the Twelve I'atriarchs refer repeatedly to the hereafter
Josephus tells us that in the second century V>. C the doctrine of im-
mortality was so prevalent that the three sects (piarreleil about it.
I'assai^es in the Tar^um, Miilrasii anil Talmud, which are uiuleniabl)
early trailitioiis, tiie writinj^s of riiih) and ^\ristobu!, the most ancient
synaf^oLjal ritual, the oldest funeral services and funeral rites all fur-
nish proof positive that a belief in immortality existed in Israel prior
to the time of Jesus; yea, the very fact that Jesus ami His apostles
teach it in the very words of the I'harisees shows that it was from
Israel that they derived this doctrine. Just as unanimous is the Jew-
ish idea that ethics and worship must not be based on the selfish hope
or dread of future reward or punishment. 'He not like servants that
serve their master for the sake of the reward.' Undisputed is also the
idea that this life and its duties are not to be shunned or slij^hted be-
cause of the other life. Man has no ri,L;ht to separate himself from so-
ciety and seek seclusion in deserts and caves in order to ac(|uire
immortality. 'This world is the vestibule to the next. Every ri^^ht-
eous man will be rewarded accordinir to his own merits.' Our life
hereafter depends altogether \\\>o\\ our life here. What this fut-
ure life is no one can describe. Maimonides sums it all up when he
says: 'In the future world there is nothinj; corporal; everythinL,^ is
spiritual. There is no eatiiiL^ and no drinkini^, no standint; arid no sit-
tins^;' hence no local heaven or hell. I"'uture joy is all si)iritual joy,
tlie happiness that comes from wisdoiv ".nd ^ood deeds; future i)ain
is all spiritual pain, the remorse for ii;norance and wickendess. The
joy is eternal, because goodness is eternal; the |)ain is temporal, be-
cause 'God will not contend forever, neither will lie retain His aiif^er
to eternity.' The Jews never taught the eternity of sufferint; and chas-
tisement. They know naught oi endless retributive sufferinij^. An
eternal hell-lire was alien to them. Hut 'the pious of all nations of the
world will inherit future bliss,' whether they are Jews or non-Jews."

The Function o"^ I'rayer accordini^ to Jewish Doctrine, b\- Rabbi
Isaac S. Moses, of Chicat,fo: "T j ':r.derstaiul the character of a relig-
ion, one must study its prajers; to know the nature of a reliijious
community, one must enter into the sacred precinct of their liturt;)'.
Were today the history of Israel wiped out from the memor>' of men,
were even the Hible to be obliterated from the liter.iture of the world,
tl'.e student of the science of comparatixe reli,u^ion could reconstruct
from a few pajjjes of the Jewish prayer book the lofty faith of Israel,
the grandeur of his moral teachings, and the main points of his historic
career. What kind of men were they who would pray ever)' morning:
'He praised, O (iod. King of the world, who hast not made me a slave?'
They certainly had no reference t;: ihe poor creature bought and sold
like merchandise; for neither in old, nor in later Israel, was slavery so
extensive, nor so abject as to call forth such a self-complacent bene-
diction and during the long night of persecution the position of the Jew

jmon.

:h.ilK

jaftci

[)t itu-

.)Ul it.

niabK

.ncicnl

ill Ivn-

:l \)ii()V

postlcs

s I'roni

K Jcw-

ili hope

iits that

also the

itcd hc-

roni so-

acqviivc

•y right-

Ouv life

:his fut-

whcn he

•tliinii is

ul no sit-

iUial ]oy,

lire i);ii»

•ss. The
oral, be-
is an^er

uul chas-
ing;. A"

)ns ol the

•Jews.
)y Kabbi

)t"'a icliK'-

ivlii^ious

• lituii;y.

, ol" nun,

the woilil.

.•construct
of Israel,
us historic
,iu)rnint;:
c a slave?'
1 and soki
slavery so
cent benc-
of the Jew

:■

Dr. M. Mielzner, Cincinnati, O.

ililil

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■■■■■■iliM

062

i !

Tlie Mission
of iHrael.

I ::i!

T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

was such as not to compare favorably even with that of a slave. Yet
would he pray with grateful devotion to his Maker and rejoice that he
had not been made a slave. Truth, or the Torah, is the second great
element in Jewish worship. Amidst all changes of fortune, in the face
of direst distress, even in the agony of death, the Jew would look upon
his lot as specially favored by God; thanking Him for the great boon
of having received the burden of the Law. In this Law and in his
obedience to it he beholds his chief distinction, or election, before all
other nations.

*' The law, is however, but the outward expression and exemplifica-
tion of the deeper truth which is the center and soul of Jewish thought
and life, the existence of the One God. This truth is no mere theo-
logical postulate; it is an ethical movement; for the declaration of the
oneness of God necessarily produces the idea of the oneness of
humanity, or the brotherhood of man. * Thou shalt love the Lord,
thy God' and 'thou shalt love thy fellowman as thysp'f,' are only
two different forms of expressing the same thought. In liis thought,
lies the mission of Israel.

" To freedom, law and truth, is added a fourth element of worship,
love, love to God and love to man. Among no other class of people
has the sentiment of love found Fuch a rich expression as among the
Jews; an expression not in words but in deeds. Filial love and rever-
ence, honor and obed'once, conjugal love and fidelity, brotherly love
and charity, are virtues to which the Jew has furnished the noblest
illustration. From the depth of such a sentiment rose that portion of
the service which, because of its importance is called 'The Prayer,'
It is unique in form and sublime in its suggestiveness: ' Praised be
Thou our God, and God of our fathers," our fathers' God — this expres-
sion is the noblest testimony to the tender and grateful heart of the
Jew — ' Thou art great, mighty and awe-inspiring, O God Most
High.'

"The function of prayer is not to persuade God by our hymns and
praises into granting us favors, but an opportunity for a man to learn
to subject his will to the will of God; to strive after truth, to enrich
his heart with love for humanity, to ennoble the soul with the long-
ing after righteousness. They who are wont to decry the Jew as selfish,
narrow, exclusive, should reflect upon this prayer:

"'O God, let the fear of Thee extend over all Thy works, and
reverence for Thee fill all creatures, that they may all form one band
and do Thy will with an upright heart, so that all manner of wicked-
ness shall cease, and the dominion of the presumptuous shall be re-
moved from the earth.'

" Still more clearly is this idea of the brotherhood o\ all men ex-
pressed in the concluding prayer of every service: ' It behooves us to
render praise and thanksgiving unto the Creator of heaven and earth
who has delivered us from the darkness of error and sent to us the
light of His truth. Therefore we hope that all superstition will speedily
pass away, all wickedness cease and the kingdom of God be established

I .M

. Yet
hat he

great
lie face
k upon
it boon

in his
"ore all

iplifica-
:houtiht
re theo-
n of the
ness of
e Lord,
are only
thought,

worship,
)f people
iiong the
nd revcr-
lerly love
c noblest
)ortion of
t Prayer,'
raised be
is expres-
art of the
od Most

ymns and
n to learn
, to enrich
the long-
as selfish,

works, and
1 one band
of wicked-
hall be rc-

dl men ex-
ooves us to
. and earth
nt to us the
ill speedily
established

T'^E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

sn>:{

on earth; t.cn will the Lord be King over all the earth; on that day
shall God be acknowledged One and Ills name he One.'

" The modern, liberal Jew, who has discanletl from his heart as well
as his liturgy all longing lor a national restoration, but considers his
native or adopted land his Palestine, still feels the moral responsibility
for the sins of all his brethren in faith, but this feeling docs not carry
with it the thought of divine punishment. According to Jewish con-
ception, man is responsible only for his own sins; forgiveness of sin
can be obtained only by thorough repentance. The Jewish worshiper
feels 'there is no wall of separation between God and man.' In him
lives the consciousness of being a child of God.

"In all these prayers and supplications no reference is found to
future punishment or reward; no ciread of everlasting torment over-
shadows the Jewish mind; no selfish longing for eternal pleasures is
incentive to his repentance."

The Historians of Judaism in the Nineteenth Century, by Rabbi
E. Schreiber, of Toledo, Ohio: "The Jew started on his sad pilgrimage
of the Midtlle Ages, but he was permitted to erect only tottering huts.
What he built yesterday he had to tear down today. Yet, however
short his stay in a country, he never neglected to till the spiritual soil
and to sow spiritual seeds. Many historians of our century make the
grave mistake of dwelling too much on the persecution and oppression
ol the Jews, and of not paying greater attention to the brighter side of
the picture — that while the Jew was oppressed, the spirit of Judaism
could not be suppressed. Too many historians make of our history
simply a vale of sorrow, a tragedy, a tear-stained romance. We do not
care for the pity of the world; we challenge its admiration, ask for a
just appreciation of the genius of Judaism, which was strong enough
to endow the hunted Jew with the faculty of taking deep root even in
the spirit and character of that country in which his lot was tem-
porarily cast."

The Share of the Jewish People in the Culture of the Various
Nations and Ages, by Prof. Gotthard Deutsch, of Cincinnati, who elabo-
rated, with much attention to details, the thought of the preceding
speaker. "The Jews gave to the world the Hible, which has found its
way into the thoughts, sentiments and institutions of all civili/cd men.
Christianity, as it was develojjed during the first century, derived its
doctrines, thoughts and forms of expression from rabbinical Judaism,
and in this garb Judaism has concpiercd the civilized world. I'^ven the
original part of Christianity, the combination of the Logos with the
Jewish national Messianic idea, was the result of Jewish-Alexandrian
philosophy. The Jews were the carriers of Greek learning to Europe.
They were the pioneers in liible criticism. They furnished the vvcajions
for the Protestant reformation, enriched philosophy with the thoughts
of Spinoza and Mendelssohn, and occupy a prominent place in modern
art, music, drama, literature, journalism, science, philosophy, history,
exploration, statesmanship and finance."

The Contribution of the ^'^ws to the Preservation of the Sciences

HihtnriunH of
JiulaiMUi.

.Tpwish Colt-
uru.

':!

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i

ii \

1 ?■;

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F r i « n d »
Buiuucc.

hl^

h 1

Rthical
ToavliiuKH.

004

r///-: WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

in the Middle Affcs, by Rabbi Samuel Sale, of St. Louis, still further
elaborates this theme: "Tlie reli^don of the Jews contains no ideas
of that run counter to universal experience and common sense, and
therefore it does not quail before the inexorable conseciuences of ex-
act science. It has never set an interdict on free thought and always
admitted of the greatest possible latitude in the exercise of reason.
It hails every discovery of the exact sciences, even the most startlinjj,
as the sublimest revelation, destined to break down the obstacles and
partition walls of sectarian prejudice and superstition, and by levelinj^
the artificial barriers which dogmatists have set up, to prepare the
way for the ultimate realization of the }^rand ideal of its prophets, the
fraternization of all men upon the soliil basis of justice and love. The
Jews were the fust to raise Hible criticism to the dignity of an inde-
pendent branch of research, without which the I'rotestant Reformation
would not have been possible. Most of the rabbis of the Middle Ajjes
were physicians, and until the end of the seventeenth century, metli-
cine and the natural sciences had not parted company. There was no
branch of iiKpiiry that did not claim their attention and devotion, and
so ea^er were they in search of knowledf.fe that they traversed all
countries to find it.

The Christian schools of the Middle Af^es resounded with the
praises of a piiiU)S()plier celebrated as one of the i)rof()undest thinkers,
wiiose views they feared to refute, and oftener adopted as their own,
Avicei)ron, or Ibii (iabirol, the author of the 'I'ountain of Life,' a
Jew who was the first to ^ive a lastiuff incentive and influence to the
philosophic thoULjht of the Middle Af;es. Moses Maimonides, too, ex-
ercised a powerful intluence not only upon the medical philosophers,
but also upon Leibnitz, Spinoza, Kant and Ile^el.

"The jews have never been mere idie recipients o' the liberal cult-
ure of others, but they have always been cajjer and earnest co-workers
in ever)' realm and tlepartment of knowledge. If the Jews of the Mid-
dle Aj^es have not been awarded sufficient recognition for the impor-
tant part they have enacted in the enlar<^ement and preservation of the
sciences, it is due to the systematic and stupid attempts to su|)press
them and keep them and their relif^ion in the backj^round. The fail-
ure to ^ive them their full measure of desert is but another colossal
exemplification of the willingness with which men forj;et their bene-
factors.

Synapf")5Tiic and Church in their Mutual Relations, particularly in
reference to the ICthical Teachinp[s, by Rabbi K. Kohler, of New
York: "The synagogue and church represent but the prismatic hues
and shades, refractions of the same divine light of truth. Working in
different directions and spheres they supplement and complete one
another, while fulfilling the great providential mission of building up
the kingdom of truth and righteousness on earth. Moses ben Maimon
and Juda Halevi declared that both Jesus and Mohammed (church and
moscpie) are God's great apostles to the heathen, intrusted with the
task of bringing the nations of the West and the Eastevernearerto God,

S. C. Eldridge, San Antonia, Texas.

cz:

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Poflition
Woman.

I li

90(5

7y//i WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

the universal Father. The synagogue holds the key to the mysteries
of the church, which is flesh of our flesh and spirit of our spirit. Jesus
and His apostles wrre both in their life and teaching Jews. From the
Jewish synagogue they caught the holy fire of inspiration to preach
the coming of the kingdom of heaven, for which they had learned to
pray, while sending up their daily incense of devotion to the ' Father
in heaven.'

"Jesus Vv'as a true son of the synagogue. There was no reason why
He should antagonize the teachings of the synagogue any more than
John the Baptist did. When asked what He took to be the foremost
commandment. He began like any Jew with the ancient watchword,
' Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,' and then He declared as the
next one, ' Love thy neighbor as thyself.' And from His own lips we
have the declaration, ' Think not that I came to destroy the Law or the
Prophets; I came not to destroy, but to fulfill.' There was no reason
for the Jewish people at large, nor for the leaders of the synagogue,
to bear Him any grudge, or to hate the noblest and most lofty-minded
of all the teachers of Israel. It was the anti-Semitism of the second
century church that cast the guilt upon the Jew ami his religion. Jesus
died a true Fssene Jew, and the followers oi Jesus were perfect Jews
themselves.

"The church, pointing to the temple ruins as tiie death warrant of
ancient Israel, became aggressive; the synagogue was pushed into
defensive, scattered and torn into shreds. The church became the
oppressor, the Jew the martyr; the church the devouring wolf; Israel
the lamb led to slaughter, the man of sorrow from whose wound the
balm of healing was to flow for the nations.

"There are tiiree radical defects in the church. Salvation is made
dependent on creed; to be a true follower of Christ life must be
shaped after the pattern of the Sermon on the Mount, which means
renouncing wife, wealth and comfort, offering no resistance to acts of
injustice and forgetting the claims of home and country, state and
society; and human gaze is shifted from this life to the life beyond the
grave. Against these views the synagogue has ever protested, and in
the great battle between Christian and Moslem, between faith and
reason, the Jew stood all through the ages pointingtoa higher justice,
a broader love, ever waiting and working for the larger brotherhood
of man. While standing in defense of his own disputed rights, the
Jew helped, and still helps, in the final triumph of the cause, not of a
single sect, or race, or class, but of humanity; in the establishing of
freedom of thought and of conscience, in the unfolding of perfect man-
hood, in the rearing of the kingdom of justice and love, in which all
creeds and nationalities, all views and pursuits blend like the rainbow
colors of the one bright light of the sun."

The Position of Woman among the Jews, by Rabbi Max
Landsberg, of Rochester, N. Y., "showed that the position assigned
to woman in the Biblical history of her creation, is expressed in

lystenes
t. Jcsvis
Tom the
3 preach
arned to
' Father

ison why
lore than
foremost
Ltchword,
hou shalt
red as the
/n lips we
.aw or the
no reason
,MiaRO[;ue,
;y-minded
he second
on. Jesus
rlcct Jews

warrant of
ished into
ecanie the
olf; Israel
\'ound the

3n is made
must be
ich means
to acts of
state and
jeyond the
ted, and in
faith and
icr justice,
rothcrhood
rights, the
c, not of a
blishing of
crfect man-
n which all
he rainbow

labbi Max
)n assi'^ncd
xpressed in

THE WORLD'S CONGRESii Uv RELIGIONS,

{)«7

ilulssuliu.

such an exalted manner that not only all conceptions of antiquity
are put in the shade by it, but the highest civilization yet attained
cannot conceive of a more sublime ideal. There is a i)erfcct ecjuality
of man and woman; yea, the Hible does not say that woman, the
physically weaker one, shall leave her father and mother and cling to
her husband; but man, the physically stronger one, shall cling to his
wife, who in a high condition of humanity is morally and ethically his
superior. A wealth of sentiment so universally ascribed to modern
ideas is contained in this ancient Hebrew thought. It furnishes the
key-note for the exalted position of woman among the Jews, so
strangely exceptional in practical equality, chastity, dignity, domesti
aff' "iion, religious power and moral influence when compared with
that of all the ancient and modern nations. Today Jewish woman
has the same religious rights and obligations in the synagogue that
man has, and she is a most powerful factor in the promotion of Jewish
religious life and sentiment."

The Development of Religious Ideas in Judaism since Moses
Mendelssohn, by" Rabbi G. Gottiicil, of New York: " Reformed Jiida- mo^'^mgu!
ism did not begin as a revolt from ecclesiastical oppression; it was not
a deflection from the creed on which the synagogue is built; it was
life itself that demanded a reform. Problems deei)cr far and more
vital soon came to the surface. The Israelite sht)uld not l)e placed in
the dilemma of either foregoing the full enjoyment of his civil rights
or forswearing his religion, but just as little should he profess doctrines
or practice rites which he had ceased to believe in, or which conflicted
with his own widened sentiments.

"The Hible, the Talmud and all the rabbinical enactments arc the
product of the genius of the Jews for religious life. The)- are for
guidance, not for domination over the sjjirit. We are no longer
answerable, because we hold to the Old Testament for evcy thing the
book contains concerning the nature of God, or His providence, or 1 lis
justice, or in regard to the soul, or our duties to men, or the rights of
the Gentiles; we place them at their historical value. Neither can they
hinder us from receiving light and inspiration from other sources.
Under the influence of these reform principles, the following are the
most notable changes that have come to pass:

"First. The unity of God, that chief corner-stone of Judaism, is
conceived of more in its inclusive than exclusive bearing; it is no
longer, as it has been, a cause of separation and estrangement from
l)eople of other faiths, but the opjiosite, for seeking their fellowship
and cooperation in all things ['J'^'kI, true and right. The one I''ather
in heaven enjoins upon us the obligation of seeking to bring all His
human children into the bonds of a common brotherhood.

" Second. The idea of a ' chosen people ' has for us no other
meaning than that of a people connnissioned to do a certain work
among men; it implies in our sense no inliere.it superiority of rare
or descent, least of all of preference and favoritism in heaven. Tin;
word that came from the Jewish mind thousands of years ago, 'God

Kc'f (irmiMl
JuiluiHiii,

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968

TIfE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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ill

is no respecter of persons,' is not contravened by us either in our
belief or in our prayers, or in pur feelings toward non-Jews, and that
other word from the same source, " Love thy neighbor as thyself,"
forbids us to countenance the least restriction of right or of duty
based on a difference of race, station, culture or religion.

" Third. Palestine is venerable to us as the ancient home of our
race, the birthplace of our faith, the land where our seers saw visions
ani our bards sang their holy hymns; but it is no longer our country
in the sense of ownership; that title appertains to the land of our
birth or adoption.

" Fourth. The worship of prayer and prai.se, and of the devout
reading of the Scriptures, had already won the affections of the Jewish
people a century and more before our common era, in the regions of
the diaspora, long before that cime. The people's meeting house or
synagogue, that glorious creation of the rabbis, as Claude Montefiore
calls it, the venerable mother of every church or mosque on earth, of
St. Peter in Rome as St. Paul in London and the Sadsh in India, be-
came the real temple, and the pious and informed leader in devotion,
the priest of the future. The adoption of the name 'temple' for our
houses of prayer, in preference of ' .synagogue,' is one of the land-
marks of the new era. It is a public avowal, and, as it were, ofificial
declaration that our final separation from Palestine and Jerusalem has
deprived us of nothing we cannot have wherever wc gather together
for the worship of the One and only true God and the study of His
will.

•* Fifth. The tragic question of the Messiah has ceased to be a
question for us; it has been answered once for all, and in such wise
that we have no controversy on that point with any creed or church.
Has come, is to come, or to come again, all difference in time has be-
come obsolete to us, by the adoption of the present tense: Messiah
is coming, has been coming in all past ages; as one of the Talmudists
distinctly taught, ' Messiah's days arc from Adam until now.'

"Sixth, With this development of the Messianic idea came the
change in the conception of Israel's dispersion. We deplore no more
our dispersion, wish for no ingathering. Where God has scattered us,
there also is Mis vineyard into which we are called as laborers."

Judaism and the Modern .State, by Rabbi David Philipson, of
Jndaigm and Cincinnati, Ohio: " He affirmed that the Jews do not consider them-
State.'*"^*"* selves a nation, but a religious conmiunity which expects no Messiah,
and desires not to return to Palestine. They are Jews in religion only,
citizens of their Fatherland, whatever or wherever it maybe, in all that
pertains to the public weal. Judaism discountenances the connection
of church and state; each shall attend toitsown. Judaism teaches its
confessors that if any contingency should a. 'se in which the religion
would be in conflict w'*h the state, the religion must take the second
place, for we recogni/. no power within a power. The Jews are not a
class standing apart, but their hearts and hopes are bound up with
everything that conduces to civic advancement and their country's

I :r

t
1

' 1

M^'l

;r in our

and that

thyself,"

• of duty

ne of our
Lw visions
;r country
nd of our

le devout
the Jewish
ref:jions of
r house or
Uontefiore
n earth, of
1 India, be-
1 devotion,
)le' for our
f the land-
crc, official
usalem has
;r together
udy of His

sed to be a
n such wise

I or church,
ime has be-
e: Messiah
Talmudists

Kv.'

;a came the

ore no more

scattered us,

, I,
rers.

>hilipson, of

isider them-

no Messiah,

eligiononly,

30, in all that

c connection

II teaches its
the religion

; the second

^ws are not a

und up with

cir country's

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

!)()9

honor and political triumphs. They recognize in all men brethren and
pray for the speedy coming of the day when all the world over re-
ligious differences will have no weight in political councils, when Jew,
Christian, Mohammedan, Agnostic, as such, will not figure in the de-
liberations of civil bodies anywhere, but only as men."

Rabbi Joseph Silverman, of New York, spoke on " Popular ICrrors
About the Jews;" Rabbi Eniil G. Hirsch, of Chicago, on " Bible Criti-
cism and Judaism " and " The Ideals of Judaism;" Rabbi JM. 11. Harris,
of New York, on " Reverence and Rationalism;" Rabbi L. Grossmann!
of Detroit, on the "Altitude of Judaism to the Science of Comparative
Religions;" Rabbi C. H. Levy, of Lancaster, on "Universal Ethics Ac-
cording to Profe.ssorSteinthal;" Rabbi A. Moses, of Louisville, on" Who
Is the Real Atheist?" and "Judai-sm a Religion, Not a Rac^;" Rabbi I.
Schwab, of St. Joseph, Mo , on "A Review of the Messianic Idea of
the Jews from the Earliest Times to the Rise of Christianity;" Rabbi
A. Kohut, of New York, on the " Genius of the Talmud."

How wonderful, a congress of Jews in the dying years of the nine-
teenth century! Though oldest in time, smallest in number, with a
record of trials that makes every feeling heart shudder; here were de-
scendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob voicing enthusiastically in one
of the newest cities of a new continent, the truths the prophets uttered
on the plains of the Jordan thousands of years ago. The old message
was on their lips, but still they were abreast of the times in all the vital
issues of religion and morals; maintaining their distinctness and yet
seeking the fellowship of all the others and pledging their
hands and hearts to the best things all were working for; loyal to their
old teachings and yet in the van with those accepting the latest
established truths of science and philosophy. " Behold My servant,
whom I uphold; My chosen in whom My soul delighteth. I have
put My spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment to the nations.
I, the Lord, have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine
hand, and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people, for
a light of the Gentiles."

A Great Event.

JEWISH WOMEN'S COXGRES.S.

The first religious congress of Jewish women ever held in the
history of the world convened at the Memorial Art Palace, September
4th to 7th, and was one of the most successful of all the congresses. The
hall was always crowded to its fullest capacity. Intense enthusiasm pre-
vailed throughout all the sessions. Like once on the shores of the Red
Sea, this occasion again insi)ired the women of Israel, and they pre-
sented the faith of their mothers with all tlie eloquence and earnest-
ness born of conviction and the memory of tiie Jewish woman's devo-
tion to her principles and loyal fidelity to her faith throughout eighteen
centuries of the most trying circumstances that woman has ever had
to confront.
62

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970

Bible Jenish
Women.

Jewish I'ro-
pheteHHeH.

T//E IVOKLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Miss Ray Frank, of Oakland, Cal., opened the congress with prayer,
and Mrs. Henry Solomon, of Chicago, made the opening address,
She " felt that in the parliament of religions, where women of all creeds
were represented, the Jewish woman should have a place.

"In our 'Souvenir,' a collection of the traditional songs of our peo-
ple, we pay our tribute to the work and worth of those of our faith
who have lived and suffered, making it possible for us to have our faith
in this land of liberty. We pay our tribute to the traditions of the
past, which were dear to our forefathers. However oppressed and
unhappy they were, they sang these songs. They were their staff and
stay. From the Ghetto they resounded; they bound them to a spiritual
plane which no walls could encompass. Chanting the prayers and
singing the songs ui-l!fted them so that they forgot their misery. And
we in this land of liberty and prosperity, in this Columbian era, should
not forget the deeper tones struck in days of adversity.

" To those who are not of our faith, to many to whom we arc bound
by tics of love and friendship as strong as of faith, we bid a hearty
welcome and invite them to take part in our discussions and to be
frank with us. I'cihaps in this wise we may overcome some of the
inherited prejudices unfavorable to us, and if we cannot gain the sym-
pathy, we may at least command respect."

Miss Miriam Del Banco, ot Chicago, followed with a sublime

Eoem on the "White Day of Peace:" and then Mrs. Louise Mann-
eimer, of Cincinnati, spoke on the "Jewish Women of Biblical and of
Medieval Days to 1500."

"The women of the Bible! What graceful forms imbued with all
that is good and noble, surrounded by the wonderful beauty of oriental
scenery, rise ?t these words t,ut of the gray mist of the hoary past.

"Among the multitude of types of maidenly loveliness, womanly
beauty and matronly dignit)', there are three groups which especially
claim our attention and admiration.

"The Mothers in Israel! There is no title of honor which through
all the generations of the adherents of Mosaic law was more revered
than this sweet, blessed name of 'mother,' and rightly so, for what-
watchful care, what tender devotion, what self-sacrificing love are
expressed in the name by which Sarah, Rebecca and Rachel are dis-
tinguished.

"The most pronounced characteristics of the 'Mothers in Israel'
are their devotion to the duties of home and the deep and tender love
for their children. This our heirloom has ever beautified the tents of
Jacob and the abodes of Israel.

"The next group claiming attention is the group of 'Prophetesses
in Israel.' In times of great events it is that the spirit of the Lord
moves as it were on the wings of a mighty but voiceless storm. The
responsive souls are touched by the waves of the heaving commotion—
the others hear nothing and feel nothing. Miriam was the first among
the women in Israel whose responsive soul was moved by the breath
of the Lore" With timbrel in hand, she led forth the women at the

\ prayer,
address,
,11 creeds

our peo-
our faith
our faith
IS of the
sscd and
staff and
I spiritual
ayers and
ery. And
ra, should

arc bound
1 a hearty
and to be
lie of the
1 the sym-

a sublime
isc Mann-
ical and of

d with all

of oriental

ry past.

womanly

especially

ch through
ore revered
for what-
\^ love arc
hel are dis-

rs in Israel'
tender love
:hc tents of

'rophctesses
)f the Lord
storm. The
ommotion—
2 first amonfi
the breath
omen at the

",,'

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Miss Ray Frank, Oakland, Cal.

III,

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Modern Jow-
ieh Women.

972

T//E IVORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

shore of the Red Sea, and sang the song of triumph. 'Sing ye to the
Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath
He thrown into the sea.'

"The growing intellectual and spiritual development of woman in
Israel is well marked in Miriam, but with Deborah this development
reaches a glorious culmination.

"Prophet, judge, leader in battle; poet and sacred singer, where in
history do we see again all these various offices filled by one individ-
ual, by a woman? And who was Deborah? Was she a princess, or
the descendant of a high-priest, or the daughter of a man of high
standing and so commanded authority? By no means. She was but
the daughter of lowly parents and the wife of Lapidoth, a man not dis-
tinguished by position or wealth."

References were made to Huldah, the five daughters of Zeloph-
chad, Abigail, Alexandra, and others. Closing, the writer said:

"If we look for the most prominent trait among Jewish women of
Biblical and medieval times, we find maiden or motlier, prophetess
or queen alike distinguished by a perfect trust in the Eternal."

Mrs. Helen Kahn Weil, of Kansas City, continued the subject and
spoke on "Jewish Women of Modern Days from 1500:" "Show
me a great man — I will show you a great mother! Show me a
great race — I will show you an unending line of great mothers.
In the chronicle of time, whose synonym is eternity, Israel, with
Greece, stands out as one of the two great nations of the world. Each
of these peoples had its special mission to humanity — one, the teaching
of eternal beauty; the other, the propaganda of the one, true God,
who is both spirit and beauty. In the annals of Greece we read of
Tyrtaeus, the singer, whose inspiring songs aroused the Spartans to
battle when all other means failed; in the tablets of Israel we read of
the prophetess and poet, Deborah, who sat under the palm tree chant-
ing martial hymns, whose theme was the glory of Jehovah, the one
true Ciod.

"Perchance it may savor a little of heresy, this utterance of mine,
that Israel pre-eminently endures as a symbol of woman's regenerative
power; but proofs are not wanting to attest this assertion.

"The greatest lawgiver who ever drew breath owed the possibility
of his career to woman. Pharaoh's daughter, who found the little
Moses in his wave-rocked cradle, and Miriam, the houri-eyed, sweet-
voiced sister, whose triumphant songs inspired the wavering tribes of
Israel to follow their chosen leader through the unknown dangers of
the trackless desert, are further incarnations of this truth. All through
the Old Testament, at the most crucial times, it is a Deborah, a Judith,
an PLsther upon whom the fate of their people revolve, and in more
modern days it is the discerning eye of Clio, undimmed by the accre-
tion of centuries, that still awards this salient place to the women of
Israel.

"In Spain, where the descendants of the House of David were given
sufficient breathing time to devote themselves anew to the study of

to the
,er hath

oman in
opment

vhere in
individ-
icess, or
1 of high
was but
I not dis-

Zeloph-

id:

vomen of
rophetess
II

ibjcct and

" Show

low me a

mothers,
rael, with
rid. Each
e teaching
true God,
re read of
partans to
^e read of
;ree chant-

A, the one

:e of mine,
generative

possibility
the little
y'cd, swcct-
r tribes of
dangers of
Ml through
h, a Judith,
,nd in more
r the accre-
women of

were given
;he study of

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUGfOXS.

J)73

philosophy and poetry, there were women philosophers and poets;
and afterward, when the direful day of expulsion c.unc, it was the
mothers, wives and sisters ' of these ill-fated refugees who bore them
up in their hour of trial.

"In the awful role of Jewish martyrology, woman docs not stand a
whit behind her brother in her willingness to suffer loss of hc.ne, for-
tune and life for the sake of her holy religion. The talcs told of these J''wiHii Martyrs
delicately natured women, deliberately turning their backs upon the
abodes that had sheltered their families for so many generations, clasp-
ing their affrighted little ones to their breasts, and encouraging their
husbands through their valorous examp.es, are a legion.

"One of the most exquisite of the Old Testament id>is finds its
repetition over and over again in these days. Many are the faithful
Ruths refusing to be comforted, who say, in dauntless voices: 'Entreat
me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for whither
thou goest 1 will go, and where thou loc'gest I will lodge.'

"Among the notable women of the sixteenth century, Henvenida
Abarbanel a.ssumes leading rank. I Icr husband was the son of him who
vainly tendered his entire fortune to l"'erdinand and Isabella in order
that the impending edict against his people might be repealed, h'rom
this sire Samuel Abarbanel inherited the remarkable financial acumen
that enabled him to speedily reconstruct the family fortunes. lie and
Lis wife deserve to be called the Moses and Judith Montefiore of the
sixteenth century.

"The Abarbanel mansion was a po]>ular rendezvous, where culti-
vated Christians and Jews loved to assemble. Chronicle tells us of one,
John Albert VVidmanstadt, a pupil of Reuchlin and a man of encyclo-
pedic learning, seeking an abode there in order to further his advance-
ment in Hebrew studi»,s.

"The name of Donna Gracia Mendes, with that of her daughter,
Reyna, princess of Naxos, find frequent repetition in the literature of
the period. Many are the books inscribed to them, and many arc the
songs sung in their praise. One of the first printing presses constructed
in Turkey was erected by Reyna for the purpose of supplying a new
and much-needed edition of the Talmud.

"Toward the beginning of the seventeenth century the condition of
the European Jews grew more and more intolerable. The Catholic
reactionists, with the Jesuits at their head, were everywhere waging a
relentless battle against light and learning. In Turkey, where for fifty
years the Jews had maintained such honorable positions, a new spirit
of persecution had set in. The Thirty Years War, dancing its dance of
death through Germany, and the Cossack massacres in Poland, threat-
ened an almost vandalic annihilation of all higher civilization.

"In this wholesale immolation the Jew, ever the fated target for
changing political conditions, was again the first victim.

"Amidst the heterogeneous elements composing so large a com-
munity as Venice, in Shakespeare's day, there may have been a Jessica,
there may have been a Shylock, but authenticated record gives us no

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Better Days.

Jewish Wom-
An Writers.

974

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF R/iL/lS/OAS.

trace of such characters. It tells us, however, of a new Hebrew-Italian
school of poetry, amon<^ whose cliief protagonists were two women,
Deborah Ascarelli and Sai'a Copia Sullani. Of especial interest is the
hfc of the latter. Heautiful and hit^hly gifted, the possessor of an extra-
ordinary mind, in which the {genius of poetry and philosopl.y were
equally blended, the writer of a treatise on the iinniortalit>'of the soul,
and the main figure in an episode in which a love-lorn and proselyting
priest is the hero, and she, the steadfast and faithful Jewess the hero-
ine, the story of Sara Copia .Sullani is imbued with all the interest of a
romantic tale of fiction.

As the eighteenth century neared the zenith of its meridian, dim
heraklings of better days began to penetrate the stilled atmosphere
of the Ghetto. Here and there, amidst the sorely pressed multitude,
a few faint glimmers of the speedily apjiroaching renaissance made
themselves perceptible after so man)' years of abject self-suppression,
the Jews were again beginning to appreciate the glory of the indi-
vidual and the glory of the race. 1 lis resuscitating inlluence pervaded
every department of human existence, and a special testimonial to the
living force of his example, is the fact, that never once, even in his
own home, did Moses INIendelssohn tlescend from the \n\rc ideals he
considered should constitute the character of every normal child of
God. His attitude toward women was ineffably beautiful.

"Side by side on a perfect ecjuality with their brothers, the Men-
delssohn girls received the best education that was then procurable.
Among the celebrated men and women who congregated at the phi-
losopher's home, Dorothea, Rachael and Henrietta Meiulclssohn were
deemed no small attraction. 'I'lie eldest daughter, particularly, was
noted for her logical and rigorous mentality. Of all the children of
Moses Menilelssohn, Dcnotliea appears to have been the one who
most inherited her father's gifts.

"With the exception of a few Jewish houses, where Moses Men-
delssohn's example was still pursued, no place where both sexes could
equally exchange intellectual confidences had arisen.

"The Henrietta Herz is elected by many authorities the Madame
Recamicr, of Germany. Beautiful as a siren, the wife of a noted phys-
ician and literateur, mistress of half a do/en varied languages, and the
hoste.is of one of the most i)opular eighteenth cenlur) salons, the name
of Henrietta Herz is an imperishable memory in the sociological an-
nals of her country. Once Schleirmacher likened her to Ceres in token
of the ability she possessed to generate among her acquaintances
the best and noblest blossoms of human nature.

" The blessings of the oppressed and afflicted, arising from all sides
to honor the most humane of the centuries' beneliictt)rs, are indis-
solubly associated with the memory of Judith, the w ife of .Sir Moses
Montcfiore.

" At the head of the Jewish writers of this country is l-'.mma Laz-
arus. She and Heinrich Heine are the two greatest poets produced
by the Hebrews in the present century. Between herself and her

I Hi

talian
Dincn,
is the
cxtra-
' were
c sovil,
ilytin^'
: hcro-
:st of a

111, cli"»
)sphcrc
Ititudc,
c made
rcssion,
\c indi-
crvaclcil
il to tlic
II in his
Icals he
cliild ot

he Men-
jcurable.
the phi-
)hn were
arly, was
iUh-en of
one who

|»ses Men-
xes could

Madame
ted phys-
s,and the
, the name
o^ical an-
:s in token
aaintances

•mall sides
are Indis-
Sir Moses

ninia Laz-
i produced
If and her

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Jewish Ilomo
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T///t ll'ORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

German co-relij;ioni.st there was much in common. Both were ladened
by the irrepressible Welt Schmerz, of their nation, and both were
Greeks as well as Hebrews. Incontestably it is this propinquity of
spirit that elects ICmnia Lazarus the finest of Heinrich Heine's English
translators. An imperishable monument erected by her to the memory
of the Passion of Israel, is the collection of prose poems entitled 'liy
the Waters of Habylon.'

" Henrietta SzoUl, Annie Nathan Mycr, Josephine Lazarus, Mary
M. Cohen, Minnie 1). Louis, Nina Morrais Cohen and Martha Mor-
ton are only a few amonfj the many of our countrywomen whose
works perpetuate the undiminished intellectual glory of Hoary Headed
Lsrael.

"If the measure of a nation's fame be the standard maintained by
its women, then this congress of Jewish women, the first in its history,
isa renewed pledge of the immortal possibilities of the Hebrew race."

" Woman in the Synagogue" was the theme on which Miss Ray
I'"rank, of Oakland, Cal., spoke. "Excepting in the Talmud, Sarah is
not mentioned as possessing the inspirational power which made the
prophets of old; yet, there is that chronicled of her which gives rise
to the assumption that for a time at least she was the greatest
of them all. Eor in Genesis, Chap, x.xi, I2, is recorded the only in-
stance of the Lord especially commanding one of His favorites
to listen carefully to a woman, ' In all that Sarah may say unto thee,
hearken unto her voice.' Evidently the Almighty deemed a woman
both capable of understanding and advising.

"The life of Hannah inculcates more deeply a lesson, which
we women must learn, than that of any other of our sex mentioned in
the Bible. Greatest and best among women is she who is a wise mother,
for the children are the Lord's, the heirs of heaven. Blessed beyond
all is she who by precept and example dedicates her offspring
to the Eternal. She may be ordained rabbi, or be the president
of a synagogue, but her noblest work will be at home, her highest ideal
a home. Our women living in a century and in a country which
gives them every opportunity to improve are not making the most of
themselves.

" Sisters, our work in and for the synagogue lies in bringing
to the temple the Samuels to fulfill the law.

"If the synagogues are then deserted let it be because the homes
are filled, then we will be a nation of priests; edifices of worship will
be everywhere.

" Influence of the Jewish Religion on the Home" was treated by
Miss Mary Cohen of Philadelphia: "The idea with which the Jewish
religion was planned was to so engraft it upon the home life that the two
should be inseparably joined. The observances of the faith are so en-
twined with the everyday atmosphere of the home as to make the Jewish
religion and the family life one, a bond in sanctity. In this .sense the
synagogue is the home, and the home the synagogue. The Hebrew
parent is the priest or priestess of the family altar. There is no need,

ladened
»th were
quity of

English

memory
itled 'By

us, Mary
tha Mor-
;n whose
r Headed

tained by
s history,
ew race."
Miss Ray
I, Sarah is
made the
gives rise
; greatest
e only in-
favoritcs
unto thee,
I a woman

on, which
ntioned in
se mother,
cd beyond
offspring
president
Thest ideal
itry which
he most of

n bringing

the homes
'orship will

; treated by
the Jewish
hat the two
h are so en-
z the Jewish
is sense the
rhc Hebrew
is no need,

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

5)77

if there is a desire to worship the God of Israel, to visit the sanctuary;
it is ahyays right and appropriate to enter the House of God, but it is
never indispensable for the pei''jrniance of religious service. The
jrayers for the Sabbath eve, the prayers lor the Sabhatli (la\-, ior the
asts and festivals, can be as feelingly and efficient!)- reiulei'eil in the
lome as in the synagogue. The service on the first night of tiie Pass-
over can undoubtedly be far better obscrvetl in the liunie than even
in the sanctuary itself.

"It was especially noticeable, in the times when tlie jews were
restricted to life in the Ghettos, that it was very dinieiilt to see
just where the religion ended and the home life began. I can never
see, in the sometimes punctilious care with which some Hebrew
women prepare their homes for the religious festivals, the ground for
annoyance or ridicule which it seems to furnish to many critics; to ine
it presents a beautiful union between the religion and the home.

" From the time when Sarah entertained the angels until today,
the chain of kindly feeling toward the traveler or the \isitur lias never
been broken; in fact, the well-to-do Hebrew woman liolds it a privi-
lege to share the fruits of the earth with anyone less favored, and
knows that in so doing she is only obeying a divine behest: ' And thou
shalt rejoice with every good thing which the Lord thy God hath
given unto thee, and unto thy house, thou, with the Lev'ite, and the
stranger that is in the midst of thee.'

"Husband and children in the Jewish home show to the wile and
mother a profound affection, and hold her in the greatest honor.
Jewish men are almost invariably domestic, valuing their homes as the
union of material and spiritual good.

"The influence of the Jewish religion in the home may well
be treasured as the key-stone to the la.sting happiness and usefulness
of all the nations of the earth."

"The Influence of the Discovery of America on the Jews" was the
theme on which Mrs. Pauline H. Rosenberg, of Allegheny, Pa., spoke
as follows:

"America, settled by all sects of people fleeing from religious . j ..
intolerance and in search of a place where religious liberty and free- Synonym of
dom of conscience might be enjoyed, could not long harbor bitter "J'l""^*'"''^^'
antagonisms on the ground of religion. 'America is another name for
opportunity. Her whole history appears like a last effort of Divine
Providence on behalf of the human race.' From within her boundaries
emanated the grand idea of freedom, such as the world had never
heard of before. Here was the dreamed-of Uto[)ia, the New Atlantis,
the land of promise that opened up the Ghettos of the old world.

" Among the workers of all classes in America we find Jews —
artisans, tradesmen, merchants, scientists, literateurs, professors, doc-
tors, advocates, diplomats, and philosophers, and those who have not
attained extraordinary renown are happily amalgamated with the best
and happiest nation on earth, exerting a restrictive influence upon
extraneous oppressors of their creed, aiding to better the condition of

IIIHI

'III

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lil'i

1 ,

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1)78

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

•TowldhWom.
kn in riiarity.

Noblesee
Oblige.

mankind, and working out one of the problems of civilization — to live
in friendship and peace, not antagonism, in love and not in hate, and
in all questions absorbing the nation working hand-in-hand with the
Christian, making a brotherhood of man, radiating an influence to all
quarters of the globe; inviting to citizenship America's Jews, the
(fescendants of foreign-born citizens, enjoying liberty, enlightenment
and culture for a few generations, judging by past noble achievements,
contain a bright i)romise of future possibilities."

"Woman's I'lacc in Charitable Work; What it is, and What it
Should be," was the theme on which Mrs. Carrie S. IJenjamin, of Den-
ver, spoke as follows:

"In the field of charity which is almost co-e.\tcnsive with the field
f human action, there is no one to dispute woman's rights, no male
ngel Gabriel standing with flaming sword at the gate saying: 'Thus
far and no farther.' Here she can be a priestess to herself and to
others. Had this field of woman's special fitness been cultivated witli
half the zeal that has been devoted to the so-called woman's cause in
other directions, the fig tree had sprung up instead '>f tlie thistle. Did
woman understand that this is her strength of viiicl-. she cannot be
shorn, as Samson of old, she would not be at the .nercy of every Phil-
istine who mocks at woman's rights and woman's sphere.

"Woman's fitness for the wcnk of charity is enjphasized through-
out the old Hebrew writings. As the needle to the pole, so should a
true woman's heart turn to deeds of charity. If man's proper study is
man, woman's proper study is charity. This is the work that lies
nearest her and should be dearest to her. .She herself was a gift of
God's compassion for man, when God saw that it was not good for man
to be alone. Hence she is an attribute itself of a divine charity.

" Let woman's rights become woman's duties, and woman's suf-
frage, humanity's sufferings, and let her remember that though she
have the gift of projihecy, and understand all onomies and ologies and
the mysteries of spheres and hemi, yea, tlemi-spheres, though she
speak many languages with the tongues of men and of angels, though
she be clothed in a splendor that not even Solomon in all his glory
was arrayed like one unto her, if she have not charity, it profiteth her
nothing."

" It seems conclusive that it is to woman that we must look as the
invincil.ic agent in this work. She is divinely appointed and innately
fittcfl, and for the most part endowed with what is of essential value,
leisure To the unoccupied women the plea arises loudest.

' It is an old legend of just men — twbhssc oblii^c — or superior ad-
vantages bind you to larger generosities. Hence, the more gifted the
woman, the more goods she is endowed with, the more leisure she
possesses, the greater the demands on these resources.

" Hentham's principle, ' the gi'eatest good to the greatest number,'
is most true of charity. The benefits of the more fortunate must be
bestowed on the less, or they convict themselves of unfitness to possess
their advantages. Surely the graces of culture and wealth will not be

Mrs. Henry Solomon, Chicago.

V - '!:•

ij ! .

lU.l i

THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

thrown away if exercised among the humblest and least cultured, for
they need it and must have it, or it will remain a blind f'^'-ce in the
world, the lever of demagogues who preach anarchy and misname it
progress. There is no culture so high, no refinement of wealth so ex-
quisite, that it cannot find full play in the broadest field of humanity,
and there shed a light which shall illumine Surrounding gloom, and
without which life is like one of the old landscapes in which the artist
forgot to put the sunlight. If your fruits are gathered up in store-
houses and barns they must decay and die. If your coin is put in
chests and vaults, the moth and rust must corrupt and destroy it.

" No matter what her walk in life may be, woman can take up
arms in the cause of charity. WHiether she be on the highways or in
the byways she can find ample scope for her energies in this work.
Whether she walk in the day nurseries, through the kindergartens, in
the industrial schools, out in the trades with the wage-earners, into the
tenements, into the hospitals, out in the streets, into the homes of the
poor or rich — 'the ways, they are many; the end, it is one.'"

" Women as Wage-workers, with Special Reference to Directing
Wage-workere* Immigrants," by Miss Julia Richman, of New York, was the next
paper. " She suggested that the Jewish women in every large city estab-
lish a working women's bureau or agency on strictly business princi-
ples. This is not to be a charity. VVorking women as a class ask no
charity; as Mrs. Lowell states the case, 'Charity is the insult added to
the injury done to the mass of the people by insufficient payment for
work.' This bureau should be operated on the same general basis as
teachers* or dramatic agencies, or even intelligence offices. Every
candidate for a position of any nature under the head of woman's work
must be properly registered, and must pay a small fee as soon as the
bureau shall have furnished her with employment of the kind required.
The bureau must place itself in communication with every field where-
in women are employed, and must agree to furnish competent help of
every kind upon demand.

" The volunteer corps of agents to supply factory hands should be
selected from many and varied sources. Wives and daughters of manu-
facturers, forewomen in shops and capable working girls, who could
gain a knowledge of conditions within factories and stores that might
be withheld from the casual observer, should be largely represented.
There should be a separate corps of agents to supply help to families,
from governesses down to scullery maids, if necessary. .Still another
corps must take charge of special help, the dressmaker, the maj;seur,
the skillful nurse, etc.

"Do you reali/x' how many thousands of dollars are annually ex-
pended in a city like this or New York in fees at intelligence offices
to secure, in most cases, thoroughly incapable domestic help? If we
could establish in connection with this bureau a training school for
servants, from which we could supply competent cooks, laundresses,
nurse maids, waitresses, etc., tell me, you housekeepers who hear me,
would there be any lack of dollars flowing from your pockets into

Daty of Jew-
ish Women.

as the
;quired.

ally cx-
e offices
If we
ool for
dresses,
lear me,
ets into

Mrs. Louise Mannheimer, Cincinnati, Ohio.

j :

■ H

;

• 1 1

i)82

7'//E IVORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

!*!

ours? And this brings mc to the most important point in my paper.
How can any woman with feeling, look upon the hundreds of young
girls living in squalid tenements (did I say living? it is barely exist-
ing), bending over machines in crowded factories, surrounded in the
evening by coarse if not occasionally evil influences, how can she, I
say, seeing this, and feeling that in hundreds of families these same
girls could find easier work, comfortable beds, good food and refined
surroundings, how can she help passing judgment on some one that
this condition prevails? What right has she to keep quiet when rais-
ing her voice in protest, may make a few women pause to think.

She urged the establishment of training schools for servants, and
made many practical suggestions.

" The Jews of America, particularly the Jews of New York city, are,
perhaps, the most charitable class of people in the whole world. Time,
labor and money are given so freely in some directions. But charity
is not always philanthropy, and we have rcachttl a point in the devel-
opment of various sociological problems Ah makes it imperative
that philanthropy be placed above charity Ti ced of charity must
disappear as we teach the rising generations how to improve their con-
ditions."

" Charity as Taught by the Mosaic Law" was the subject discussed
Mosaic Charity by Miss Eva L. Stem, of New York; Mrs. Minnie Louis, of New York,
on "Mission Work Among the Unenlightened Jews," and Mrs. Laura
Jacobson, of St. Louis, on " How Can Nations be Influenced to Protest
or to Interfere in Cases of Persecution." The latter subject aroused
intense interest, and the discussion became historical from the em-
phatic manner in which Archbishop Ireland, Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones,
Mrs. Celia Wooley and William J. Onahan denounced the present
European persecution of the Jews.

The last session was devoted to the subject of forming a national
organization in response to the exhaustive paper and strong appeal of
Miss Sadie American, of Chicago, who said:

" The Jews needed no formal organization. Thr\
times have changed. In the larger, freer life which
to them, the closeness of their union has been brok; ,
ing fetters loosed, the spirit of organization no lon^.^.
doings; in the reaction from the close band of a commo
danger that their interdependence will be forgotten, that .n uie spirit
of sauvc qui petit, which the law of self-preservation causes to show
itself, some may forget that each is his brother's keeper, that every act
done by any Jew casts its light or shade on every other Jew; tlv to is
danger of forgetting that so long as one Jew is oppressed or suffers
because he is a Jew, so long are Jews bound together by chains of
adamant which no straining can break, which none can escape; so long
must they unite under one banner to break those chains, opposing
might with might until the full triumph of truth Hu ' justice shall break
them with a touch.

" The Jewish woman has shared the ideas and ; 'i gl ts of the man.

Organization
Needed.

i)"0(l it now;

\>< Ml opened

V ;. ir rest rain -

•.p^ -tes their

. f' ar there is

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

!)S8

ill

Philnnthroiiv
ortl.

She has aided with heart and hand in his work; the assistance of her
head has rarely been asked. Her real work has been confinetl to the
home. There it is she has made her influence felt. To the Jew, moth-
erhood was and is the highest, noblest type of womanhood. In the
home the Jewish woman reigned as queen; to her were left the per-
formance of religious rites in the household. But the Jewish woman
is in<-erested in all that interests woman, is in perfect sympathy with
the lime; custom and tradition, however, and the misunderstanding,
misconception and excluding prejudice of the world have militated
against her showing this publicly. It is the bounden duty of the Jew-
ish woman, on account of this misunderstanding of her true nature and
interests, to make these manifest; it is her duty, as it is that of all
Jews, to make prominent her qualitie:; in conjunction, that they may
cast in the shade her qualities in oppo.^ition. It is not enough that
she be in sympathy with her time, she must be running hand and hand
with it.

" An organization must have a definite purpose. I can see, loom-
ing up in the distance, purposes in plenty beckoning with fingers of
golden light.

" First and foremost, let our purpose be, to study the causes and
conditions of this so-called separation; let us learn to know ourselves;
then to knowledge let us add discernment and disinterestedness that
we may find the best and quickest way to oblitt rate dividing lines. theWutcUw
Let us study our history and our literature, and liieir bearing on our
character and position. Religion, true religion, with which every
thought and action are connected, is in woman's hand, because the
inward life, the home, is what she makes it; therefore, it is eminently
fit that from her should come the impulse to study closer the under-
lying principles of her religion. Let us look into their very heart in
order that we may know exactly where we stand, that we may know
them in every phase of their development. Let each and every one
among us know that they make us one with all the world, that they
hold the springs of all m(..al life, the living germ of all morality.
Let us learn, that ail may judge intelligently, that we may cling to the
old faith, not because we were born into it, but because we are con-
vinced that for us it is the only possible belief or act. Let us encourage
a deeper study of that book, our book, which has been the bread of life
to half the civilized world because it contained the story of the eternal
springs of action of men, the records of nobility of soul and character,
of faith and patience, integrity and bravery and high truth, those
things which command men's admiration and emulation through all
time,

" If our watchword be not charity, which has come to be almost
synonymous with alms and leaves a sting behind, but philanthropy-
love of our fellows, the sympathy which holds healing balm for all
our wounds and in whose wake follows a doubled happiness, it will
open for us numerous luminous ways to do our duty.

" It shall be above all, our purpose to create an exchange, where all

■"■;|'!i

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984

rilE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

thinkiiifj women in Israel, standinpj on the common fjround of their
religious convictions, shall meet and enjoy and profit by each other's
uncommon ideas and aims and plans, whence such ideas and plans
and projects may be sent on a journey of success, impelled by the un-
failing^ force of thinking, active women banded together to forward
the cause of progress and social reform. Its meetings shall give free
scope to the power that lies in the human voice and countenance, to
the free and full personal contact which generates the electric spark
of interest, of enthusiasm, of accomplishment; shall make place for
and give free play to the exercise of that jiotent quality which we call
personal magnetism, which draws adherents for a cause as the magnet
docs iron; shall encourage and sow the seed of that noble friendship
and fellowship which will be a potent factor to obliterate all trace of
the ignoble prejudice of class and caste, which, we must sadly admit,
exists even among ourselves.

I !

OriKin of the
Catholic C'oii-

THE COLUMBIAN CATHOLIC CONGRESS.

The history of the Columbian Catholic congress dates back to
1889. In November of that year the first general Catholic congress of
the United .States was held in the city of lialtimore, on the occasion of
the cekl)rati()n conimemorating the centenmal anniversary of the
establishment of the .\merican hierarchy, ?'.<•., the appointment of Rev.
John Carroll to the See of Baltimore, the first bisliop of the United
States.

It was toward the end of the proceedings when the Chicago
delegation proposed to the assembly that the next or succeeding
Catholic congress should be held in Chicago. Instantly objections
were offered |jy several delegates from the eastern cities, and one
or another opposing suggestion was made; finally, the opposition
united in an amendment to the Chicago motion " that the next con-
gress be convened in the city where the World's Fair shall be held."
The controversy as to the site was then waging, with New York
confidently in the front; hence the supporters of the amendment did
not doubt the discomfiture of the Chicago delegation. They were
promptly undeceived by Hon. W. J. Onahan, who smilingly announced
that he cordially accepted the amentlment since to his mind and his
associates in the Chicago delegation the amendment implied the same
thing as the original motion. He knew Chicago would secure the
World's F.iir! The resolution as amended was carried, but Mr. Ona-
han and his associates were subjected to no little " chaffing" at the
audacity of the proposal to take the next congress to Chicago.
Hence, the Chicago Catholic congress was the outgrowth and the
successor to the Baltimore Catholic congress of 1889.

The programme of the congress elicited extended notice from
Catholic and secular journals in every part of Europe and in otlier
quarters of the world.

1 o{ their
h other's
md plans
,y the un-
j forward
jrive free
niancc, to
trie spark
phice for
ch we call
le nui^net
friendship
1 trace of
dly admit,

:s back to
:ongrcss of
occasion of
ary of the
cntof Rev.
the United

c Chicago
succeeding

objections
;s, and one

opposition
c next con-
ill be held."

New York
ndnient did

They were
' announced
lind and his
cd the same

secure the
ut Mr. Ona-
Wn^" at the
to Chicago.
,vth and the

notice from
ind in other

i y i: i

His Holiness, Pope Leo XIII.

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The Topics
DiHCUBBetl.

TIJE IVOELD'S CONGRESS OF JiELIGIONS.

The chief topic for consideration was dcchired to be the "Social
Question." This subject was made the text of Pope Leo XIII's cele-
brated encylical, issued in 1891, bearing the title "On the Condition of
Labor." The encylical constituted the chief text for the Catholic Con-
gress, and it was already known that the Holy Father was much gratified
and interested when He learned that it would occupy the foremost
place in the deliberations of the Columbian Catholic congress at Chi-
cago, The conditions under which the congress assembled, in the
Columbian year, during the progress of the great World's Exposition,
which commemorated the discovery of the New World by the re-
nouned Catholic navigator, Christopher Columbus, rendered it nat-
ural that the congress should devote the opening session to papers
and addresses bearing on the facts and factors of the discovery,
and pay a just tribute to the genius and faith of Columbus, as well
as to the zeal and enthusiasm of the glorious Queen Isabella, by whose
generosity and enlightened cooperation the expedition was made pos-
sible. So, likewise, the results and consequences of the discovery and
the position and condition of the church in the New World. These
subjects were the text and theme of the papers read at the first day's
session, to which was naturally supplemented an important paper
treating of "The Independence of the Holy Sec."

The social question was considered in its various phases according
to the following subdivision of subjects:

I. The iMicyclical of Pope Leo XIII. «)n the Condition of Labor.
2. The Rights of Labor; the Duty of Capital. 3. Pauperism and
the Remedy. 4. Public and Private Charities; How to Make Them
More Kffectiveand lieneficial. 5. Workmen's .Societies and Societies
for Young Men. 6. Life Insurance and Pension Funds for Wage-
workers. 7. Trade Combinations and Strikers. 8. Immigration and
Colonization. 9. The Drink Plague.

These subjects were still further subdivided, as will appear in the
report of the proceedings which follows. The task of preparing the
various papers was committed to Catholic writers of known ability,
most, if not all, of whom were especially qualified by study and experi-
ence for the task imposed upon them.

The high character and literary ability of the papers was an ample
•'.nd conclusive vindication of the wisdom shown in the selection made
of the writers. The same is true of tic special papers on "Catholic
Education," "Woman's Work in Art and Literature," " Tlie Catholic
Summer School and the Reading Circles," "The Condition and Future
of the Negro Race," " The Condition and Future of the Indian Tribes,"
etc.

Monday, September 4th, was the day appointed for the meeting of
the congress, the place the Hall of Columbus. As a fitting preparation
for the important work of the week the delegates were invited to assist
at a solemn high mass in St. Mary's Church, Wabash avenue. A brief
appropriate sermon was preached by Rev. Chancellor Muldoon, The
cardinal gave the blessing at the close of the mass.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

as?

The "Official Call," issued by the committee on organization, pro-
vided for the following subjects: i. The Discovery of the New World.

2. Columbi s; His Character and His Mission. 3. The Results and Con-
sequences to Religion and Civilization of the Discovery. 4. Tlio Mis-
sionary Work of the Church in the New World. 5. The Influence of
the Catholic Church on the Political, Civil, and Social Institutions of
the United States. 6. Isabella, the Catholic.

Division of the subject: i. The Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII on Tho Hoeini
the Condition of Labor. 2. The Rights of Labor; the Duty of Capital, ^i^^i"'"-

3. Pauperism and the Remedy. 4. Public and Private Charities; How
to Make Them More Effective and Heneficial. 5. Workmen's Societies
and societies for young men. 6. Life insurance and pension funds
for Wage-workers. 7. Trade Combinations and Strikers. 8. Immigra-
tion and Colonization. 9. The Drink Plague. 10. The Conditions and
l*\iture of the Indians in the United Stales. 11. The Conditions and
Future of the Negro Race in the United States. 12. Supplementary
questions: (i.) Catholic education in the United States. (2.) The in-
dependence of the Holy See.

The papers on the "Social Question," on "Catholic Education"
and on "The Condition and Future of the Indian Tribes and of the Ne-
gro Race," after being read in the congress, were then to be referred to
"sections," or committees, where each subject should be again on-
sidered in detail, but this part of the programme, for reasons detailed
elsewhere, was not carried out.

Section i. "The Condition of Labor." "The Rights of Labor —
The Duties of Capital." Section 2. "Trade Combinations and Strikers."
"Workingmen's Organizations." Section 3. "Poverty— the Cause and xho Pro-
the Remedy." "Public and Private Charities." "Life Insurance and 8"'">me
Pension Founds for Wage-workers." Section 4. "Intemperance — the
Cause and the Cure." Section 5. "Woman's Work and Influence."
Section 6. "Catholic Truth Society." Section 7. "Catholic lulucation."
Section 8. "Condition of the Indian Tribes in the United States."
"Condition of the Negro Race in the United States." Section 9.
"Catholic Interests."

At the conclusion of the solemn high mass the delegates pro-
ceeded to the Art Institute building. The large hall was thronged in
every part by a great mass of people assembled in eager desire to see
the cardinal and other eminent church dignitaries and to witness the
opening proceedings.

After the organ, under the touch of a master's fingers, liad j^oured
forth the glorious chant of the "Te Deum," Mr. Onahan, on behalf of
the committee on organization, called the congress to order and
announced that His Grace Archbishcni F'eehan would deliver the
address of welcome to the delegates. The archbishop's address was
brief but feeling. He said among other things: "You have come to
discuss some of the great questions and problems of life. None of
the questions of our time are of more importance than those on the
programme. You are to discuss the independence of the Holy See, the

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CbicBKo is
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988

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

question of Catholic education, and the great social questions as pro-
pounded in the Pope's encyclical. You represent parishes, dioceses
and great states, and fully ten milliors of members of the Catholic
church."

When Archbishop Feehan had concluded he introduced President
Bonney, of the World's Congress Auxiliary, who gave an address of
welcome.

Vice-president T. B. Bryan spoke in the same strain and alluded
to his visit to Rome and the Holy Father, and how enthusiastically
the pope had promised his influence in favor of the great Fxposition.

Cardinal Gibbons was the next speaker. When his Eminence ad-
vanced to the speakers' stand there was a burst of applause, which
grew more and more enthusiastic, until the audience rose and stood for
some time cheering, the ladies waving handkerchiefs. When at length
the enthusiasm subsided the Cardinal said:

*' During the last four months millions of visitors have come from
all parts of the United States, nay, from every quarter of the globe,
to contemplate on the exposition grounds the wonderful works of man.
They know not which to admire more — the colossal dimensions of
the buildings, or their architectual beauty, or the treasures of art which
they contain. The caskets and gems were well worthy of the nine-
teenth century, worthy of the nations that brought them, worthy of
the indomitable spirit of Chicago. Let us no longer call Chicago the
Windy City, but in.stead the city of lofty inspirations. Let us no longer
call Chicago Porkopolis. Let me christen her with another name.
Let me call her Thaumatopolis, the city of wonders, the city of mir-
acles. And I think that Dr. Davis (with his associates) may be called
the Thaumaturgus of the Columbian Exposition enterprise.

" But while other visitors have come to contemplate with admira-
tion the wonderful works of man, you are to consider what man can
accomplish in the almost boundless possibilities of his spiritual and in-
tellectual nature. You will take counsel together to consider the best
means for promoting the religious and moral, the social and economic
well-being of your fellow-citizens.

" When I look into your earnest and intelligent faces, I am almost
deterred from imparting to you any words of admonition. But you
know well that we clergymen are in the habit of drifting unconsciously
into the region of exhortation, just as financiers drift into the region
of dollars and cents and figures. I may be pardoned, therefore, for
giving you a word of advice. In all your discussions be ever mindful of
the saying of St. Vincent Lerins: "In necessariis unitas, in dubiis lib
ertatibus, in omnibus caritas." Happily for you, children of the church,
you have nothing to discuss in matters of faith, for your faith is fixed
and determined by the divine legislator, and we cannot improve on
the creed of Him who is "the way, the truth and the life."

" Let all your proceedings be marked by courtesy and charity, and
by a spirit of Christian forbearance toward one another. Never dc-
gcepd to personalities. Many a delicious speech has lost its savor ancj

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

i)SJ)

Mr. Onahnn

Ri'IkIh t li

been turned into gall because a few drops of vituperation had been in-
jected into it. The edifice of moral and social improvement which you
aim to build can never be erected on the ruins of charity.

" God grant that our fondest anticipations of your labors may be
realized, and that the invocation today of the divine blessing, which
is so full of hope, may be crowned at the end of your sessions by a
Te Deum full of joy and gratitude for the success of this congress.

"And as an earnest of this happy result I hold in my hand a letter
that I received from the Holy Father, in which he blesses this congress.
May his blessing and the blessing of God dominate this assembly.
May it enlighten your minds and warm your hearts, and be a harbinger
of peace and concord in all your deliberations."

Mr. Onahan read the translation of the Poi)e's letter, which was as
follows: To Our Beloved Son James Gibbons by the Title of Sancta p'u»''silett't'r.
Maria in Trastevere, Cardinal Priest of tiic Holy Roman Church, Arch-
bishop of Baltimore. — " Beloved .Son: I Icalth and apostolic benediction.
It has afforded us much satisfaction to be informed by you that in the
coming month of September a large assembly of Catholic gentlemen
will meet at Chicago, there to discuss matters of great interest and
importance. Furthermore, we have been specially gratified by your
devotion and regard for us in desiring as anausjiicious beginning for
such congress our blessing and our prayers. This filial request we do
indeed most readily grant and beseech Almighty God that by His aid
and the light of His wisdom He may graciously be pleased to assist
and illumine all who are about to assemble with you, and that He may
enrich with the treasures of His choicest gifts your deliberations and
conclusions. To you, therefore, our beloved son, and to all who take
part in the congress aforesaid, :uid to the clergy and faithful committed
to your care, we lovingly in the Lord impart our apostolic benedic-
tion."

Given at Rome at St. Peter's, the seventh day of August, in the
year of our Lord eighteen hundred and ninety-three and of our Pon-
tificate the sixteenth."

Lno XIH. Pope.

The temporary organization of the congress, which was subse-
quently made permanent, was then announced as follows: Chairman,
Hon. Morgan J. O'Brien, of New York; Secretaries, Hon. Thomas C.
Lawler, Prairie du Chien, Wis., Prof. James F. Fdwarils, Notre Dame,
Ind., James F. O'Connor, St. Louis, l\Io., John Mason Duffy, Chicago.

In taking the chair. Judge O'Brien delivered a lengthy address, j^^
the substantial points of which are contained in the following sen- oarien Speaks
tences: " Our country, therefore, is doubly dear to us. VVc were here
at its first discovery; we participated in its struggle for civil and re-
ligious liberty, and in turn have participated in its glories and enjoyed
peace, security and happiness. It is more dear to us, because in this
land above all others the old faith has fair play. The early discoverers
of America, as well as our revolutionary forefathers, were imbued with
strong religious principles, upon which alone virtue can be grounded,

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9})0

T//E IVOKLD'S COA'GKESS OF RELIGIONS.

and this, added to their hardy and physical natures, laid the founda-
tions and jjave the impetus to that splendid civilization which is now
the heritage of all.

"While, therefore, ^loryinpf jn our triumphs and proud of our
wonderful development, we could not, if we would, fail to discover
those dark and ominous clouds which hover over our national firma-
ment and which are the inevitable forerunners of a violent storm.
The presence of these clouds is not difficult to account for. The
hardy and rutf^ed virtue of our forefathers no lonjjer exists, for the
history of our country will show that the moral decadence of our peo-
ple has kept rapid pace with the augmentation of our material pros-
perity.

" * * Over the halls of this conj^ress, therefore, we will write the
poet's words, so that all the ends we aim at shall be 'Our God's, our
Country's and Truth's.' "

I'"ollowing the address of the chairman, Mr. Onahan read letters
from Monsiijnor Satolli, the a])c)stolic delegate, and others.

Archbishop Redwood, of New Zealand, was next introduced. He
said he had come nine thousand miles to attend this congress and to
see the j;lories of the Worlil's Columbian Exposition, but his interest
centered more particularly in the congress and the parliament cf rc-
lii^ions which was to follow. He hopeil to brin^ back to his people in
New Zealand the wonderful lessons derived from these ^rcat events.

Monsif^nor James Nugent, of Liverpool, the world-renownecl
apostle of temperance and charity, was presented as the representa-
tive of the Knglish hierarchy and the special delegate of Cardinal
V'aughan, of Westminster. Monsignor Nugent had been a conspicuous
figure in the previous Catholic congress in Baltimore and is well known
in the United States. He was given an enthusiastic welcome by the
delegates and the audience. He said in part:

"When it was conceived of having a congress of Knglish-speaking
people he was one t)f the first who was consulted u])on the matter.
The first proposition was that it should be held in London, but he
with his wonclerful grasp of character knew that with our crippled
ideas and habits this was the true field for the expression of the Catho-
lic mind upon all those great social questions which are the very root
not only of religion, but of the stability of society. It has been my lot
to have worked with Cardinal Manning closely and intimately, and to
have shared his confidence since the year 1853; and when I go back I
shall be able, I trust, to place an immortelle upon his grave as the ex-
pression, the Catholic expression, aye, the universal e.xj)ression, of
honor for the deep interest which he took in the people, irrespective
of creed or nationality."

After Monsignor Nugent's address the chair appointed the vari-
ous committees on organization, etc., after which the regular order,
the reading of the papers prepared for the congress was proceeded
with: The first paper on I. "The Relations of the Catholic Church to
the Social, Civil and Political Institutions of the United States," by

I OH

I ''i

The Catliolic
rhurrli and
AiiKTiciin In-
Btitutiiins.

I- I

I I

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' , i; ■

ir' ' ' i

992

T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

Edgar 11. Gans, Esq., l^altimore. 2. "The Missionary Work of the
Church in the United States," by Rev. Walter Elliott, C. S. P.. New
York. 3. "Civil Government and the Catholic Citizen," by Walter
George Smith, ICsq., Philadelphia. 4. "The Independence of the
Holy See," by Hon. Martin E. Morris, Washington, D. C. 5. "Colum-
bus; His Mission and CI aracter," by Richard II. Clarke, LL. D., New
York. 6. " Isabella, The Catholic," by Mary J. Onahan, Chicago.
7. " Consequences and Results of the Discovery of the New World,"
by George Parsons Lathrop, LL. D., New London, Conn.

The paper read by Edgar H. Gans, of Baltimore, was an able
presentation of the view that the Catholic church is in no respect
antagonistic to American principles, social, civil or religious, but, on
the contrary, its prosi)crity is compatible with the truest and highest
development of the couiUry, both material and moral.

"The fundamental idea of the American system of government is
the sovereignty of the people. It is a government by the people and
for the i)eoplc. The halls of congress and of the state legislatures are
filled, not with rulers, but with representatives of the people elected to
carry out their ideas. The people themselves make and unmake ad-
ministrations. Their policy ultimately becomes the policy of the
government. They are in reality the rulers; the true sovereigns.
They govern themselves.

"Above all, the government cannot
the establishment of religion, nor inter'^
liberty of every man to worship God in s
may dictate.

" This is the American system. The relations of the church are
therefore discerned in her relations to the sovereign people; the in-
fluence she exerts is over their minds and hearts, and she affects our
national life by fashioning and directing their lives and conduct.

" Instead of finding in the potent moral influence which the church
exerts over the people anything hostile to American institutions, the
candid inquirer will discover in her teaching and tendencies the
strongest safeguards for their permanence anil stability.

"Government, according to the Catholic church, is ordained by
God. The Catholic is loyal to the American government as the
legitimately established government of this country, not because it is
stronger than he. His principle or submission is not founded upon his
idea of physical force, nor yet entirely upon his strong affection and

Patriotic predilection for its great principles. He is of necessity loyal
ecause it is his conscientious duty. Patriotism is sublimated and be-
comes a religious obligation. Is there anything un-American in this?
Does this teaching not tend to make good citizens?

" Among the many evils that afflict the body politic none is
more deplorable than the frequency with which the will of the people
is frustrated by frauds in elections. This has been the theme of
statesmen and political moralists for years. All recognize it as
the cancer which has been insiduously attacking the very life of

pass any law respecting
, in any way, with the
lanner as his conscience

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REllGIUNH.

:i!):

the nation, which must be craclicatcii ami ilcstioycd if wc arc to prc-
hcrvc our institutions in their integrity.

" Here, a^fain, the church intervenes. /\i cordinj^r to the teaching
of our h:arned doctors, the political sovereignty which is vested in a
nation, under the ordinance of God, is vested so that it ina\- be
used for the public good. When the people exercise sovereign
political power they exercise a power given to them by the (jreat
Sovereign, in trust, and they are bound in conscience to perform the
trust honestly and w ith fidelity.

"Thus another fundamental political duty is transformed into
a conscientious obligation. As no man can be disloyal to his govern-
ment and be a good Catholic, so no man can be a good Catholic and
pollute the ballot-box, or in any other wa\' fraudulently frustrate the
electoral of the people. Is this teaching un-American?

"All the hostile criticism of the church in this connection rests
upon an ignorance of the real nature of liberty. To many unreflect-
ing persons the wortl liberty conveys no meaning except the absence
of restraint, the absence of any external power controlling Mu will.
For them liberty means the right to follow their own wills and inclina-
tions without let or hindrance. This, however, is the lihert)- of
anarchy; it is not American liberty. We are free American citizens,
but may we do as wc like? May a man make a contract with me and
break it with i'upunity? Ma>' he injure my jjroperty. infringe my
rights or personal security, obstruct the conduct of my legitimate
business, steal my goods, put a bullet through my brain, v '/out be-
coming a subject for the coercive discipline of the law of the land?

"Alen cannot live together without govermnent, and government
implies the restraining influence of law.

"Therefore by the highest American authority, for the security of
liberty, governments ;^"e instituted and constitutions ordaineil and es-
tablished. Liberty cannot exist without the authority of government
exercised under the forms of law.

" Our American institutions are justly deemed the masterpiece of
human contrivance for securing government which will rule only for
the general good. It is in accomplishing precisely this result that the
church uplifts and sustains the weak hands of men by her potent
spiritual power.

"The Catholic church has been the only consistent teacher and
supporter of true liberty. In her spiritual empire over the souls of
men she is a government instituted and established not by the people
but by God Himself. She administers laws; but they are divine, not
human laws. Her children are protected from spiritual despotism;
not by checks and balances of human contrivance, but by the sacred
guaranty of the divine promise.

"'Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.'"

" The Catholic church has been divinely commissioned to teach
the truth; and in the possession of the truth her children alone have
oa

AmcricHU In-
Ktilijtidiis Uii-
rivnliud.

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The Catholic
Charch not
Un-American.

Democracy in
the Charch.

Eqaality i n
the Catholic
Ci-aroh.

i'H I' i

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

true liberty. You shall know the truth and the truth shall make
you free.' With the church spiritual freedom, as well as civil liberty,
is possible only with law and government.

" Is there anything un-Americ.^n in this? Is it un-American to say
that there is a sovereignty higher than the sovereignty of the people?
Is it un-American to acknowledge subjection to God and to His gov-
ernment? The American people arc not, we think, prepared to admit
that atheism, infidelity and irreligion are part and parcel of their
institutions.

" But from whatever point of view we examine our American insti-
tutions we find them supported and sustained by the church. The
declaration of independence declares that "All men arc created equal,"
and we have endeavored to follow the spirit of this truth in the prac-
tical workings of our government, by giving each man an equal voice
in the conduct of affairs, by discouraging ranks and classes and by
insisting upon perfect equality before the laws of tlic land.

" liut this democratic equality pales into insignificance before that
taught and practiced by the church. In her eyes all men are equal
because they are sons of the same Father and joint heirs of the heav-
enly treasure. Before her altars there is no precedence. The laborer
on our streets has for companion the financial magnate; the lowly
negro, once a slave in our southern clime, bows with reverential awe
side by side with the refined chivalric scholar, once his master, and the
Magdalen mingles her penitential tears with the chaste aspiration of
the whitc-souled nun. No such real democracy can be found outside
the Catholic church.

"And finally, let us consider another striking characteristic of our
American life. We boast with proper pride of tlie equal opi ortunity
which every citizen has of rising, by his own merit, to the highest
position of political honor. Any poor bo)- in the land has the riglit to
aspire to a seat in congress, to be vested with the judicial ermine or
supreme honor, to occupy the chair once filled by Washington.
There is nothing in the nature of our institutions which will make the
fulfillment of his ambitious hopes impracticable. The brightest names
in our history r.;'' the names of men who have sprung from an origin
as lowly as his own.

" Have we not in the church in America a most notable illustration
of this etpiality? An humble American citizen is an august [)rince of
the church. In him we have a living proof of all the principles for
which we have been contending. He is a prince of the church; and
yet, is he hostile to democracy? He is infused with the very quint-
essence of the Catholic spirit; and yet, is he not the very incarnation
of true Americanism? He knows full well the plentituile of his spirit-
ual power, its high dignity, its wonderful authority; and yet, is he an
enemy of American liberty? The whole country knows and acknowl-
edges that within the entire confines of the republic there is no more
ardent patriot, no more enthusiastic supporter of our American insti-
tutions than the gentle, modest, illustrious James Gibbons, cardinal
archbishop of Baltimore."

make
ibcrty,

1 to say
leople?
isgov-
) admit
if their

m insti-
1. The
equal,"
ic prac-
al voice
and by

ore that
re equal
he heav-
.; laborer
\e lowly
itial awe
, and the
ration ot
d outside

tic of our
[ ortunity
: highest
c right to

rniine or

shington.

make the
L'st names

an orij^in

ustration
prince of
ciplcs for
iirch; and
cry quint-
icarnation
his spirit-
it, is he an
.1 acknowl-
is no more
rican insti-
ls, cardinal

r/ZL' WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

" The Mission.^ry Work of the Church in tlio United States " was the
succcediM<T paper by the well known Paulist hather, Rev. Walter ICUiott,

e outlook

for tl

le extension

)f New York. In givin<; his view of th

and propaj^ation of the Catholic faith within the United States, Father
Elliott susffrested:

"Only make a parallel of Catholic principles and American funda-
mental ideas on human dignity, anil you will perceive that we are up
to the times and kindred to the nation. Tliere can be little doubt that
this republic shall be made Catliolic if we love its people as God would
have us. We arc right, and wc can prove it. I do not want to believe
those prophets of ill-omen who tell us that we arc shortly to find our-
selves in the midst of a nation which has lost the knowledge of Jesus
Christ as its redeemer, which knows no heaven or hell but the sorrows
and joys of this fleeting life; but tliere is much, to confirm that gloomy
view. And what voice shall call them i»ack from so dark a doom but
thetrumiiet note of Catholic truth? Who should be foremost in jirint
and on platform and in the intercourse of private life, pleading for
Christ and offering Mis promises of eternal joy, if not Catholic bishops,
priests and lait>'?

"The tliffusion of Catholics among non-Catholics makes a personal
and independent tone of Catholicity necessai}' in anv case, but it also
distributes missionaries everywhere, independent religious characters
who can maintain the truth with the least possible external help. It is
(iod's way. One by one men are born, bect)me conscious of responsi-
bility, die, are judged. One by one, and by personal influence, non-
Catholics ;uv made auare th.it they ;irc wrong; and then one, and again
.■mother of their Catholic friends personally' influence them to under-
stand that Catholicity is right.

"Councils have tlone much for religion, but men and women have
done more, for they made the councils. There were great councils
during the two hundred year^j before Tre;it, and with them and be-
tween them matters grew worse. Win- did Trent succeeil? held amid
wars, interrupted, almost disjointeil. Because the right sort of men
at last had come — popes, bishops, theologians. It was not new enact-
ments that saved us, l)ut new men -Ignatius and I'hilip Neri, Teresa
and h'rancis de Sales and Vincent ile Paul, and their like."

"The Relations of the CiviKiovernment and the Catholic C'iti/en,"
was the third i)aper, !)>■ Walter Cieorge Smith, of Phihuleli)hia. lie
contended that: "The church and the state, as corporations or exter- zi'li
nal governing bodies, are indeed separate in their sjjhcres, anil the
church doe.; not ah orb the state, nor does the state the church, but
both are from (iod, and both work to the same ends, and when each
's rightly underst loil there is no antithesis or antagonism between
them. Men ser\ e Cod in ser\ing the state as direct!)- as in serving
the church, lie who dies on the battlefield fighting foi- his country
ranks with him who dies at the staUe for his faith. Ci\ ic virtues are
themselves religious virtues, or at least virtues without which there
are are no religious virtues, since no man who loves not his brother
does or can love God.

The Republic
to boCutliolic

CivlUlovorn.
incut 1111(1 tlio
Ciitliolic (it i -

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996

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

" The state then docs not proceed from the church, nor the church
from the state. Hut as to the form of {Government the church has no
doLjma, In the lantj^uas^a" of Hahues, ' the Roman pontiff acknowl-
edges eciuall)' as his son tlie Catholic seated ujjon the bench of an
American asscml)l\' and the most humble suiiject of the most powerful
monarch. The Catholic reiii^ion is too prudent to descend upon any
such Ljround. Like a tender mother speakin^f to her son, she says to
him: 'Provided )-()U depart not from my instructions do what you
ct sider must prutlent.' " ( Frotestantism and Catholicity Compared,"

.•>3/

/-»•

As has been said bj- Cartlinal Gibbons: ' Our holy father, Leo
XI n, in his luminous encxclical ou the constitution of C'hristian states,
declares that the church is not coumiitted to an\' particuhir form of

civd irovermneut; she

dapts herself to all. .Siic lca\es all to the

sacred leaven of the Gosjiel * * * in the conirtmia' atmosphere of
liberty; she l>!ossoms as the rose.' (Ouoteil by l''r. Ilecker — "The
Cliurch antl the AL;e," p. loi. )

.•^uch beiuo the doctrine of llu- church upon civil t:;^overiHnent, why

sliould

lere be any douht or distrus

t of A

inencan

Catl

lulics

in tlu

minds of their fellow citizens? .So loiii^ as the theory of our repub-
lican con- titutiou is cari ied into practical operation there can be no
clashing; l)etweeii the duties owed by the Catholic citizen to his church
and to his state. The cry that he is bt)und by alkt^nance to a forei!.;"n
government because lie recognizes the I'ope as the visible head of his

churcli, is uiitau' and coiiUisiui'.

" Xo Catholic neetl be coid'used in ids efforts to i)erform his duty
to the state. The i)resef,1 a^e, as far as we can know, i)resents prob-

lems for solution, more diliicu

:t tl

Kill an\- that lia\e preceded it, more

difllcult because liistor}' affords no preceileiits b)- wliieli men ma\' act
upon them. Lvils of social life ha\e becom-* so obvious and so
daiii^erous that tln.^ best llioui^ht of all i^eople is concentrated upon
their coiisidera:it)n. Men ot umloubted sincerity am! of lieroic conr-
aije, tieceived by their own ardor and ^eiieicnis impulses and without
•Tuidance from si»iritual authoritv, ha\e not hesitated to aihocate theo-
by ries of relief that iiuolve the complete revolution of that order which
th.'('imr'-h. |^ . . |)^>,^.,, .Lccepled as second onK' to revelation. While the church

Pre

Revoliitic
vented

teaches and has tau{.dit that the riLilit ol |)rivate ownership ol ]).,)()ert, .
while not directly of divine ordinance, is yet essential to the will
ordered happiness of mankind, the so-called philosophers of the rexo-
lution ad\c)cate its unconditional aboliti(Ui; while tin- cliureh main-
tains the doctriii'-s of personal liberty and individualism, the tendeiuy
of the revolution is to abso

rb tl

le iiulnidii.il in tlie st.de.

le re\-oiu-

tion bases its arL^umeiits ujioii 'ihe ;«ssuin])tion of a social contract .iiid
the perfect al)ilit\-, if not the perfection of human nature /'(V.sv; llu'
church looks u])on {government as a mediate ordinance of (iod, arising
from the constitution of man, and human nature as imperfect, tainted
with sin. The revolution insists that the popular will, and the popular
will alone, is the supreme fount of justice."

c churcli
h has no
acknowl-

ch of :^"
powerful
upon any
ic says to
what you
mparcd,"

ithcr, Leo
ian states,
.r form of
all to the
os\)hcrc of
kcr "The

uncnt.why
olios in the
our repub-

can be no
) his church
to a forei-^n

head of his

nil his duty
;sents \)rob-
tk-d it. more
K-n may act
ous and so
trateil uiion
hrroic cour-
and without
vocate theo-

order which
- the church
)()f p..)[K'rt_% ,
il to the well
^ of the revo-
rlun-ch niain-

thc tendency
The re vol u-

contract and
ure f'rrsf, the
,f (iod.arisini;-
erfect, tainted
\d the popular

Most Rev. John Ireland, Archbishop of St. Paul, r«iinn.

'■

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998

T//E VVORLHS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

The succeeding papers of the day related to the personages and
events connected with the discovery of the New World; that on
Columbno. "Columbus," by Dr. Richard II. Clarke, of New York, was a learned
dissertation on the career and character of the illustrious (icnoese de-
signed to be a vindication of his character from the various charges
and assaults made, especially by recent writers. Miss Mary J. Ona-
han read a bright paper on "Queen Isabella," which was highly praised.
Miss Onahan had the honor of being the first woman to address a
Catholic congress in the United States. The subjoined extract will
best iiulicate the spirit of the paper:

" Woman's faith, called until proved, woman's credulity, once more
rose triumphant, and Isabella has no fairer crown than that woven by
her trusted and valiant admiral. 'In the midst of the general
incredulity,' wrote Columbus, 'the Almighty infused into the queen,
my lady, the spirit of intelligence and energy, and whilst everyt)ne
was expatiating only on the inconvenience and cost, her highness, on
the contrary, approved it, and gave it all the support in her power.'

" Religit)us zeal had dictated the war again.st the Moors, religious
zeal urged Isabella to sanction the seemingly ho])elcss voyage of
Columbus, and when these voyages were crowned with success, her
first solicitude was the welfare of the benighted and hcli)kss natives.
It was under her special protection that he set sail on his fourth
voyage, from which Isaliella did not live to see him return.

"As a queen, Isabella attained the greatest glory; as a mother, she
la^hn^atMk! ^^ '^^ called upon to endure the deepest sorrow. The anguish of a
father's or mother's heart at the loss, the ruin of a lo\ed child- that,
indeed, must be somethin;f that only they who haxc felt it in all its
anguish and all its bitterness can ever fathom. While her hushaiul
was engagixl in his brilliant wars in Italy and the great captain, Gon-
salvo de Cordova, was daily adding new glories to the crown of Spain;
while the fame of that great prince of the church. Cardinal Xinicnes,
was spreatling tliroughout Europe, Isabella's lifi; cluudcil b}' ilomestic
misfortune began gradually to decline. One after another her chil-
dren hail been taken from her by death and by misfortune worse than
death. Her only son, Don John, died three months after his marriage.
Her favorite daughter and namesake lived but a year after her nuptials
with the King of Portugal, and their infant son, on whom were founded
all the li()])es of the succession, survived her but a few months. Isa-
bella's second daughter, Joanna, married to Philip, Prince of the
Netherlands, became insane, and there can be no saclder history than
that of her voungest child. Donna Catalina, memorable in history as
Cat^ierine of Aragon.

"These and other misfortunes clouded Isabella's years. When she
felt the end to be not far distant, she made deliberate and careful dis-
position of her affairs. ICven on a bed of sickness she followed with
interest the affairs of her kingdom, received distinguished foreigners
and took part in the direction of her affairs.

" ' I have coni< lo Castile,' said Prosper Colonna on being presented

:s and
lat on
earned
:sc dc-
:harKcs
. Ona-
)raiscd.
dress a
[ict will

cc more
Dven by

general
2 queen,
jveryone
mess,_ on
ower.'

religious

■oyaj^e of
:cess, her
,s natives,
[^is fourth

lother, she
vuish of a
?uld' that,

tin all Its
1- luisl)and
t:iin. Cion-
n of Spain;
\ Xinieiies,
,y iloniestic

her chil-
worse ihan
is inarriai^e.
her nuptials
ere founded

ths. ls;i-

:\'

oni
inee

of the
listory than
n history as

When she
careful dis-
allowed with
ed foreigners

ing P»-

cse

ntcd

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

999

to King Ferdinand, ' to behold the woman who from her sick bed rules
the world.*

" There was no interest in her kingdom, her colonics or her house-
hold that she neglected. In her celebrated testament she provided
munificently for charities, for marriage portions to poor girls, and for
the redemption of Christian captives in Harbary. Patriotism and hu-
manity breathed in its every line, she warned her successor to treat
with gentleness and consideration the natives of the new world added
to Spain; warned them also never to surrender the fortress of Gibraltar,
" ' By her dying words," says Prescott, ' she disjjlayed the same re-
spect for the rights and liberties of the nation that she had shown
through life, striving to secure the blessings of her benign administra-
tion to the most distant and barbarous regions under her sway.'

"The woman whom life had not daunted, death could not dismay.
On the 26th of November, 1501, Isabella the Catholic breathed her
last, in the fifty-fourth year of her age and the thirtieth of her reign.

"The queen and true woman she had proved herself through life,
true queen and true woman she proved herself in death. The Catholic
church is not ashamed of the ideal in womanhood that it presents — ^an
ideal that it has upheld for centuries, an id.,al that is still shining as
a new risen star, serene and beautiful in the summer sky. The
queenly scepter of Isabella was laid aside, the womanly frame had
long since crumbled into dust, but the church of which she was so
valiant a daughter, the church that crowns her with that fairest of her
titles, is not dead. It lives."

"The Consequences and Results of the Discovery of the New
World," was the concluding pa[)er of the first day's session, by Geo.
Parsons Lathroj), of New London, Conn. He remarked:

" It is a good thing that all sects found outlet here and were ena-
bled to carry on their battle to the fullest extent. It was a good thing
that the Puritans should enter freely and liavi. their way and fancy that
they possessed the whole world. Spain, France and iMigland — these
three powers vied with each other in colonizing and trying to possess
the New World, and especially this northern part of it. France and
Spain were Catholic, and they rendered us the service of tinging the
country deeply with their f;'ith. Kng'.and became anti-Catholic, and
did her best to expunge the faith iroir. this realm which came un-
der her rule. Yet as history has resulted the church at last found her
surest foothold in this coun'try untler the anti-Catholic dominion which
had tried so hard to sui)press her, and the church has attained here in
a single centur\- of freedom a growth never paralleled in modern his-
tory. This wa.s one of the most inq)ortant results to religion of the
discovery of America.

"True liberty is what the church most inculcates, and what it most
needs. It has found it at last in this country where at first its pros-
pect of doing so seemed most unlikely. It is by such paradoxes that
the divine power works, regardless of the self-interest or even the most
selfiijh foresight and planning of men. The complete separation of

I'roBCott's
liulogy.

(icu. PlirSODS
Lutlirup.

;; !■

UHV:

il i |v

li ■'

liM

i 'i;

} i '■

■ 1

!•

II j.

! I

:: i

I, '

' 1000

Mo
SntoUi's
Jrt'SH.

nugnor

Tlie Great So-
cial Forces,

T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

church from state, which exists here, has been an immense advantage
to religion, and will continue to be so by assuring it of entire inde-
pendence in the pursuit of its spiritual aims."

The great event of the Congress was the appearance of Monsignor
Satolli, the papal delegate, Tuesday forenoon, immediately the formal
organization had been completed. When he entered the hall the
assembled thousands burst into a storm of cheers; the ladies waved
handkerchiefs. Indeed, rarely has a scene of such widespread enthu-
siasm been witnessed in any public assemblage. It was a striking
testimony of the respect and affection with which the papal delegate
is regarded by his co-roligicnists, the Catholic public in the United
States. Archbishop Ireland translated his speech into English:

" I beg leave to repeat, in unmusical tones, a few of the thoughts
that his excellency, the most right reverend apostolic delegate, has
presented to you in his own beautiful and musical Italian language.
The delegate expresses his great delight to be this morning in the
presence of the Catholic Columbian Congress. He begs leave to offer
you the salutation of the great pontiff, Leo XIII. In the name of Leo
he salutes the spiritual children of the church on this y\merican conti-
nent; in the name of Leo he salutes the great American Republic
herself.

" It is," he says, "a magnificent spectacle to see laymen, priests and
bishops assembled here together to discuss the vital social problems
which the modern conditions of humanity bring up before us. The
advocates of error have their congresses. Why should not the friends
and advocates of truth lia\c their congresses? This congress assem-
bled here tod;ty will, no doubt, be productive of rich and magnificent
results. You have met to show that the church, while opening to men
the treasures of heaven, offers also felicity on earth. As St. I'aul has
said, "She is made for earth and heaven; she is the promise of the
future life and the life that is." All congresses are, so to speak, con-
centrations of great forces. Your object is to consider the social forces
that God has provided, and to apply, as far as you can, to the special
circumstances of your own time and country these great principles.

" The great sc^cial forces are thought, will and action. In a congress
you bring before you these three great forces. Thought finds its food
in truth; so in all that you do, in all the practical conclusions that you
formulate, you mu.st bear in mind that they must all rest u|)on the
eternal principles of truth. Will is the rectitude of the human heart,
and until the human heart is voluntarily subjected to truth and virtue
all social reforms are impossible. Then comes action, which aims at
the ac(|uisition of the good needed for the satisfaction of mankind;
and this again must be regulated by truth in thought and by virtue in
the human will. The well-being of society consists in the perfect order
of the different elements toward the great scope of society, Ortler is
the system of the different relations of the different elements, one to
the other, and these relations to v.hich men are subject arc summarized
in three words -God, man and natury.

mtage
; indc-

houghts
rate, has
iiiRuagc.
g in the
: to offer
le of Leo
nw conti-
Ropublic

rionts and
prublctns
us. The
ic friends
iss assem-
a^nificent
11^ to men
:. I'aul has
isc of the
peak, con-
icial forces
:hc special
principles,
a cony[ress
ids its food
ns that you
t upt)n the
nnan heart,
I and virtue
ich aims at
f mankind;
3y virtue in
crfect order
r. Order is
ents, one to
summarized

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

1001

" Men should not devote their whole being and all their energies to
the seeking out of mere matter. "Blessed are the poor in spirit"—
that is, free and independent of the shackles of mere matter
"Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after justice"— justice first
before self-satisfaction, before all attention to one's personal wants
And "Blessed are the mcrcilul." Jilessed are they who know and feel
that they don't live for themselves, whose hearts go out in sweetest
mercy to all their fellows. History has proven that human reason
alone does not solve the great social problems. These problems were
spoken of in three pre-Christian times, and Aristotle and Plato dis-
cussed them. But pre-Christian times gave us a world of slavery,
when the multitude lived only for the benefit of the few.

" Let us restore among men justice and charity. Let us teach men
to be prompt ever to make sacrifice of self for the common good.
This is the foundation of all social elevating movements; it is the
foundation of your own congress. Now, all these great principles
have been marked out in the most lumiiujus lines in the encyclicals of
the great pontiff, Leo XIII, We then study those encyclicals; hold
fast to them as the safest ancliorage. The social questions arc being
studied the world over. It is well they should be >,tudicd in America,
for here do we have more than elsewhere the keys to the future!
Here in America you have a country blessed spcciall\- by providence
in the fertilitj' of its tieids and the liberty of its institutions. Here
you have a country which wi'l payback all efforts, not merely tenfold,
but a hundredfold; and this no one understands better than the im-
mortal Leo, aiul he charges his delegates to speak out to America
words of hope and blessing.

"Then in conclusion, the delegate begs of you American Catholics
to be full)- loyal tt) your great mission and to the duties which your
circumstances impose ui)on you. Here arc golden words s[)oken I)\-
the delegate in concluding his discourse: 'Go forwartl, in one hanil
bearing the book of Christian truth aiul in the other the constitution
of the United States.' Christian truth and American liberty will make
you free, happy and prosperous. The)' will put you on the road to
progress. May your steps ever persevere on that •■'^'"' a.,...„ i,„

Ilmiinn Rcn-
Hdti liia<Ui|iiiitt>

TheBibleand
tim American
CouHtitution.

road

Again

salutes you with all his heart. Again he expresses his delight to be
with you, and again speaks forth to you in strongest and sweetest
tones the love of your holy father, Leo XI 11."

Following Mousignor SatoUi's address, C'ount h'rancis de Kuef-
stein, a distinguished Austrian nobleman well known in Rome, was
introduced, lie received a conli.d rece|)lion and having returned
thanks in English for the welcome, and e.\|)ressed his pleasure at the
privilege of being permitted to take part in this memorable congress,
the count continued his aildress in hreiich, in which hmguage he said
he could more fully e\[)ress his sentiments.

The great question of the congress, "The .Social Question," was ^ ^ . .
then taken up. The introductor\- address was delixeretl by Right Rev. Question?"'*
John A. VVatterson, bishop, of Columbus, Ohio. The address was one
64

f. Ill
<i\ ill

I I ;,

Mil
m

mmmmm»^

■1 \\

•1

\ !■■■
■ ■ ' -

)

KKVi

Tin: WORLD'S CONGRESS OF KL

I I

, r ,1 .luriniT the congress.

gathering was tl^f J.^^manner in which 1"^ .^"^^" J^n ecics f or the r
father for the ."- e. y m^^^^^.^^ ^^'^'^.^yAt' ^-nt Ulori<,uH pontilf .
pose the ev.l^ tluU c^ declarations tha fhc I rcsu ^^ ^^^^^j^.
removal. r'^^;'\;,3v his wisdom and his t miric ^^^jj^ ^,,j

by his personal dgn'ty.h^ .^^ ^^^^ ^^■":^'V'''s-xvccl from the

l^^^:!^::^^r^nt:;\(^a:that i^ -c.ety.s « bc^-;;^ ^^,

;;■

(' ;>! ■'

W i^^ personal dign^y.- ^^V, u.e -orld .u,d^un -^;>^^. j;;: ^^^^
pic that the 1 "n^.^n^.,^rthat if society .s to be ^^^^^^ Vatican, were
l:onvinc.ng all ' fe cct^ ^^^^^ '^^'T 1 c "n-ress a.ul were ap-

that threatens U. is -^^^ ^^^^^^ ,^f ^Ue ^\^;i;),^,T,-Ue sap that gives
among the mos nota. ^^,j. In. h J ^ \^^ ^rcneious

plauded to the echo. 1 ^^ ^^^^^^^^ foliage 'Vnd f i nt ^^.^^j ^..^rgy

The tree of society tsm ,^^ ^„^,.,i body JJ'^^^;^^^^

blood, which e;>vns ng thim^ . ^^^^^^^^ 'V''^i' -^^ r e • society must
and beanty nnto all th^^^^ abandoned or ^^^^^r.^Kicni, it has

God. And wheievu t "J^^ ^^aay. because, to a UK ^^ .^^■.^,,;^y ,
sulHer; and ^ocie y .^ jnt er^.i ^^^^ >^^^^,^ ^ ,,, ,i,. 01^^. ^^^^^
practically rejected he gic. ^^^^^ ^^^^. "^'?Tui<H s Heholdrthcn.
Snd substituted n.e. cm. c. .^^ji^i^uals ^uhI na < -• .^.^,, bed-

dominating oice I" t \ intellects of "Y. "'^,,d society de-

why Leo X»"'^'^u th^^^ and lite of "^t "s^^^^^^ in similar

rod truths, cm wh.d^ ^-^^ j., dlustiious PjeJ- -m^.^ ^^^^

pend. . ^^^^^ , ,;, is {ulfilhng his special m.sson>^^ ^^^^^^ .^^^^^^^,^
The MiBBion conditions of '"':";,;i^ against the oppressions otav i^^^,,ies and

otthe Pope. ^ of th^ .^Xllowness and dangers of the s u ^

and sTiowing the shai o\J' j jj^, .^t the same ; "\, ,!j ;, ,^, which

^cre pl^il?^"P^^'^^" iSonty. Instead of. the old t-^^^^^^^^^^^
rights of legitimate autlim > ^^^ ^^^^ '"^"^"-h' church. socict>

gi^ve us such clear and pree'sc v ^j, state, t^;^^^ ^'"^^, ,i „ther

-^^- r [^"'ttC" aSiS^sts. n^eria ists^ soc^-^;,;! ,een de-
and God. ^vh^t have ra ^^ "^^"^'"' the most poignant, and

mere humanita nans been .^certainties the nio^i^ k ^^.^^^^^^^

livering natural v^.^^^f^^ .^.Vitable consequence o a tcac U^^^^^^^
■ society to d>sordeis. the m ^^ without true mo ality. y ^^^ ,^^^.„
sound pnnc'Ples and t c^ ^^^^^^^ pnnciples in ^^^ .^^ ^, ^ell as
the love of strong anci w i • j attention to ti c ". . truths,

capable of "-^^'^'^^^"^^e'Sl ng a VcUi'n to those siinj^e Urns a^.^t^ ^^^^^
the rights of men ^nd caUing a ^^^^ ^^_^^ ^^^^'^'bTit for every future
on which society '"^f'^l^'Zio'^^y for the P''^^^ ,,^ '^'e^^^^ ha.

been doing ^^^'i^^^a question vital t^^^^^^^^ liberty

generation. There is nu i ^^^^ encyclica s on ^ i^^ties of

Lt touched and solved in '^ Constitution of t^^^^^^f ^^J^ ' i.^ught. the
Political Power, The Cnsu^^ ^^^^ ^^^ /it, Ser sympathy with
Citizens, and the Coi^di ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^„d ^^ '^ ^^^^^^^^^^^ the fears,

wisdom of his tcacmng- . j ,„,anity and the sa^ac > ^^^^

the wants and mteies s « =^^ ^( nations his letteis
which he expresses foi the^^.^^ ^^ Christianity,
admiration of the very

igress.
eynote
ic vast
ic holy
als cx-
or their

pontiff,
ng pco-
rk\, and
the fate
Lu, were
were ap-
lat ^ives
.ronerous
id enerj^y
;\huighty
icty must
jnt, it has
ristianity,
jving and
lold. then,
great bed-
society de-

in similar
ending the
d injustice,
cories and
lolding the
ings, whicli
assions, our
ich. societ>
and other
ivc been de-
liignant, and
ling witliout.
V awaUcning
,'arts of men
ics as well as
-istian truths,
^eo XI 11 -has
r every future
ty that he ha;

man Liberty.

the Duties ol
f thought, the

ymp^t^^y '^'^''
^ of the fears,

liavc won the

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

KMK?

" It is within the lines traced out in the cncycHcals of Leo XIII.,
and by the application of the remedies there suggested; it is by the
cooperation of church and state, and the return c')f capital and labor
to the basic law of evangelical love; it is by civil legislation, insi)ired
by Christianity and directed to the g(K)d, not of one class only, but of
all the people, that a better social condition is to be brought about.
Nor can the Catholic church be ignored in this great work. On the
contrary she is to be the most potent factor in reaching the consum-
mation devoutly to be wished by all the lovers of their kind. And
you, Catholic laymen and women, are to have an intelligent and act- ,n, ,.,
ivc part in the needed improvement of society. Vou are to help by ih.. M.mtTo'
good example and in various other ways. Spread the encyclicals of '™' ^■«^••"■••
our Holy Father Leo XIII., not only a-nong those of the household of
the faith, but also among your brethren outside of the church. ]\Iake
them known to those with whom you are brought into companionship
in social and business life, and the seeds thus sown will have a happy
fruitage. The church needs to organize Catholic workmen into safe
and healtliy associations; but whether it is better in the circumstances
of our country to band them into Catholic associations under exclu-
sive Catholic direction or to try to desecularize existing societies and
infuse into them more of the spirit of Christianity, is a cjue.stion that I
leave to the deliberations of this congress.

"Teach the poor that while inetpialities of condition always have
existed and always will exist as long as human nature remains what
human nature is, they arc not on this account to be wanting in Chris-
tian love for those who are more favored with material prosperitx'.
They are to bear in mind the beautiful lesson of that wontlerful .Ser-
mon on the Mount, in which our Saviour lays the foundation of the
Christian sy.-.tem of society: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven." Wealth is not .lii absolute good, and
therefore patience and resignation in the spirit of the (iospel are to be
practiced, while at the same time the admonition of St. Paul must be
heeded: "If any man will not work, ?'.<•.. if he be unwilling to work.
let him not eat." Let all, rich and poor, be mindful of their duties to
one another; and then if all will learn the lesson in practice as well as
theory, Christianity shall again have occasion, as in the ages of faith,
to exult in the triumph of her principles, and the world to exclaim as
in ancient days: ' Behold, how they love one another.' Upon this
triumph of the future Leo XIII. will have his intluence. and you, ladies
and gentlemen, will have )'ours too, if you will be only true to your-
selves and the great Christian responsibilities that rest upon you as
citizens and Catholics."

The encyclical of Pope Leo XIII., on "The Conditionsof Labor,"
was treated in a carefully prepared exposition of the Pope's teaching The Pope's
on the subject by Hon. Judge Semple, of Alabama. The di.stinguished ubor ""
gentleman declared that: "The platform of Catholics on the conidtion
of labor was announced by Leo XIII. in the encyclical ' Rerum No-
This paper seeks to gather a syllabus of leading social prin-

varum.

'flii! J, I.

■ III
I l! i

10(U

,„. „•./...•. CO.0..SS Of -<^ua,0NS.

^^^ 11 1 f rth letters of Uuinl<3

o "st.tes. the t.^^»-?;!:^,\;!"y th=^t some 7'^'-\> .\' y^*;, ,„ heavily
a^ree and no y'^^l'^'V^cvy ancl Nvretchedi^es. vim F ^^^.^ ,,i,erc .s

quickly ^-^^^ ^''XX^ ^^^^^^^'y "^'''' W?swe s ■ ' I luive fuu.ul

TriuM to »cM.mc l.«;;-;> •;;?;„ „,k, '-W, l-jS > ^.^ '.lie <;>."il>--
astc.Uqi.iI'lS, ,„ „, ii,^. staic. :^"<" '';,.,„| ,;„i,,s. s,. niai"!^''-

U'lu.iliu \\ou ,..,, ti^e stale. iNotiun^, , • , . so nuvnilesl

t(, our iv.HOM •|':'\\ ,•, the practice ot all a^e..^ J,, ^.ven U)
consent of >^''='»^;''^^^'VXt Ic^ivinelaw tseli.NV >-i^^^^^^ ^^ .^,,i,.,v

.. lloNV. then sl. II ,^^ .^ ,,,,t >^=^V"\lvt this blessed result

of labor .nd cap. a ,o th ^>^ ^,^^^^^ f^'Se^^es involved, of

"The vicar ol tnc 1 1' •i,„M-itu)n of all tnc ai^en . ,. etate ami

acn,a„.l. the '>-X''c";i ' t >''^ '-1; "'"' .'"«,.!;"" '.n^c v"" -*"

c\)u\)-
iscUov

. M^
c\, i\nA

\\cic is

e state,
iu-h ac-
,acU tlic

itHc. v»n-
i- vcmai"
(jniUtioii

freely ot

\ of pi'^n^-

akc away

iir.nifestca
he family,
cr than t<>
mt in tins
l,c fultilW'l
vty, ti>li^

up the very

ins, ami its
misery ami
,ore unjust
,1, inanitest
y ui\iveisal
sanction «•!
s us even ti)
or anvthU'U

Mst and \>ei-

,u the friction
l)ut friemls.
blcsseil result
s involved, ot

he state ami

')c vain with-
n<rs forth fi-oin

..7a\a of (jod.

n.;nr,r. " l'^'^-

7//E H'OKUrS CO.\(JRESS OF /:/././(; /oxs

KKir

lrcLl\- ami

\our rmi)l()y(jr.

>o\ f

form faithfully and scrupulously the labor whit li vou luivi
fairly promised. Respect the person and properl)- of ym
Never resort to violence, even in represeiiliuL; your jusi rijdits. '.\l
all, shun the company of men of evil principles, ol inmuhu delude
you with vain hopes and lead jou to disaster, deiuinij; the iiecessit\- of
that painful labor which was imposed by our Makir aiul nut done
away with by our IMessed Redeemer, but onl\- swcelened by Mis i^n-
ami)le, and ^race and ])romises.'

"TheSonof(ioil was Himself a poor man aiul a i ai pentcr. and lie
made it plain to all a^'es by His example that (li''iiil\- is ui worth and ,.,''l'r''",

" 11 lit 1 1 I 1 ' ■ * ^^ ( I r ■ I f . If

not in wealth, and lie tau{,Mit us that the onl>- path to heaven istliat
stained by His bloody footprints.

" How, then, can society be cured in our da\? \W a return to a
pure Christianity anil submission to its heallh--ivin;4' precepts and
practices. Wh.at are the counsels of the holy lather to the slate for
the improvement of the condition of labor? The state is reminded
that while it exists for the common [.jood it has a sjjecial dutj- to the
workin^iTicn ami to the poor, h'or they arc the most immerous class and

WorkiiiK Man.

arc so engrossed by their dail\- necessities as to have li

ttl

e leisun- or

cajiacity for the thou<;htful and i)rudent consideration of their own spe-
cial interests; while the capitalists and emplojers, fewer in number.
stront,f in wealth and with an abundance of leisure, ma\- s])end their
days and nij^hts in schemin^f to ,'uld more and more to their L;ain, and
strivin*^ to diminish yet more the share of the workinLiina.n in the jirod-
uct of his labor. The power of the state sliould be exerted in behalf
of the weak to lij^hten their burdens by wise and 'v'lolesonie a<hninis-
Iration, and by striviiii;' to secure to them a reasonaiile sul)sistence as
the price of their toil and some [)rovisi;)n for theii necessities in time
of hardship. This it may well do without suspition of undue [)artialily
for it comes to the help of the weak.

"The state may rei^ulate the natural li^ht to ac(|uire proper!}-, but
it has no authority to abolish it by the drain and exhaustion of excess-

ive taxation.

At p

rly

resent one (

I tl

;re;itest evil
f Ihi

s ue endure is

that

society is too nearly divuled into classes ol the very ruii and the \ery
poor. One of these exercises the j^reat power of wealth, it L;rasps all
labor and all trade, it manipulates for its own profit all the sources of
supply, and is always i)owt,-rfu!ly represented in the councils of the state.
On the other siile stand the sore ami suffering multitude, alwa\s read)-
in their distress to listen to the extraxaj^ant promises ot irresponsible
atlvisers, and prone to violence.

" It is also incumbent on the state to protect the workiir^man's

le\oU'il to \icious excess.

Siiniliiy Rrfit

o he (

enjoyment of the .Sundaj' rest; not t

but that he tnay for;4et, at least, for one ila>- in the week, mere worldly

cares, and turn his face and his thoughts upward to his Maker. I'd

I'nili'

nothinij is more i oik
)f h

luiixe to the streni'tli of the stale than the moral-

itv of her citizi'iis, ami line morality is alwa\s touiuleil on relit^ion.
rile workins^man himself cannot acjreetothe ser\ itnde of his soul, and
no one lias a right to stand in the way of his eiijuymeiit of that higher
life which prepares him for the joys of heaven."

! t

li.

!:■

i I ]

]■

11 PI

1 : r
1 11

if'

;;

f
1

. li

) ■

1!'

il; '

i |. li.i

■ i

^'li;

1 1

i(M)n

THE WORLIYS COXCRESS OE REI hilONS.

The Diitios
of Capital.

l.m

The End of
Commerce.

"The Duties of Capital " wa.s the subject of the paper fiy Rev. Dr.
William Harry, of Dorchester, l*Ji{;laMcl, (iefiiiiii}; the nature and proper
uses of wealth. The writersays: "The end or purpose of wealth is not
simply the production of more wealth, nor is it the selfisii enjoyment
even of those who proiluce it. Man is a moral and religious hein}^, and
the industries wiiich exhaust so larj^e a part of his time, thought and
labor should be carried out under the law which is supreme in con-
science. To make, or increase, or distribute wealth is a social function.
It is so because man was intended to live in society, because society
does in fact acknowledge and secure his individual rit^hts, and liecausc
no one of his siuj^le, imaided efforts could store up the accumulated
resources to which these " few rich people " are iiuirLtted for their
ieisure and luxury. If, then, capital, by wiiich 1 mean private i)rop-
erty yieldinj^ a revenue, is to exist in a Christian commonwealth, it
must fulfil) its duties to the public. T'or it is a trust i^iven to the indi-
vidual on condition of his exercising the social function which corre-
sponds to it, as a Christian ouj^ht.

"Leo XIII. defines it to be a sin against justice when one man ap-
propriates, whether in the shape of profit, or of tax, or ol interest, the
fruits of another man's industry without rendering him an ecpial return.
He does not say that the return must be directly ec(>ii("nii:al, but cer-
tainly he does mean that there ought to be an adetpKitc nturn of some
sort. The rich man, therefore, whose riches are notliiii; else than the
surplus fruits of his fellows' toil, is bound, first, to reiuler a just human
wage to the toiler, an<l, second, to so employ his wealth, which has
been put into his hands as, on the whole to make the loiulition of those
who toil, more advantageous to them than if private capital did not
exist.

" In other wor private capital is an expedient, like constitutional
government or ma lood suffrage, by which the great eiuls of society
are meant to be furthered. If it does this, it is justified; if it does not,
how can it endure? The resources of civilization are earned by one
set of men, and disposed of by another. I will not call that an in-
iquitous arrangement. Hut it stands to reason that those who distribute
are bound to do so for the good of the social organization, which they
do, in fact, govern.

" Therefore, as 'the end of all commerce ' is not ' individual gain,'
so it Is righteousness, antl not anarchic revolution, which insists on
teaching capitalists their duties toward the organism which supports
them. Let us reckon up some of these duties.

" Negatively, capitalists have no right to interfere with the working-
men's right to combine in the trades unions, and hence tiiey cannot
fairly require their workingmen to give up l)elonging to such associa-
tions, nor can they make it the condition of a just contract.

" Again, they have no right to take advantage of this distress ot
humanbeingsby beating down the just price of labor; to do so is usury,
and has been condemned times out of number by the Catholic author-
ities.

I I

v. Dr.

iroHcr

is not

yiucnt

rht aiul
in con-
mction.
society
l)cc:u»se
lUiUitctl
oi- their
tc iM<n>
•ciiUh. it
the iniU-
:h corrc-

man ap-
Licst. the
;il retvun.
1, but cer-
lA of sonic
■ t\u\n the
ist human
which has
n of tliose
al did not

stitutional
of society
iloes not,
ccl by one
lat an uv
aistrifnite

u\\ich they

lua\ ^^>>^'
insists on

ch suppoit^

-\c workincj-
thcy cannot
uch associa-

is distress ot

so is usury,

loUc author-

W.B.CANMfV. C*.tl|l'

Most Rev. P. A. Feehan, Archbishop of Chicago.

<i,

f[ 1

1008

THE WORLD'S CO^JQRESS OF RELIGIONS.

" Nor must they lay upon their workmen inhuman tasks, whether as
regards the length, quality or conditions of labor. And the whole leg-
DntiPB of islation of factory acts; inspection and the protection of women and
capitaiiBte children is in its idea as truly economic as it is Christian, and capitalists
ought not to complain of it. Further, the lowest fair wage is one which
cvlthough varying according to country^ sex and time of life, will enable
the worker to fulfill the ordinary duties of humanity, to keep God's law
and to provide against sickness and old age.

"It is the boundcn duty of capitalists to allow their work people the
Sunday rest. Corporations are as much under these obligations and
bound to fulfill them is individuals. Work people cannot justly con-
tract themselves out of these and similar rights. And every agree-
ment to disregard them is so far null and void.

" Again, it is elementary good sense, as well as law, that lying, cheat-
ing and misrepresentation whe.i t\v y enter into the substance of a con-
tract make it of no effect. A id t-iiat he who has stolen, whether from
the public or from private citi/.cns, is bound to restore. And that the
greater the robbery the greate:thesin. And that even a state is capa-
ble of robbing its citizens collectively, as when it surrenders without a
proper equivalent rights of way, or public lands, or the common right
of market; and, in general, when it creates or suffers to grow up un-
checked monopolies which take an undue share of the products of
labor, and which violate the economic freedom of others. To make
thieves restore their ill-gotten goods, to put down 'rings and corners,'
to safeguard the heaith, morals and religious freedom of its citizens are
duties incumbent on the state, especially when the majority of the peo-
ple seem to be a' the mercy of private capitalists. Nor can it be objected
that these things constitute an ' intolerable interference with the rights
of property,' fojr property never has any right to do wrong.

" All this means, then, the imperative necessity of a constitution for
capital. Religion furnishes the ideal, morality the grounds, and law
and custom the methods upon which this mighty task is to be achieved.
To make democr, cy a real thing is all one with limiting, defining and
Christianizing the powers of those who wield at present according to
their good pleasure, the material resources gathered by the thought,
labor and perseverance of millions upon millions.

" What, then, should the people do in this day of their political
supremacy? Two things, I answer. They should insist, by custom
of and legislation, on making the contract between capitalist and work-
ingman a just human bargain, on the lines so plainly drawn out by
Leo XIII., in his encyclical. And they should defend by every fair
means at their disposal, the rights of public property, which is, in fact,
their pro])erty, not permitting .t to be sold, or squandered, or stolen
away, under pretense that tic individual who is going to get rich h\-
appropriating it has actpiired a legal claim upon that which, in such
absolute fashion, never could legall\' have been matle over to him.

" If all this amounts to no less than reforming your legislatures,
then in God's name set about reforming them, root and branch. And

liighta
Labor.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

TOO!)

ther as
)le leg-
en and
litalists
: which
enable
»d's law

aple the
ons and
tly con-
y agree-

g, cheat-
af a con-
her from
I that the
z is capa-
^vithout a
non right
nv up un-
oducts of

To make
i corners,'
itizensare
,{ the peo-
e objected

the rights

titution for
s, and law
c achieved,
fining and
cording to
ic thought,

cir political
by custom
and work-
iwn out by
y every fan-
:h is, in fact,
;d. <H' stolen
^et rich by
ich, in such
r to him.
legislatures,

kranch. A"a

if a mandate to your executive is required, shall it n< "cr be forthconi- i ' i!

ing? Is not the responsibility of a free citizen somei'iing which he

neither can nor ought to give to another? Your political freedom

should bring with it economic justice. There is little meanin<r else in

that Declaration of Independence which is written upon American i,

hearts. 'i !; 'j

"Our hope is that the Christian democracy of America will, by
peaceful and appropriate legislation, put an end' to these things whicli
have lasted too long. It seems to me, in an especial way, the duty
of Christian teachers, be they laymen or ecclesiastics, to hasten tha't
wished for consummation, and to siiow that tiie (iospel in whicii tlie.\-
believe is indeed a law of libcrtj-, the condition of tiie higliest form of
government, and as fraternal as it is just."

Dr. Harry's paper was supplemented by two others on different
phases of tiic cpiestion of the "Rights of Labor" and the "Duties of
Capital" by Edward O.sgood Brown and John Gibbons, both well
known Chicago attorneys.

"Povertj-, the Cause and the Remedy," enlisted thoughtful papers
from Thomas Dwight, l\I. D., uf Boston, ami j\l. T. holder, of \e\v
Orleans. Dr. Dwight's paj)er was a strong ])resentation of the in-
creasing evil of pauperism, and in it the writer sought to soke the
problem - how to meet and remedy the need; he said:

"As rational beings, undertaking a serious work, it is for us first

deliberately to apply our reason to the matter, to study it as we should

study any commercial enterprise in which we were about to embark,

any scicjntific question which we hoped to solve. Instinctive charity j i I

's good. We have a kindly feeling for GoUlsmith's village preacher ; !

in his dealings with the poor: i I

'Careles.H tlu'ir merits or their faults to scan ! '

His jiity gave ere charity bcga. I ;'

but charity guided by reason is something higher. :

" Pauperism and poverty are not the same. Kvery poor man is not
a pauper. The pauper is one who habitually lives in a state of destitu- TiifCmiseiiml
tion, without recognized means of support, without puri)ose or hope of Jj>''iii''iy f <>i'
bettering his contlition. Of course there are paupers of all grades. "^"'*'
Of course this species is not ahva\s easily lecognized. There are
transitional forms. The poor man. falling under discouragement, is
not far removed from the ]KUiper who.asyet is not ([uite hopeless. At
the other extreme the pilfering pauper merges by degrees into the
habitual criminal. I should hesitate to class as paupers those who
near the close of an industrious life ftxU into destitution. Hut in spite
of uncommon instances the pau|)er is. on tin whole, a iairl\- distinct
type.

"The pauper is essentially .'i degraded t\|)e. It the degratlation
could be stopped tiie type wouKl die out. It is lar easier to save a
man, still more to save a child from becoming a p.iuperthan to reform
the deformed individual. We must, therefore, consider both preven-
tion and cure. Practically, as will soon appear, the two processes are

V
',\'

■

1 ,

1 >!l •

1010

r//E IVOKLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

P :-A

f ili

hardly distinct. The difference is only in the greater difificulty,
humanely speaking, in the hopelessness of saving the confirmed pauper.
The latter has no correct notions about anything. Society seems in
league against him. Law is but an engine of oppression. Nothing
but the doctrines of Christianity can give him light on the inequality
of things here below. That his burdens should become bearable they
must be seen in the light of the supernatural. lie must learn the
brotherhood of man."
Public nutl " Public and Private Charities" were treated in a series of papers by

Uei!"'" ^''""' Chas. A. Wingerter, M. D., Wheeling, W. Va.; Thomas P. Ring, Bos-
ton; Richard R. P^Uiott, Detroit, and " VVorkingmen's Organizations
and Societies for Young Men," by Rev. P>ancis Maguire, of Albany.
N. Y., an 1 Warren E. Alosher, of Youngstown, Ohio,

The paper by Col. Robert M. Douglas, of (ireensboro, N. C, son
of the famous Senator Douglas, the " little giant " of ante-war renown,
was on the subject of " Trade Combinations and .Strikes," one of the
most cielicatesubjects before thecongress. Colonel 1 )ouglasdealt chiefly
with the ])owers exercised by corporations and the abuse thereof. I le
pointed out with singular clearness the authority of Congress and the
states to control and regulate corporations through the e.xercise of tlie
power of taxation. " .So make and enforce the laws," was his conclu-
sion, "that everyone throughout this broad land shall feel and know
that there is no one so rich and so powerful as to be beyond or above
the avenging arm of the law, and none so poor and humble as to be
beneath its completest protection."

The same subject was treated by P^ank J. .Sheridan, of Dubuque,
from the standpoint of association and arbitration.

Great interest attached to the treatment of the question of " In-
temperance; the P^vil and the Remedy," which was considered by Rev.
James M. Cleary, of Minneapolis, the well known temperance apostle.

Pather Cleary's address was a ringing denunciation of ihe plague
of intemperance. Jle said:

" There exists a lamentable apathy among our Catholic people in
our beloved country today concerning this dreadful evil. Catholic
public opinion is not outspoken and vigorous as it should be against

Kemedy for
InU-uiiHirance.

!i »'

the saloon and the drink curse. While great improvement has taken
place, there is still a crying need for action amongour Catholic people.
During the |)ast twenty-one years tl)e Catholic Total Aixstinence
Union of America has done noble and heroic work in the cause of
sobriety and public decency. Hut with our ten millions ol Catholics,
this grand association should number instead of si.xty thousand, si,\
hundred thousand members.

" The church, by the united voices of our bishops assembled in the
third plenary council of Baltimore, warns its members against the
dangers of the drink habit and the temptations of the saloon. The
same council warns our Catholic people against the business of saloon-
keeping as ' an unbecoming way of making a living.' A man camiot
be a good Catholic, a loyal follower of the teachings of the church of

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS.

iculty,
aupcr.
:ms in
athing
quality
e they
rn the

-)crs by
r, Bos-
^ations
Vlbany.

C, son
cnown,

of the
t chiefly
of. lie
and the
ic of the

conclu-
-itl know
)r above
:\s to be

)ubuque,

of " In-
l by Kt;v.
J apostle,
ic plague

people in
Catholic
be aijainst
has taken
lie people.
Abstinence
; cause of
Catholics,
)usancl, six

iblccl in the
.loainst the
^loon. The
s of saloon-
man cannot
\c church oi

■'

mil

can a

this country and be a good friend of the saloon. Much less
Catholic be a saloonkeeper and a dutiful child of the church.

"The debasing, brutalizing influence of excessive drinking, and
saloon environments falls upon the laboring class of our people with
more disastrous effect than upon those better favored by fortune. The
dreadful vice of intemperance has made frightful havoc among our
hard working Catholic people. What else but this spendthrift vice
could afflict a large portion of our people with poverty so hopeless as
to be like an incurable disease, a people to whom countless millions
are yearly paid? What else huddles so many of them into the swarm-
ing tenement houses? I make no odious comparison between the
intemperance of the wealthy and the intemperance of the poor. But
the poor are greater sufferers, and hence enlist our deeper sympathy
when intemperance blights their lives, for in addition to the heartache
and sorrow which the vice entails equally upon rich and poor, it adds
the horrors of penury, beggary and hopeless degradation to the lives
of the children of toil."

The papers on "Religious Orders of Women and Their Work," and
on "Woman in the Middle Ages," by F. M. Edselas and Anna T. Women
Sadlier, names well known in current Catholic literature, were devoted
to the different phases of woman's work in the church and in the
world. The following extracts will give the reader a fair idea of the
spirit of the paper on "Woman in the Middle Ages."

"The great success attending .Sisters' work, with means so limited,
is unquestionably due to the admirable system that marks the plan of
each founder, as meeting the special ends in view. With wisely
directed foresight the various rules and constitutions enter into minutest
as well as most essential details. Each department has its special staff
of ofificers and aids directly responsible to the superior for efficiency.
An interchange of officers from time to time is of mutual advantage;
latent talent thus brought out adds to the general good of the commu-
nity. Convent life is a wonderful developer. No delicately sensitized
plate of the photographer ever evoked more marvelous effects. Out
of an embryo sister, seemingly inefficient every way, a shrewd novice
mistress and wise superior will develop a true woman fitted for many
and varied duties.

"The great question of religion or no religion, God or no God, in
our school system, agitating, tlividing and colliding our educational
leaders, here finds its solution in the Sisters' work. The grand motive
urging, driving them on is that the life of Christ in its fullness and
beauty, in its "strength and sanctity, and in its sublime perfection as far
as possible, may be first implanteil and then wrought out of those who
otherwise might know little of Christianity beyond a few formulas and
a code of morals shaped too often by human ideas and interests. In-
deed, there can be no more interesting study for the theorist and the
reformer, the optimist and the pessimist, the conservative and the
liberal than the origin, growth and marvelous results of their work.
In noting the lines taken by different orders, this fact may well be

OrdoTH of

(tod or No
(fod in t li u
'.JcIiooIh.

V r

■!l^-

: »■

•(, >

!■

101 ;.'

THE WORLD'S COAGKESS OF RELIGIONS.

Cloister Life.

Modipviil
Households.

(

emphasized as a clew to their success, that in singleness of aim and
purity of intention, all unite in the one endeavor of making the world
better, wiser and happier through their efforts; thus do they help on
the federation of the human race, that glorious ideal of today to be
merged into a more glorious reality of tomorrow."

IMissSadlier's paper, which was reatl by I\lrs. V. j. Healy, of Chi-
cago, proved to be an exceedingly interesting portrayal of Life in the
Cloister and in the Home during the Middle Ages.

"The nun jilayed such a part in the drania of medieval life as to
raise wcjman to the climax of her power. The nun was a chief factor
in procuring the emancipation of women and proclaiming her ecpiality,
in a Christian sense, with man, by giving her a separate, individual ex-
istence. Immured in her cloister, the nun e.xercised a protective influ-
ence over the wife and mother and caused them to be reverenced on
account of the possibilities of heroic virtue which she displaj-ed. To
the rudest warrior slie was 'a thing (.iiskied and ensainled.' In short, by
her ideal of consecrated virginity, the church secured the elevation of
woman.

" The .\ngIo-Saxt)n cloisters were throngetl with nuns of the blood
royal, I'Lthelburga, the first roj-al wick)w to enter religion; ICtheldreda,
of the strange romantic story; Ivlfreda, who aided Wilfrid in his strug-
gle to li.x the Roman ilisci])line upon the Celts; l^arcoiitha, Domueva,
l'",ani)leda, lu'menburga, llereswida, ICadburga, W'ereljurga, iMtiien-
ilda and Sexburga were all nuns of royal birth; in one instance three
generatit)ns, grandmother, mother and daughter, met in the cloister
.Some were widows, some iiatl, by permission, se])arated from their
husbands, some hatl enteied religion in early youth, being in the forci-
ble Sa.xon word, xeritable ' (iode-Hrydes,' — ' Hrides of (jod.'

"The picture of life in the Irish and h'nglish schools in hose earl\'
ages is interesting:

"In Ireland, land of saints and .scholars, where learning at the
darkest perioils found as)ium, St. Bridget, of the royal house of Lei li-
ster, exercised much the same patriarclial swa\- over men and women
as Hilda at Whitby. Man)' poetic legends cluster about that spot
dedicated to virtue and learning, and for a thousj'.nd years after
Bridget's death a lamj) \n\xvX at her tomb; 'that bright lamp which
burned at Kildare's holy fane.'

"The medieval households are, in the main, beautiful [)ictures of
Catholic life. There, ' at the ih'eside of the heart, feetling its flame.'
woman's true place, the mistress of the family shone. \Vise, intelli-
gent, loving and belo\ed, respecting and respected, she was troubled
by no theories of female suffrage or equal rights or divided skirts.
Iler own rights, thanks to the church, were too secure, her duties too
sacred; a helpful wile, a conscientious motlu'r. ' liapi))' the ages.'
cries Digby, ' when men h;ul holy mothers.' .She trainetl sons to till
high places, and daughter.-, to \igorous practical utility, and she gained
the l<jve of iier servants, livery woman in those days was made
acquainteil with every detail of hoiLsehold duty. With high-born

m ann

workl

-Ip on

■ to be

uf Chi-
; in the

fe as to
i factor
ciuality,
liial cx-
ve in (la-
nced on
ed. To
diort.by
at ion of

In; blood
K'ldreda,
iiis strui^-
)()nineva,
, Mnnen-
nee three
; ch)ister
oni their
the iorci-

lose c-arh'

vj, at the
c of Lein-
ul women
tliat spot
l;us after
mip which

HCtvires of
' its tlanie.'
ise, intelli-
;\s troubled
dcd skirls,
duties to<)
the ai;es.'
sons to till
she L^ained
was made
high-born

Most Rev. P. J, Ryan, Archbishop of Philadelphia.

!■

ill

[

.ill

■I f

: 1 ^ I s

|).r

lou

T//£ IVOKLD'S COAGKESS OF RELIGIONS.

\ it

women the duties were simply wider and more oneious. She had to
know medicines and surgery and church music and embroidery, as she
was fitted to exercise the splendid hospitality of the times with that
exquisite courtesy to strangers which was a rigid social law. But she
had to sew and spin and cook and keep a time apart for reading.
Spinning was a favorite occupation, by the way, of all classes of
medieval women. Dante represents the women of Florence as spin-
ning 'as they listened to old tales of Troy, Fiesole and Rome.'

" Charity toward the poor, the suffering, the afflicted, was eminently
characteristic of medieval women. Always munificent, their charity
chose a thousand tender and delicate nKules of manifesting itself, see-
ing even in the mendicant the person of Jesus (Jhrist. Mary, the mother
of God, was the first great cause of the elevation of women. Divinely
fair and holy, ever present to the medieval mind, she taught man to
reverence, and women to deserve reverence. She appeared upon the
pennons of knights or in their war cries, particularly if their cause were
holy. Upon her they framed their ideal. The maiden in the cloister,
with her consecrated teaciier, i)laced Mary's image in miniatures or
illuminations. The lady of the castle, with her bondswomen, uttered
the transcendent prayer, ' Hail full of grace.' The wandering glee
women, or the serf fresh from toil, bent the knee at Mary's wayside
shrine. Even the gypsies in their midnight celebration of Christmas
joined with the generations in calling her blessed.

" Everywhere that ideal, divinely human, before which all mere
earthly perfection fades. Therefore, any summary of the women of
the Middle Ages must be faulty, even as a matter of philosophical or
ethical inquiry, which ignores the omnipresent.and almost omnipotent
influence of Mary, mother of God."

Papers on "Eife Insurance and Pension Funds for Wage-workers,"

by Prof. John P. Lauth, of Chicago, and V.. M. Sharon, of Daven-

, port, Iowa, were devoted to the details of societies already operating

on these lines; as also to the method in vogue at this time in German)-

to carry out the last named feature.

The subject of "Immigration and Colonization," which constituted
imtniffration an integral part of the problem of the social question, was considered
^^d coloniza. {„ a series of papers by Rev. Michael Callaghan. N. Y.; Dr. August
Kaiser, Detroit; Rev. J. L. Andreis, Baltimore, M. T. IClder, New
Orleans. The different phases of the immigration question were pre-
sented according to national lines in the various papers; that of Father
Callaghan, who is in charge of the admirable refuge at Castle Garden
for immigrant girls, being devoted mainly to immigration from Ire-
land, past and present; that of Dr. Kaiser to a history of the German
contingent, and Rev. Father Andreis to a vindication of the much
abused Italian moiety of the great immigrant army. The sensation of
the congress was the paper by Miss tllder, of New Orleans, on
"Colonization," which was a decidedly pessimistic view of the con-
dition and prospects of the Catholic church in the United States.
The writer insisted that great and even enormous losses had resulted

THE WORLDS CU A' CRESS OE RELIU/UNS.

loir.

had to
, as she
ith that
But she
■eadin'^^
isses ot
us spin-

ninently
r charily
self, see-
c mother
Divinely
it man to
upon the
ausewere
J cloister,
iatures or
n, uttered
L-rins «lce
s wayside
Christmas

I all mere
women of
ophical or
mnipotent

workers,
of Daven-

operatini;
n Germany

constituted
considered

pr. Auf^ust
Ider, New

II were pre-
at of Father
stle Garden
n from Ire-
thc German
3{ the much

sensation of
Orleans, on
of the con-
nited States,
had resulted

Ciitliolic Im-
iiUKniiiih.

from the neglect to encourage the settlement of Catholics on the Idiid.
As she expressed it: "JMany are the ways for accounting lor this loss
My explanation is the seemingly far-fetched one of ntglect of coloni-
zation and immigration; in othc; words, neglect of the rural chiss."

And she ccmtiiuies: "The best class of Catholic inuiiigrauts are
those who come here from agricultural districts, whether of luiropc or ot
Canada. This is concedetl b)- everyone who knows aiuthing of the subj-
ect. The fateof these rural immigrants is one of two kiiulsllKy remain
in the cities or they go into the couiitr\'. Remaining in the cities'they be-
come, as the last plenary council of Haitimore express!)- declares, the
slaves of monopolies and combines, the sla\es of po\ erty and, worse
still, the slaves of vice and drunkenntss. In saying this, I aiu but re-
peating the statements of the assemi^led bishops and archbishops of
the United States. Going into tiie country, there, far from priests and
sacraments, those immigrants prosper materially perhaps, but spirit-
ually they starve. It is most natural then that their descendants, fed
only by Protestantism, become exem])lary Baptists, iMethodists.Canip-
bcUites, etc. Hundreds and thousanils of our noblest Catholic names
are now borne by well-to-do I'rotestants in the counlr\-, or latel)- from
there. Thus it is that in these whole United States (southern Louisi-
ana excepted) we have no Catholic peasantry, no Catholic rural class,
either peasantry or gentry, no Catholic agriculturists of any kind. My
contention is, that we have no hold upon the agricultural masses, and
that this fact accounts for many of our deficiencies."

Hon. H. J. Spaunhorst, of .St. Louis, made an effective plea for
Catholic society organizations, especially those that should continue
the feature of benevolence and mutual insurance.

Father Vattman, the chaplain of Fort Sheridan, indicated a ripe
field for Catholic activity and agitation when he told the delegates
that there ought to be many more Catholic chaplains in our arm) than
at present, and the same statement holds good of the navy. Turther
more, there is no better time than the present for the agitation of this
subject, for President Cleveland has shown himself disposed to deal
fairly in such matters, and his iniluence would go a good ways toward
securing a reform of the existing inctiualit)- of representation.

Charles H. Butler, of Washington, voiced American Catholic
sentiment when he declared that it was a matter of regret that the
Catholic church did not take earlier steps for missionar)- work among
the negroes of the South. The reason why it did not do this was, of
course, the inability of the bishops, who had not priests at their dis-
posal for the work. Had such missionary labor been undertaken
earlier it is certain, as Mr. Butler declared, that the overwhelming
majority of our Afro-American population would now be Catholic.

" Woman and Mammon." One of the most interesting papers
presented to the congress was that contributed by Rose Hawthorne Mummoli
Lathrop, daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne, America's famous novel-
ist. " Woman and Mammon " was the subject chosen by Mrs. Lathrop,
and her essay was a portrayal in words of beauty of the ideal woman

MoniCntliolir
(' \\ II p 1 ;i i n H
Nwilcd.

Woiiinn and

I ill I

. 1

I',

A' i i

1 "i

i> IX,

% 5

lOlT)

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

I'S

h '1'

Appt-al t o
P r i> H i (1 o 11 1
Cleveland.

ArchbiHlinp
lri'lund'8 Ad.
druHB.

1 r

and a scathing denunciation of the woman whose service was the
service of mammon. Mrs. Lathrop's paper was loiicUy applauded.

" For Peace Amonf^ Nations." A memorial was adojjted by the
con^^jress inviting the rulers of all nations to settle international dis-
putes by arbitration. The memorial to the president of the United
.States said:

"We, in cooperation with other Christian bodies, humbly memo-
rialize you, as tiie guardian of your people, in behalf of peaceful arbi-
tration as a means of settling (juestions that arise between nations.
The spectacle that is presented of Christian nations facing each other
with heavy armaments, ready upon provocation to go to war and
settle their differences by bloodshed or conquests, is, to say the least,
a blot upon the fair name of Christians. We cannot contemplate
without the deepest sorrow the horrors of war, involving the rcckle.ss
sacrifice of human life that should be held .sacred; bitter distress in
many househoKls, the de.struction of valuable property, the hindering
of education and religion, and a general demoralizing of the people.

" We are encouraged to urge this cause upon your consideration
by the fact that much has already been accomplished; as, for example,
by the arbitration of Geneva in the Alabama case and by the delib-
erations of the American conference at Washington, not to mention
other important cases. It will be a happy day for the world when all
international disputes find peaceful solutions, and this we earnestly
seek-."

The announcement that Archbishop Ireland would speak at one of
the evening sessions of the congress .served to draw an immense audi-
ence. The archbishop's address was characteristically strong, elo-
quent and patriotic. He said:

" There are Catholics — few of them, thank God — who dare at times
to criticise our manifestations of patriotism, calling these manifesta-
tions, as one lately has dared, travesties upon real patriotism. I be-
lieve those men speak from their own souls. There is no patriotism
in their souls, and they cannot see that there is patriotism in the souls
of others. Why should we not be loud in our manifestations of pa-
triotism? We love what is great and good; therefore we love the
republic.

" And let me counsel you to be always enthusiastically patriotic,
and let it be known throughout the whole country that Catholics are,
as I said, if possible, more patriotic than other fellow-citizens, so that
we show to the whole country what are the lessons of our faith. We
show to the whole country that in the hands of none others, in the
hearts of none others, are the liberties and the institutions of the re-
public of the United States safer. This, then, is our motto: "The Gos-
pel in one hand and theconstitution of the United .States in the other."

" But a word on the Catholic Congress itself. It is held to bring
out before the people the meaning of the encyclical of Leo XIII. on
the .social question. The Gospel of Christ is summed up by the Lord
Himself in these words: ' Love God with all thy heart and soul and

icnio-
[ arbi-
itions.
other
ir and
; least,
iTiplate
;ckless
ress in
\dcrin^
ople.
icration
<ami)le,
c delib-
Ticntion
,vhen all
arncstly

it one o4
ISC audi-
,ng, elo-

at times
lanifesta-
l be-
atviotism
the souls
)ns of pa-
love the

patriotic,
lolics arc,
IS, so that
aith. We
crs, in the
of the re-
'The Gos-
he other."
d to bring
o Xlll. on
y the Lord
d soul and

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

lor

lliy neighbor as thyself.' Christianity puts before us the two objects
of our love. A religion which would confine our affections to God
Himself would not be divine; it would not be a religion .of the Gospel;
God would not be satisfied with it.

"Precisely because we love Him we must love all that lie lows,
and love, therefore, our fellowman. Nor woiild it he suHk icnt to lo\c
the spiritual good of the neighbor, we must also love the teniiioial
i^ood; wo must love liini in .soul and body; wc must love him lor the
l;le to come and the life that now is. The Gospel is tlirout^hout a great
hook of holy social work for men.

"It was (iotl's intention that there shoukl be a sufficieiu-y for all,
and it is the duty of each and every one to see that (iod's intentions
are realized. God's will is that those who have an abundance oi good
things for themselves think of those who are in want, think of them as
brothers and sisters of the same family; and when the>' refuse this
universal charity they lie in their prayers when they look up to the
skies and say, 'Our Father who art in heaven.'

"This is the true Gospel of Christ; this is the true teaching of the
Catholic church. To'lay the world, alas! is drifting away from its
Christian moorings. It is our duty to mark before all eyes the path of
])eace and blessedness, to spreatl before the nations the divine treas-
ures in the bosom of the church. Are you going to convert the world
by argument? Hy no means. Argument convinces the mind; it does
not move the soul. The age, moreover, is tired of argument. The age
has told us the evidence it demands, and I admire the good sense of
the age.

"The age says to us: Vou profess to be the church of the (iospcl.
(iivc us the Gospel in daily life; wc judge the tree by its fruits. And
in so saying it accepts our own challenge. The age is an age of
hum uiity. It has caught up the lofty as])irations of the Christian soul
ill its great love for luuuanity, in the very prt)fession of this lo\e. The
age demands charity, love for all of every language, every race and
every color; love of man as he came forth from the hands of his
Creator. Our country is filled with good works, charities of all kinds.
.\sylums are built for the poor and the blind and the nuite and the
imbecile. The American state is essentially in its instincts and aspira-
tions Catholic. Let us, then, take hold of these instincts and aspira-
tions and show that they have all been born of the Gospel, that they
have all been perpetuated by our church in the past.

"The encyclical on the condition of labor is timely. This is what
IS needed — Catholic social work — social work to be done by all bislu)])s,
l)riests, nuns and women, and here precisely are our present eiforts.
Catholics have been half inclined in the past to perform their social
duties through representatives. It will not do to leave all this work
for the priests and the sisters and the religeuse. Catholic laymen
have been too quiet in the past. The Catholic laity have an individual
duty in all these social questions, in all the works of humanity and of
pharity. In these matters we should not be afraid, as some have

'riicTiiiiCi K-

ImI.

J!' 1

•M

t'''^

w t

I I

.11
f if*

fill 1

\l'

Tlo Ciitliolic
a (r 1 o r iou M
Cliurcli.

Indepontlonro
of tho Holy
Sec.

lOlS

T//£ WORLD'S coxa K ESS OF K EI./ G IONS.

seemed to be, to cooperate with all who are doing good, whether they
arc just our kind of people or not, whether they be Catholics or not.

" \Vc say this is a glorious church of ours — as, indeed, she is — and
jet a fearfully large proportion of those so-called saloons are hild by
Catholics, and what a fearfully large proportion who lose in them llicir
souls arc children of the church! Here is work for all; here is work
into which we should put all our religion, all our social and polit-
ical energies, until our country is freed from these dreatlful evils. We
think we are good Catholics so long as our own private lives are not
contrary to the law of (iod, but we have grave responsibilities besides
this in our social relations and in our pt)litical life, and Catholics who
vote for bad laws, who vote not for the suppression of great social
e\iis, contradict the God of purity and holiness, contradict the Gospel
of Christ and murder souls."

"The Independence of the Holy See," by Hon. Martin F. Morris,
of Washington, was an able paper: He said: " It is very true, how-
ever, that to till' pontificate of Hililebrand of Sienna or Pope Gregory
VH., we are (■ 'fer the formal establishment of the temporal jjowcroi
the po|)es, inasmuch as to that time we are to refer the culminatioii oi
the feudal system in ]'>uroi)e and the fust great victory of Christian
civiliziition over it under the auspices of the Roman pontiffs. The
contest between ft-udalism and civilization, begimiing with the over-
throw of the Roman eini)ire of the West, A. D. 472, was a long and
bitter one. It had lasted o\er a thousand years when the discovery of
America enal)led the world to insure the ultimate overthrow of the
system.

"The feudal system was at its height when Hildebrand became
pope in A. 1). 1073. Hemy IV., of the house of l""ranconia, an able and
unprincipled man, was then emperor of Germany ( A. D. 1056-1106),
and as such the virtual head of the system. A violent contest broke
out between the po])c and the emperor. Henry sought to determine
it by an appeal to the brute force of arms. He crossed the Alps, in-
vaded Italy and marched upon Rome with a view of deposing the pope
and i)rocuring the election of a pontiff more in accord with his wishes.
.Suddenly, Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, a])peared in arms against him
and resisted his advance. Robert (iuiscard hastened from Naples with
his Normans to protect the city of Rome. I'.urope was aroused to a
sense of danger. Rebellions broke out in Geimany itself. Henry's
army melted away. Matilda skillfull)- foiled all his movements, and
the discomfited and batlled monarch at last was compelled to come tn
terms with the pontiff. In their famous interview at the Castle ol
Canossa, A. I). 1079, the independence of the church from feudal
restraint and the triumph of Christian civilization over feudal barbarism
were definitely secured.

" No dispassionate and impartial student of history can now fail to
recognize the benefit that accrued to our civilization from the exist-
ence of the papacy. It was the papacy and the papacy alone that
S^vcd Europe from the grinding despotism of the feudal system. From

cr they
or not.
is— anc\
\H\a by

is work
i(\ \H)Ut-
ils. Wc
i arc not
s besides
jlics who
;at social
,c Gospel

y_ Morris,
true, how-
,e Gregory
v\ power ol
Mination o\
i Christian
Uiffs. The
I the over-
a lonj; and
\iscovery ol
hrow of the

and became
an able and
1036-1106).

ontest broke

to determine
the Alps, m-

sing the pope

th his wishes.

ns ai;ainst him
1 Naples witU

s aroused to a
.elf. Henrys
wcments, ami
cd to come io
the Castle o
^ from feudal
udal barbarism

can now fail to
from the exist-
acv alone that
System. From

cii!

'1 '

lO'JO

THE WORLD'S COXCRESS OF RELIGIONS.

\\l I

Cily.

8. ' \

if- ! - i(

the l)ii}^aiul;ij;c ami licentiousness which that system was so well cai-
eiilated to perpetuate, huiiKuiitj' found its only refuse in the i)()wer
that was represented by the papacy. The independence of the pa-
pacy secureil tin; independence of the chmxh and the ultimate tri
uniph of all that the church represented and was to luirope - religion.
morality, science, literature, female virtue and the sanctity of the
home.

" lie concludes: Rome was not necessary lor the united Italy.
Rome has become the capital of the workl; we W(»uld not have it dis-
it.mi'i tin Fn- K'"!^^'*^' ''Uo becoiuiii!; the capital of a ])etty ICuropean monarchy.
(iciMinii'iii Ronie has not now, even if it ever had, any stratei^nc, political or com-
mercial value as the capital of an Italian monarchy or oi an Italian
republic, or of an Italian confederation of any kind. Ital\ would be
as stronir without it as with it; stron^^er, indeed, without it, becaiise
tliere would then no lonj^er be the friction of the reliijious sentiment
that must continue to stru^'^le a.ijainst the existiui; coiulilions, and
that must necessarily succeed sooner or later in modifying those con-
ditions. Rome should be a ^reat free city, the ^reat free city of the
world, the holy city and the reli^Mous capital of all the nations - not a
mere comi)etitor of London or Berlin or Vienna, but once ai;ain the
city of the oul. The world will be the gainer by securini,^ anew the
independen „- o. the HohSee."

Frank J. Sheridan, from the tliocese of Dubutpie, for the estab-
lishment of an or_i,fani/ation to be known as the Catholic Association
of the United .Stales for the Promotion of Industrial Conciliation and
Voluntary Arbitration, su^^^ested a plan for the gradual abolition
of strikes, lockouts and boycots as remedies for the adjustment of the
grievances arising between employers and wajfe-earners, and the sub-
stitution therefor of a i)olicy of conciliation andarbitratitni to be carried
out in a wise and .systematic manner. The aims of the association
shall be carried out under the direction of a national board, which
shall be composed of two laymen from each diocese in the United
States, who shall be chosen in the first instance by the dekfjjates of
each diocese to the Catholic Columbian congress at Chica<.(o, and
thereafter in such a manner as ma>' l)e provided. Thearchl)isl)o|)s and
bishops of the United States shall, exoflFicio, be niend)ers t)f the na-
tional boartl.

The national bi^ard shall elect a president, secretary and such
other ofificers as may be necessary. It shall also enact such bslaws for
the Ljovernment of the association as it may deem proper.

It shall brinj^ all the weight of its influence and presti^'e to beat
in the formation of subordinate local parish boards, and active cotip-
eratinj^ with the parish priests, and the earnest, thoughtful and influ-
ential wa<j;e-earners and employers of each congrepfation in the forma-
tion of such local boards, and thus create a j.jrand national organization
of Catholic men; intelligent of purpose, and with influences permeat-
ing all classes of society, bring about an era of good will.

While conciliation and the arbitration of labor difficulties are the

I'liin for .\r-
liitriitiiikt Ho-
tw>'i'n Capital
und Labur.

ill cal-
powcr
\\c \)a-
tc tri

;lio;i()l1.
of i\\C

.\ Hilly.
J it tlis-
luuchy.
or cotn-
I lUiliivn

Olllll 1)0

l)cca\isc
•ntimcnt
)ns, and
use con-
ty of the
\s — nul a
iMiiin the
iiiicw the

lie estab-
isociation
dion ami

iibolition
ci\t of the
I the sub-
be carried

ssociatioii
;ir(l, whieh

,e United
;le<iates of
ucaL^o, ant.
lihhops and
of the na-

' and such
I bylaws for

i<^e to V)eai
.ctive coop-
l and inllu-
1 the fornia-
ur<:iani/ation
cs permeat-

Ities are the

77//; iruKLD's cox(;h/:.ss d/-- j:i':j./i,h).vs

IH':

ends aimed at by this association, it shall iiol, chIki ,is
tional bod)-, constitute itself an olTuial or seiui-oflK ial
trati<in. 'I'he very esseuee and suiees^ful workings of

a loial or a na-
liiiiii'd ol arlii-

^ f,. ol OUI polii _\ lie

in the vohinlarj- seli'Ction of the arbitr.ilors in carh lase. 1)\- tin i ;u-
ployers on the one haiul and tlu' einjiloyed on the oilier. The elTorls
of the dissociation will be einplu)e(l solel\- in briiv^in;^ such a condition
of affairs about.

"'i'he Catholic Women." The part taken l.\- uoiucii in the Con-
i^'ress was l)y no means unimportiint. .Si'\cral ol i\\c most iiuporlant
and valuable papers were prepand by wonieii. The serund (la\-
Katherine 1*^ Conway, of l?oston,riad a p.i|)i'r on "Tiic (. atholii .suni-
mer School and the Reading Cinles," a snbjii I of wide intirol to the
Catholic public. "Woman's Work in Art" was treated by i'',li/a .Mien
.Starr, it was worth)- uf the author of " Pilgrims and .Shrines " and
those other art books which are standard anion;,; us tod.i\-,

" Woman's Work in Literature " followed, by i'.K-anor C. i)oniull\-,
of riiiladelphia, sister of lion. I^n.itiu-^ Doniull)-, the well-known
.Shakesperian iconoclast and "populist," Miss Donnelly saiil: "(iti-
niaii)' had produced her sacred poet and dramatist, tlu; lieiiedictine.
Dame 1 Irosvitha; Italy, her Catlu'rir.e of .Siena, lu r Calerina Adoriii,
her V'ittoria Colonna. .Spaiii hail ^iveii birlh to the lusstical Teresa
.\liumada (better known as .Saint Teresa of Jesus), and the eldest
daujj[hter of the church rejoiced in the brilliant L;lor\' retlecti-d on her
by the woiks of .Marie de l'"rance, M;irie de Cjournc)', Madame (
Madame ilc .Sevi^Mie and Mad.'.ine Desliouilliere,

"I'rior to the .\u!,;ustan aj^e of hai^lish literature there were
inducements, few opportunities, for secular women to enter tlu ,'iren;i
of letters. .Men barely tolerateil their liti rar\' sisters, or cauterized
them, if successful, with sneers and satires."

In f^ivin^ a summ.iry of existint; conditions as to woman's work in
literature Miss Donnell)' said; "Wliile lMi!_;land |)oint: with pride to
.Adelaide Proctor, Lady l-'uUerlon, Lail\ IKiliert, .Marx- llowitt, Alice
Neynell, l-'.mily Howies aiul ^b)tlu•r Tlieodo^ia Drane, Ireland to Rose
Mulhollaiul, Julia Kavanan'h, K .ilileen ()'.Meara, Cecilia Catldell,
l'",lien Downing, Katherine Tynan and Mrs. Cashel-1 Ioe\-, l-'rance to
[•.■.i;4enie de Guerin ami Mrs. Craxen, (ierinaiu to Countess Hahn-IIahn,
Spain to Cecilia Hold ile l'"aberand Ital\to Maria Jh-unnanioiUi, Amer-
ica cnshines in her Catlu)lic heart of hearts the names of Anna Hanson
Dorse)', ICli/.abeth .\llen Starr, Mari;;iret Sullixan, Christian Reed,
Louise Guiney, Katherine Coinva)', .S.na Trainer .Smith, At;nes Rej)-
plier, Mary I'Mi/.abeth Hlake, I larriel Skidmore. I'.lla Dorse)-, the i^ifted
SaiUiers (mother and daughters), h'.llen Ford. .Mar\- Josephine Onalian,
{lelen and Grace Smith the cloistered sinj^ers. Merceiles and Ab)ther
.Austin Carroll, and a host of others who blend their sweet \oices in
the Ljrand cantata of Columbian Catholic literature."

Succecdintr the papers by Catholic women w rilers followed an ac-
count of the methods and work of the "Catholic Truth Society," by
William F. Markac, of St. Paul.

[lUN'on,

lew

,l';i I 1. ..1 i (•

Wiiiiii II ill Lil-
.Taliiro,

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if

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1(^22

77/A' WOULD- S CONG/HESS OF RELIGIONS.

Society of 8t.
Vincent <1 u
Paul.

W !

The history of the orij^iii ;nul propapfation of the great organiza-
tion of Catholic hiynien, known as the "Society of St. Vincent de Paul,"
was detailed by Josepli A. Kernan, of New York.

This association is the most widespread and tli most effective of
the numerous Catholic societies that ileal witli the clief of the poor.
It was founded in Paris about the year 1830, by Picileric Ozanani, a
zealous young Catholic layman. Conferences of this society are e::
tablished in well nigh every city in this country, as well as in Europe,
Asia, Africa and Australia. Its mission is good works; its motto,
"Charity." It recognizes no distinctions as to class, race or religion,
but dispenses alms and aid e(iually to all. It is regarded among
Catholics as tl.o ideal Catholic society for la)'men.

".Societies for Young Men," by Warren \\. Moshcr, Youngstown,
Ohio, appealed especially to the ardor and enthusiasm of the young
men and the young women. He invoked a new spirit of chivalry to
found, as it were, a new order for the youth of today, in order to em-
ploy the energies and enlist the enthusiasm of the young in useful and
generous works.

The Condition and Future of the N(

in the United

The Negro
Race.

f ;il

I:"

The
TribeH.

States," was the subject of an elaborate paper by Rev. John R. Slattery,
president of an ecclesiastical seminary in Baltimore for the training
of colored students. This was supplemented by a vigorous paper by
Charles M, Butler, of Washington, D. C, on the same subject.

There was a large delegation of colored Catholics present during
the reading of Mr. liutler's paper, antl his views were received with
great enthusiasm by all present. Mr. Hutler is himself a negro and is
employed in the treasury department. Washington.

"The Condition and ]*'utiue (jf the Indian Tribes in the United
States," was the subject of an address by Pishop McCabrick, of Duluth.
He entered fully into the history of the so-called "Indian question,"
and cited freely from government reports and other soiuces to show
the injustice wliich has characterized our dealings with the Indians, and
tile unfairness, not to say cruelty, with which the government has
often treated the Catholic Indians.

The right reverend bishop gave the following statistics:

In hSyi the total Indian jiojiulation was given as 249,273, and of
these 80, 8gi were Catholics. In the statistics of 1876 there were enu-
merated two hundred and si.xty different tribes in tlie United States,
amounting to about 300,000 Indians.

Five tribes, civilized, the Cherokee, Chicka.saws, Choctaws, Semi-
indion nolcs and Creeks, have a trust fund of $8,008,525.99, with an annual
interest of S413, 790.11, wliile thirty other tribes liave about 1^16,000,000
for their benefit. This fund, if well managed and properly disbursed,
would be a great assistance to the Indians, but the commissioners,
clerks, inspectors, supervisors, ag'Mits, boss farmers, physicians, teach-
ers and all the rest of ihe multitude to whom the Indian is so valuable
take to themselves a very large percentage of the fund belonging to
these poor people.

We WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REIJUWNS.

1028

The number of these reservations and acjencies increased up to
1870, when General Grant inaugurated the Indian peace polic\-. Of
the seventy agencies under this new system eii^lit were assitjned'to the
Catholic church. In other at^encies where the lari;e nunibcr of the
Indians were Cadiolics their demands for a Catholic priest were ii4n()red,
and they were handed over body and soul to those w ho were in many
cases hostile to Catholicity.

The Catholic bureau of Indian missions informs us that tlu' cob
lections taken up for mission work amont;- the nei^roes and Indians
were as follows: 18.S7, SSi.SijS.oi; 18.SS, Sj'CMjq.tio;' 1889, S69,6:;7.68;
1890, 570,461.87; i8gi, $63,386.84; 1892,568.395.07.

Bi<j()ti>, the jealousy of sects and the pronounce<l hostility of
tho-;e who made ';'ie Indians their i>rey, have often retarded the work
of Catholic missionaries, l)ut the i;rand iact remains that what the
world's civili/.intf power can never achieve, the Gospel from the mouth
of tlie missionary has done success full}'.

Friday, September 8th, was j^iven up to a series of papers on
"Catholic luhication," as follows:

I. "Catholic IIit;her bAlucation," Rt. Rev. John J. Kcane. I). I).
Rector Catholic University of America. 2. "The Needs of Catholic
Collef^es," Maurice Francis I'^ijan, Lb. I)., L'niversit\- of Notre Dame.
3. "The Catholic School S)-stem," Brother Azarias, Manhattan Col-
ietfe. 4. " Catholic High .Schools," Rev John T. Murph\', C. S. Sp.,
Holy Ghost College, I'ittsburt;^. 5. " i\lumn;e i\ssociations in Con-
vent Schools," b'lizabeth A. Cronyn, Buffalo, N. Y. 6. "The Catlu;lic
lulucational Fxhibit," Brother Anil)rose.

Bishop Keane's address was an eloquent appeal b)r " 1 Higher ImI
ucation." He carried the sympathies of his audience from the start.

Dr. l^^an's paper on the " Needs of Catholic Collci^es" was brave,
vii^orous and timely.

"The Catholic School System," b\- Brother Azarias, and "CaUiolic
1 1 iLjh School System," by Rev. John T. Murph\-. of Holj- Gliost Col-
Icije, I'ittsburt:^, I'a. He thoui^ht it quite feasible to cstablisii ami
support a free Catholic liit^h school in e\ery iiriportant center.

Elizabeth A. Cronyn, of Buffalo, pleaded for "AlunuKe iXssocia-
tions in Convent Schot)ls," aiul the da\''s session was conchuled by an
address on "the Catholic lulucational I'^xhibit," delivered l)\- Brother
.Ambrose, of De La Salle Institute, Chicas^o.

The concluding session of the coni;ress was held .Saturilay, .Scp-
icmber 9th. Cardinal (iibbons, several of the archbishops, many
l)ishof)s and the distinguished forei^ni f^uests occupieil the platform.
Resolutions were adopted.

Tlie Pope has conferred an honorary title on Mr Onahan, in ct)n-
sideration of his ^reat success in arranging one of tiie most remarkal)le
Church meetings ever held.

It was decided that a committee to devise a system of arbitration
between capital and labor should be appointed by tlie canlinal, chair-
man and secretary. A committee consisting of the same members
will determine when and where the next congress shall be held.

Ciitliolio Vd-

UL'lLtidU.

I '

I ,

III n,r

5 * I

lO'M

,,„ ,.o..ns co^o..ss or mucoss.

The InflnpnPB
of tlu'<'"<l'"'"'

m i

j^r.^ce. "The voice ol tiie

the church "t,^ ^;,/pScUumed the f ^^^ f ^ f^S'd and of religion
in.r from this hall has i ^^^ ^ehalt o ^o ^ i^ant, and

fvTn- God. It has been a ^^^^^^^^ i ^id be prea ^^ ^cd

Kc.>rt to religion ""V love or o^^^ ^ ^f^^"^""vefo our country and
theretore, we have '^^^"^^^^ion which nvc ^^fj^^ "proclaimed the
attesting the love an 1 an- .^ '^^T'l MJsthlt there can be

for ovir political '"^ ^^^^^ ^, ;,nt, and it has to d "^ ^l^^^^^,, b, no law
necessity of good Uov^^J^ ^^^^ ^nd order, ^1 fj t^>^ i^^.ticc. there can
no good '^overnmen X ithou ^^ ^^^ authori y witluniM ^^^^^ p .
without authority, the»e ^ ^.^^^ ^^ no r a i g f,,rt1i

be no justice ^vithout elig on ^^ ^^^ ^«"Sre^^ ^^^^^^j ^^^.tions. We

"I need not s^iy that th^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^ t its bhg ^^^^ ^^.^.^^

uitiJ^^-3i'LSiiS^^^^^

importance "in H"- t.. „njerstuoil "'i^' ,"'"';„,,,,;„„ Tic wliolc
s" 1 ic time l-^t " ""', ,„e nposcd to secular education ^^^^^.^^

S.liolic ediication «c a c^g.l^,_^ „, , There can be ^^, ^^^^,

iMn.iUy. ^^^^^^rV hu the non-Catholic wo'rld. J|e ^^^ ^,.^^,^,

isthe Catholic ^'^ft'^.^^^X^^xVo^^^^. "^'i^' ^ 'eachUer, eyes
,h. cathonc 'rolled the ocean of '--l-^^^^^^s ^.at ^od made We e.^^^^^
w^'. come nearer to each otne ^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^"' , ,r It is the mission -l

that if they only l<^okea x ^^^^^^^ together, i ^^^^^^

the hearts would l^'.^^^^;.,, J these two wo. Ids nearer,^ y^^^^
the Catholic '^^l^'^^^ ';\,;o e fnlly. ^"^^ '^r%h that the non-Catholic
understand each other moi /^ .^^ t»V^*\ ,n but to something

out,iirstof all V^y^^l/ ^,^t Catholic ^vorld a^L-l • '^ ; ,,, on ,vhich

them, rherofore, we on y

! :i.'

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

](l:?.-.

of the
moving
tices of
cc issu-
d gfori-
rcligion.
ant, and
adopted
ntiy and
nied tl\c
c can he
le no law
there can
KHit God.
one fort1\
Ions. We
lie toiling
country is

carpenter
,pand He

by its reso-

ken of the

)n. At the

advocating
Xhe whole
no conflict

knd secular

,K-y are the
tha. is hnsy
. like Mary.

^rrcss. There
■en them has
night to V.ave
-\i other, eyes
em down into
he mission "I
to make men
Du have to aet
non-Cathohe

t to something
incs on whjch
emphatically,
a could reject

USllOP KVAN.

Rev,

L. ]M. Ileilman,
le

THE LUTHKRAX CCA'CRESSES.
The Lutherans, in an introductory address by
D. D., of Chicago, expressed a special pleasure in having accepted th(
courteous invitation to participate in the world's Hrst great Religious
Parliament. Their kinship with the Reformation of the .Sixteenth Cent-
ury influenced them in the belief that there was a peculiar propriety
in holding such a congress by the Church of the Reformation, on soil
" discovered by Christopher Columbus. Columbus and Luther were
contemporaries and providential co-workers, only differing in this, tliat
while the one discovered a new continent the other provided for it the
elements of liberty. When Columbus was making his famous Amer-
ican voyages, which were destined to revolutionize the sciences of
geography, commerce and civil government, Martin Luther, at iMsen-
ach, Magdeburg and Erfurt, was storing his mind with that liberal
education and with those princi[)les of individual liberty of judgment
which disenthralled Europe and eventually gave the laiul of Columbus
its unparalleled civil liberty, and the greatest republic the world ever
saw. When the distinguished voyager and discoverer was in chains,
and even died in ignominy through the superstition and ingratitude of
those who encouraged and commissioned him to his daring task, the
celebrated Augustinian, by his personal struggles after liberty and
peace, in his monastery, was breaking for himself and the world
superstition's chains forged through ages.

" The efforts of the reformer moved on by the side of and over
methods of tyranny and persecution which crushed similar attempts.
Within one week of no time when Mohammed's rule overthrew the
freedom of the Mameluke power of ICgypt, Luther nailed upon the
castle church of Wittenberg those theses, the echo of whose hamp,cr-
sound struck the long-silent chord of freedom in all Europe. And at
the time when such men as Fiancis I., Henry VHI. and Charles V. hekl
the scepter of the great nations, and on the very day when Cortez
conquered Montezuma and placed Mexico under .Spanish Roman rule,
there was enacted at Worms a scene which forever checked arrogant
supremacy t)ver human liberty, and which, as Carlyle said, "was the
great point from which the whole subsequent history of civilization
takes its rise." These event:; laid the corner-stone of our civil lib-
erty, which Lutherans hail as a product of their father's principles,
and which they, therefore, arc pleased to celebrate in this Columbian
anniversary. It was through tlie inspiration and universal awakening
wrought Ijy the Reformation principle of the inalienable right of private
judgment, that this land of Columbus was colonized by the various
evangelical branches of Christendom which reared this repul)lic.

" Under these principles, too, a hardy conscr\ativeclass of Lutheran
citizens was created which from 1621 to the period of national in-
dependence, in toil of forests, mines, fields, and in the culture of home
and moral and spiritual character, and then on the licld fighting for
liberty's cause l)y a large share of service north aiul south, were an
emphatic and positive agency in securing existence ami worth to our
65

('((Innibusaml

LullllT.

Lnthor'BPrin-
('iplcH tlip Cor-
ni'i- Stoiio of
A[npricuu Lib-
iTty.

,V'

f i i

\ '^

.ill

:i. I

r^s WO...S CO.C.BSS or .eucoss.

Lntlieran
Loyalty.

* \

""" . , „ of virtue, in Ac colonies,

nation. M'"r,°a*fn,i£?at"fc|?a'Uh oHhe Amcncan^^

have always had b^g^^"': . homely occupation v ^^^^ ^ ^^

?^ougU no small a,d rcnJ.rc September nth, the Gen-

lion? , ( m. Parliament proper, sepit ,i,e 2d

On the first ''af ° *"=„^?esfes of two days. B aUcady ^^^
„,.,! Synod opened Its con!,re ^^^^ ^'"*°,,t„,rious synods

Se General Couna • a"^ °" '.fSeluthcran women o^ vauo > ^,,_^

Sr.trS!;^varli\ra;nhcn,s,and^es,H.,aU^^

Mighty ^"o't'■ff ,'';';;' ,ics was traversed. ,, ^.^s .liscusscd by

j^ffiT" rro^^,ir^j!^r^ - -^^try^^^

with Rome, modern h'^^*J^\y ^meii^e f':o>",''''''%ushed beneath an
raded a,nun a-VSckede/than before, ^^^^^^^.^ well as the
and pro^V^er^'^.^.;^,XT"^^"^^'"^^ ^'"^^ t Tto never was such a

in subjection the most P # # # At^j'^^f^r'. its dominion is

S every vestige o ^^^^^"^'^^ Europe to tVie oUu • ^^^^ ^^^^^^,,d
and shattered ^[^"^^^l.'^epudiated and > ^^^^l"^ "^ Uo.is. ^ .

torn to pieces; »t^^" \;V ^^^Us from the nee f^ "" effected, and
Sh dellance, ^n^J.^^s yoU ^i ^^^^ sixteenth Century ^^ ^
u How was hi^^ievolutio ^ j^^^^^ broken? comp X^^^^^
how was the ^^^^"^^j) P^ed that salvation is ;, _^>ee S , ^^^^^ i bV

began to preach it anti

ionies,

n pop-
ication
ic bur-
panies,
ilso the
ey who
, and at
n. t)o,
lumbian
y of our
:ion and
Uforma-

the Gen-
311 the 2d
lad their
LIS synods
igs on the
atter hav-
six thou-
,'hich sang
hymn
jvering six

scussed by
that " with
ccssful war
ad been as-
■st mightier
beneath an
well as the
: was such a
IS an earthly
inremc tem-
s bodies and
cnce; it held
avc. divested
•cr is shaken
s dominion is
are answered

'effected, and
iV o{ earnest

is iustificd u>
>ture. and then

■^^y where, ^hc

Kcv, Lee M. Heiltnan, U. 0., Chica^u,

I: M;

Nil

LntheraniBin
the Keyiiute of
the Reforma-
tion.

Latheran
BiHtory.

f r

102S

T//7^ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

result was the vanishin^f of spiritual darkness before the risinji
sun.

^p ^f ^p y^ ^p

" Other communions in opposition to Rome came into being, and
with largely the same ideas, but not simultaneously. No other church
can claim to be a twin sister to the Lutheran. Zwingli was indeed at
work as early as Luther, denouncing some crying corruptions, but the
historian can easily premise what would have become of his religio-
political reforms had it not been for the impulse which came from
Wittenberg,

" It was two years after the presentation of the Augsburg confes-
sion when Calvin espoused the principles of the Reformation, and
fifteen years, therefore, after posting the ninety-five theses.

" The Lutheran Confession says Doctor Schaff 'struck the keynote
to the other evangelical confessions.'

"This church is the great mediating power between ancient and
modern Christianity. She struck her roots deep into the past and
enriched her strength by the soil of the church in every age between
Luther's and that of the apostles. The scholastic development of
doctrine, so far as it did not turn away from the Gospel; the incom-
parable store of chants and creeds and prayers and hymns, which the
faith and piety of centuries had accumulated, eliminating only what
was impure — all these the Lutheran church sought to preserve and
retain as far as practicable. Her liturgy is substantially the ' outline
and structure of the service of the western church for a thousand
years.' Her conservatism has made the Lutheran church the bulwark
of civil liberty. She broke the spell of Rome, and she wrought on the
conscience of rulers in behalf of the rights and needs of their subjects.
She established popular education, she inculcated individual responsi-
bility, she taught men they were God's children, she inspired men to
appeal from the earthly oppressor to the heavenly avenger, and so
rulers learned the power of their subjects and reckoned not only with
them, but with the One whose authority was feared more than their
own. The Lutheran church thus stands in history as the upholder and
guardian of civil order, and is the inspirer of those political ideas which
secure human rights under every fv)rm of civil polity."

The "Brief Sketch of the Lutheran Church in the United States"
was assigned to Dr. H. W. Roth, of Chicago. " Lutherans have been in
this country since 1621 or 1622. wlun they came with their Dutch
countrymen. In 1636 came the Swedes to Delaware, and for half a
century, with a translation of Luther's Catechism, the first book in the
red man's language, thev taught the Gospel of peace to the savage, and
so mediated actually between the Indian and William Penn a half-
century later. The Germans came in large accessions during the fiery
persecutions of the Thirty Years War, in 17 10 and later. The present
Lutheran population of this country is more than seven millions, or
about an eighth of the entire population."

'The Essential Qualifications of Luther for His Work as

rising

on the

bjects.

esponsi-

men to

and so

y with

n their

der and

IS which

States"
;been in
Dutch
half a
in the
ige, and
a half-
he fiery
present
ions, or

ork as

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

1029

■ LutlieraniKui
(intl the Higbrr
Criticism.

Reformer" was the theme of an address by Prof. R. F. Weidncr,
Chicago. "Many merely English-speaking have had access to criti-
cisms on the 'Table Talk' of Luther, or some of the mrny other of mthpr-BQiial-
his published ' sayings,' and have no opportunity to know the sub- »ficntion».
stantial and meritorious character of his real work. Luther was more
than a courageous man. Standing at the Erfurt University as the
most brilliant in mind, and later on laying hold on truth which revo-
lutionized the world and its theology, was an index to the genius of
the man. The physical endurance, the mental acumen, the great
nature of soul, the constant diligence and the profound piety of
the man, made him the great reformer raised up of God."

"Higher Criticism and the Lutheran Church " was discussed by
Prof. S. F. Breckenridge, D. D., Springfield, Ohio. " The Lutheran
church regards the Bible or, as her theologians love to name it,
the Word of God, as the final arbiter of all questions of faith and
morals. While they recognized a human element in the sacred
writings and the necessary imperfections due to it, they maintained
that they are a revelation from God through the instrumentality
of men who wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The con-
fessions of the Lutheran church upon the authority of the Scriptures
declare, they 'alone will remain as the sole judge, rule and standard,'
according to which, as the only touchstone, all doctrines shall and
must be understood and judged whether they be good or evil,
right or wrong. Although the Lutheran church, especially in Ger-
many, suffered much from the rationalistic times of Seniler to
those of Strauss and F. C. Baur, the old faith survives in the
hearts and lives of the mass of the people and their pastors. The
uniform doctrine of Lutheran professors in America has been that the
Scriptures are the Word of God and the only infallible rule of faith
and morals. The higher critics hold that the story of creation as
related in Genesis is without historical foundation. It is the production
in a monotheistic setting of an Assyro-Babylonian myth to account
for the visible universe. The story of paradise and the fall of man has
a like origin, and was invented to account for the existence of evil.
The story of the tower of Babel is an attempt to account in a " pic-
torial manner for the diversity of speech." Upon this method nearly
all history can be made void. The church, too, can afford to
wait until the critics arc agreed among themselves and until their
conclusions, which have shifted like sandy foundations, for years
unsteady and unsettled, until they have reached a final stage, before
Christian teachers consider a reconstruction of the accepted theology,

"A Standing or Falling Church, viz., Justification by Faith," was
the theme of an address by Prof. F. Pieper, of St. Louis. "By
justification we understand the remission of sins. Since Christ has
already perfectly acquired forgiveness of sins for all men, and since
this forgiveness is offered and exhibited to men through the means of
grace, to-wit, the Gospel and the sacraments, the only means on our part
ot obtaining forgiveness of sins and salvation is that faith which accepts

Justification
by Faitii.

,; jf,

!i. i:

■\'\^Wb.

■1, ' '

li I ^ » r

I I

1030

„,.. ,rO..^S CONO.^SS 0. .BUOJONS.

Lutheran
DeaooneeseB

I I

f Urecklum, Cjcrmany, vvab u^ ^^ r u

coness work began mi ^o^. - ^^^^ i^^.thcr . time ^1^'^" ^^^^^ ;, „

Lutheran pastortUedno l^o J, ^^^^^^^ . j,^,, .%Xi. The

^^^r^^^ thSt y V tJ^'^ciscAl in |f^;;gi;i:;^^^mc:arc to be
a divine ^'"'^^ > ',,,„,,tp the poor, in all ':^"*-"^'7' .,,„vin Vows are
afflicted, the "nf^j'^tunatc tl e I ^^^^.^j,,^, Pr'"'"^ U Thesistcrs con-
cared for by the teach nk^n^ abandoning the w^ k. 1^^ 7,
not taken \« P'^^J^' .^Knference of Ka.serswerth in iSOi ^^^^^

General Synod l^j;; "" \\^\^ country." ^ „ ., Bartholomew. Rock

- ^^^s^jc^Jo^t^^ ^^:^^ '^r^:x^:-f-^

Kdacation. Inland, lU-, ^ ^o ably urge t^^ ^ ^.^^^^ ^^^^iTt"! seminaries.
Lr y-two academies twenty^sxtheoj^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^,^^ ^^

-^^T^f^'t:ief^r"crWayne, in^^J^-T'choo!'" There is
^'"M; and therefore, love our P^ "^ ^ f^^^ ^„a omitting the
our country and, tl .^^ , ^'"cr. truer manhood and

peril in <^^"^7/>. Jnps which develop the ^^'^^.^ , ^ thousand Ln-
Inowledge of the ;hmRs ^ «.^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^'^-^l' Us ave no parochial

^^r^nglScan Lutheran — ^^ ^ ^^^^^ ,^^„

^^-l^,e Church Should^e Entirely Fr. .cm St ^^ ^ .

makers and others, _ ^^^.^^^ p^.^^ y^

...a

, Church

it-to.

; cn-

stifi-

but

Icsti-

l the

3tural

G. U.

;d lor
n dea-
ler tilt
:e had,
ice is a
;. The
c to be
ows arc
jis con-
re 1,197'
re were
uf these
en.'Nov-
icrniany,
in. The
erswerth

Av, Rock
g efforts
ng. Tlio
•ininaries,
hirty-two

'\vc love
There is
litting the
iihood and
,usand tn-
, jiarochial

State from
nd.-. This
did shoc-
lood, to do

m Prof- A-
lilo they ve-

TUE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

1031

" The Press in
dress by Rev. V. L.
have usually each
States are fifty-five
enteen Norwegian,

gard members of other churches as children of God, they yet, for
forcible reasons, hold that "Lutheran pulpits are for Lutheran minis-
ters only, and Lutheran altars for Lutheran communicants only."
They especially emphasize the power and rights of the laity in the
conduct of church government, giving the people the equal power
with pastors to select and ordain men to the sacred office. To make
the laity intelligent for their work, doctrinal subjects are discussed
in their synodical meetings and the young are thoroughly catechised
in the teachings of the Scriptures.

"The Rite of Confirmation and the Work of Catechi;>ation," Rev.
J. N. Kildahl, of Chicago, said were human methods used to rear up
laity and youth to be intelligent and devoted members of the church.
The instructions imparted are meant to deepen the Christian life and
to bring forth in the young the fruits of regeneration. Confirmation is
simply a human form of admitting the baptized into public fellowship
with the church, and assuming the vows of baptism openly for them-
selves.

the Lutheran Church " was the subject of an ad

Conrad, D. D., of Philadelphia. The periodicals

a peculiar reason for existence. In the United

English Lutheran journals, fifty-one German, sev-

sixteen Swedish, four Danish, three Finnish, one

Icelandic, one French and six Hungarian. There are besides twenty

publication houses.

" People of the Reformation on This Side and That of the Sea," by
the celebrated Dr. Stoecker, former Court Preacher in Berlin. As one
who now labors for the masses of the people in the capital city of
Germany he could speak as an authority upon how progress is made
in the work of home missions, with the criticism that " Germany is
now seeking after too many new things."

" Sights, Scenes and Life Among Scandinavian Peoples," was a
lecture illustrated by original stereopticon pictures, by Rev. Dr. M. Sceuei*.
VV. Hamma, of Baltimore, who gave an account of the beauty of the
country and especially of the " Midnight Sun," and portrayed also the
character of the people in their daily life, in home and society, as also
of their sincerity and purity in religious Lutheran life. All felt that
such a people need no missionaries sent among them. They them-
selves send missionaries to foreign fields. In Iceland where all are
Lutherans, it was related that there is not a fallen woman in the coun-
try, and the young people before being received into the church by
confirmation are taught to conduct family devotions.

On "The Mission of the Lutheran Church in America," Rev. E.
K. Bell, of Cincinnati, Ohio, said that the Saxon who had conquered
Rome and England was here to effect his mission for the civil and
religious condition of this country. The mission of the Lutheran
church here is assuming surprising proportions. Thinking people are
realizing the vastness of the field, the unrivaled opportunity, the limit-
less resources of the Lutheran church, and the pressing needs in

Th(! Luthoran
ProBB.

Scandinavian

)il

•!f

i: ''

,1" ; .

■ i

ii', I

* ■ ' i;' 11 i

; v';f i

'•.' I'

1033

THE WORLD'S COiMGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Lnthoran
Women.

assuming the responsibilities laid on this communion. The church
which binds itself either by languafje or nationality to any particular
class may flourish for a time, but its decline is certain and its power
will pass away. The Lutheran church aims to take the world for
Christ.

"The Home Mission Field," presented by Rev. S. li. Harnitz, D. D.,
Western Secretary of the Board of Home Missions. He has seen the
church of the Reformation in the northwest save counties and states
and territories from Romanism and rum. It was Lutheran legislators
which saved South Dakota from the curse of the lottery scheme.

"Lutherans in all Lands," as shown by Rev. J. N. Lenker,
have a kingdom on which the sun never sets. In Germany there
are 16,000 ministers, 22,500 churches, 29,300,000 baptized members,
61,000 parochial schools, and 6,731 deaconesses; in Denmark, 1,700
ministers, 1,900 churches, 2,030,000 baptized members, 3,100 paro-
chial schools, and 171 deaconesses; in Norway, 869 ministers, g6o
churches, 2,010,000 baptized members; in Sweden, 2,541 ministers,
2,514 churches, 4,764,000 baptized members. Total in Europe, in-
cluding Greece, England, Scotland, Holland, Switzerland, and others,
24,416 ministers, 32,897 churches, 45,370,308 baptized members, 89,764
parochial schools, 7,702 deaconesses. In Asia there are 252 minis-
ters, 169 churches, 114,350 baptized members, 756 parochial schools
and 42 deaconesses; in Africa, 328 ministers, 256 churches, 100,863
baptized members, 714 parochial schools and 44 deaconesses; in
Oceanica, 168 ministers, 410 churches, 137,294 members and 180
schools; in South America, 62 ministers, 90 churches, 115,545 mem-
bers, 90 schools; in Greenland, United States, Canada and tlie West
Indies, 5,120 ministers, 9,135 churches, 7,012,500 members, 2,513
schools and 65 deaconesses. The grand total in the world shows
30,346 ministers, 42,877 churches, 52,850,660 baptized members, 94,017
parochial schools and 7,853 deaconesses.

THE LUTHERAN WOMEN'S CONGRESS.

This Congress convened September 14th, in the Hall of Washing-
ton, Mrs. J. Mel!ander,of Chicago, presiding. Mrs. Charles Henrotin, the
Vice-President of the Woman's Branch of the Congress Auxiliary of the
World's Columbian Exposition, gave the address of welcome.

Mrs. A. V. Hamma, of Baltimore, Md., followed with the greeting
of the Lutheran Women of America to the Lutheran Women of all
lands where the Lutheran doctrine is set forth. She addressed the
women of Germany, " where Lutheranism was born, where it is the state
church, where the people in all ranks of life, from the peasant to thi
imperial family worship their Maker in the same manner, where one
may go from the depths of the forest to the banks of the Rhine and
find the people with one accord singing the chorals of the old historic

uirch
cuUir

)0\VCV

a for

u. a.

L;n the
states
slators

,cnl< *-'•■,
r there
nnbers,

:, 1. 700
J paro-
us, 960
inistcrs,

ope, ii^-

1 others,

s, 89,764

2 minis-
schools

, 100,863
jsscs; in
and 180
4 c meni-
hc West
^rs, 2,513
Id shows

rs, 94.017

Washing-
nrotin. the
iary of the

.c" greeting
men of all
Ircssed the
is the state
,sant to thv
where one
Rhine and
old historic

2'J/£ WORLD'S COAUKEHS OF KEUGlONS.

l(i;{;i

cliiiich; tlu> wonirn of ScandiiKuia, the land of the ini(hiii;lit sim,
\vl)ere also the Lutheran is the reigning religion; from the miiuiitains
to the Fjods they know of but one manner in which to worship. Jt is
a matter of thankfulness that the Norwegians, the Swedes aiul the
Danes are a part of the Lutheran church. The people of Hungary, a
million of whom struggle under trials allowed by the emperor; of Ice-
land, the country of avalanches, volcanoes and hot springs where
nature seems to have conspired to drive humanity from her ice-bound
coast; of India, which is now awakening from her lethargy and realizing
the importance of the Christian religion.'' Mrs. Ilamma also urged
defmite action in forming a league for the union of all Lutheran women.

This greeting was responded to by Mrs. Alfred S])iess, of Ger-
many; Mrs. Artur Lcffler, of Sweden; Mrs. Th. Dahl, of Norway;
Mrs. Nic Heck Meyer, of Denmark; Mrs. Sigrid Magnusson, of Ice-
land, and Dr. y\nna S. Kugler, of India.

"The Future of the Lutheran Ciuirch; Its Youth," by Mrs. Heegle,
of Atchison, Kan. ]\Irs. Heegle emphasizetl the importance of inter-
esting the younger members in the actual church work. Luther, as a
child, went about singing carols and encouraged singing among
children; following that example it seemed appropriate to introduce a
choir of children, which sang one of the carols which he had written
for his son, Hans.

"Woman's Influence on Church and Home," was the concluding
paper of the evening, by Mrs. Nellie Blessing ICystcr, of San Francisco,
Cal. Mrs. I'^yster haiulled the topic with great skill, enumerating tho
various wajs in which the mother may control and direct in her own
family the tendencies which she is an.xious to develop; and in church
life by her influence and example guide others in the straight and
narrow path.

Tho following morning the congress convened in Hall VI. Each
.synod having its own synodical body organized for the purpose of
doing missionary work, it was deemed advisable to devote one session
to this topic, .Mrs. K. S. Prince, of .Springfield, Ohio, taking up the
work of tile General Synod and telling of the efficient work done in
assisting the struggling missions to reach an independent basis. The
work of the other synods is carried on in a very similar manner. Miss
Mary Swenson, of Chicago, read a paj)eronThe\Vork of they\ugustana
Synod, .Miss Laura Shercr, of Marion, Va., on the United Sjiiod of the
south, and Mrs. Th. Dahl, of Stoughton, Wis., on The United Nor-
wegian Church.

The afternoon session was devoted to the topic of "DeaconessWork."
This work, having been originated by a German Lutheran, has been
carried en successfully for several years, so the topic was full of inter-
est. Miss Tillie Hcnzon, of Chicago, read a paper written by Miss
F^mma I^ndlich, of Reading, Pa., describing the work in its fullest
details, from its inception until the present time, telling how these
devoted women sacrificed comforts and even necessities of life to min-
ister to those in want and sorrow. In this country there are eleven
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1034

T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

deaconess institutions with four mother houses, as the training schools
are called, and from which the deaconesses are sent to other places.

A paper on Norwegian Deaconess Work, written by Professor
Sverdrup, was read by Miss Emma Johnson, of Chicago. It treated
the Norwegian part of this noble work. Sister Elizabeth Fedde, of
Brooklyn, N. Y., the first Norwegian deaconess in this country, was
present and accepted the invitation to say a few words to the audience;
she thrilled her hearers by her graphic description of the work, how
at times in the early part of their existence they knew not where the
supplies .for the next day were to come from. Friends have been won
for the cause since that, and the movem'^nt is no longer obliged to
struggle for its existence. The session closed with a discussion, in
which many participated, on the subject of the formation of a union
or league of all Lutheran women.

In the evening a poem written by Rev. Dr. W. H. Luckenbach,
entitled "Woman in Christian Work," and dedicated to the Lutheran
Women's Congress Committee, was read by Mrs. J. B. Badgely, of
Middleburg, N. Y. A paper followed on the subject of "Women in
Sunday-school Work," by Mrs. Emma B. Scholl, of Baltimore, Md.
Mrs. Scholl thought women to be the ideal Sunday-school workers;
that instinct seemed so strongly developed, it was possible for them
to decide the necessities of each individual case at once and proceed
in a manner which would produce the desired result.

The speaker of the evening. Dr. A. S. Kugler, of Guntoor, India,
was then introduced. Dr. Kugler has been a missionary of the Lutheran
church in India for twelve years, having been graduated by the Penn-
sylvania Medical College. She is well able to minister to the physical
in addition to the mental needs of the natives. The religious beliefs
and superstitions which the people still hold sacred, do much toward
making the life of the Hindu women the most wretched on earth. A
widow is held responsible for the death of her husband, and if she is
permitted to exist, it is only to lead the life of the most miserable of
slaves. In case of illness, medical attendance has been denied the
women, as men are not allowed to enter their apartments, and it is only
in comparatively recent years that women understanding medicine
have gone out to the work. The crying need at present is a hospital,
and for this purpose, money is now being collected. Dr. Kugler
illustrated her talk with specimens of work done by the native pupils
in the Guntoor and Rajah mundry schools, which were especially
interesting, coming such a distance from children of whom we expect
so little.

Resolutions were adopted to form a National Lutheran Woman's
League.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

1035

ihools
(laces,
fessor
reated
Ide, of
y, was
lience;
k, how
:re the
;n won
iged to
iion, in
1 union

enbach,
utheran
^ely, of
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jre, Md.
vorkers;
or them
proceed

r, India,
^utheran
he Penn-
physical
beliefs
toward
arth. A
if she is
rable of
nied the
it is only
medicine
hospital,
Kugler
ve pupils
specially
/e expect

Woman's

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH CONGRESS.

The presentation of the Presbyterian Church at the World's Par-
liament of Religions was made at the Presbyterian Congress held on
the 17th of September. The first session of the congress was opened
at 2:30 P.M., in the Hall of Washington (Art Institute), by the Rev
John L. Withrow, D. D., pastor of the Third Presbyterian church,
Chicago, president of the congress. Dr. Withrow said, among other
things: "If one were to judge Presbyterians by the display they make on
public occasions, he might come to the conclusion that they arc not
an active people. But this would be a mistake. Presbyterians are
pre-eminently a people of deeds rather than words. They have always
been forward in every cause requiring self-sacrificing effort in the ad-
vancement of the Kingdom of Christ. They are conservative in their
beliefs, progressive in their methods, and broad or catholic in their
spirit. Sometimes we are represented as narrov/ and bigoted; there
is nothing farther from the truth. We do not require of our church
members subscription to any creed or confession. The simple and sin-
gle condition of membership is faith in Jesus Christ as the personal
Saviour of the believer. Any believer in Christ is entitled toenter and
is admitted into the church. The Westminster Confession is sub-
scribed to only by officers, or ministers and elders, and they are only
required to subscribe to it as containing the system of doctrine taught
in the Bible. Thus we give the largest freedom to everybody that
enters into our ministry. The Presbyterian church is slow to take
notice of departures from its standards and long suffering toward
offenders. It is only very rarely, and when the man she deals with
shows a particularly stubborn or ugly disposition, that she lays her
hand on him and asks him to desist or deprives him of standing. But
when roused, the Presbyterian church is tenacious and persistent. It
believes in the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. The men
v\hom it has reared have been men of action and strength, men of pur-
pose and character. It is a delight to serve her, and the Master
through her. It is a privilege to testify for her."

Dr. Withrow then introduced the speakers of the afternoon ses-
sion and they participated in the following order:

"Presbyterian History," by the Rev. Andrew C. Zenos, D. D.,
Professor of Biblical and Ecclesiastical History in the McCormick
Theological Seminary, Chicago. The contents of the paper were, in
substance, as follows: " Presbyterianism is distinguished from other
forms of evangelical Christianity, in the first place, by its polity and
then by it.s system of doctrine; the latter is historically associated with
it, but is not logically inseparable from it. Presbyterianism has ex-
isted and may exist dissociated from the Calvinistic .system of doc-
trine. With reference to its form of government, Presbyterianism
claims that "c i;; to be found in the New Testament. It is to be found,
not as th^ exclusive system of the New Testament, for the New Testa-
ment contains teaching regarding polity only in solution; in order to
precipitate this teaching and have it crystallize it is necessary to infuse

Dr. Withrow
on Prpshyl<>ri-

UUIBUI.

Presbyterian
Hintory,

I? ii

Origin of Pres-
byterinniHin.

M: I

:fj I

|: Mi

1030

T//E IVORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

into the solution the clement of human wisdom. All forms of church
polity arc results of the mixture of the divine teaching and the human
wisdom, that adapts it to actual and differing conditions. In other
words, Presbytcrianism bases itself on the theory that the New Testa-
ment furnishes the foundations of practical church government, and
on these foundations many structures ma^' be erected, but none that
will better fit the foundations or carry out their architectural sugges-
tions. Upon this understanding of it I'resbyterianism does not need
to trace its history back to the apostolic age through the W'aldensees,
the Culdces.or any other historic forms or peoples. When asked for
its historic origin in its present well-defined form, it points back to the
period of the Reformation when, under the stress of animated contro-
versy, scholars and churchmen went to the Bible to find just what was
taught in it. And that appeal to the fountain of all authority, and
arbiter of all questions for the Protestant, resulted in the enunciation
of the great principles, that Christ is the Head of the church, that the
church is one body, that it is endowed with authority over its mem-
bers, that this authority must be exercised through representatives,
that these representatives as representing the same authority must be
equal, and finally, that the church as a whole should govern its parts
leading to a system of graded judicatories.

"These principles were reached not at once, but gradually; not by
a single individual, but by different .students of the Word in different
local centers. In the course of controversy the system has been some-
times called the Genevan and assigned to Calvin as its framer. If
sucli assertions mean that Calvin was its most illustrious exponent
during the age of the reformers they may pass unchallenged; but if
they mean that the system was elaborated or invented by Calvin for
the first time they are not true. Long before Calvin Zwingli had
organized the Swiss Reformation on Presbyterian principles. It was
adopted in Holland and associated there, after a remarkable struggle,
with the doctrinal system, which has ever since remained almost indis-
solubly interwoven with it.

"In Great Britain it found special favor in Scotland. Here the
idea of the covenant as a constructive principle in society was already
familiar, and with its democratic tendency it prepared the way for
Presbytcrianism. The system was formally adopted in 1560 in an
inchoate form; the starting point was the general assembly and pres-
byteries were the weekly meetings of ministers. Little by little it as-
sumed more and moredefiniteness. In England its first appearance was
not under auspicious circumstances. Political influencesand conditions
were against it. The rulers of the state, having wrested the control of
the church from the hands of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, were not
willing to surrender it into the hands of the people. But popular
ideas steadily gained, and, in spite of all that the Stuarts could do to
keep the reigns of government in their own hands, the tide in favor of
popular government, both in the state and in the church, was destined
to overwhelm them. In 1640 the long parliament met and was con-

church
human
n other
! Testa-
:nt, and
)nc that
suj?gcs-
\ot nccu
dcnsccs.
skcd for
:k to the
j contro-
A'hat was
)rity, and
unciation
. that the
its nicm-
cntatives.
V must be
li its parts

lly; notby
1 different
)cen some-
ramer. If
exponent

red; but if
Calvin for
wingli bad
cs. It was
e struggle,
most indis-

Here the
,vas alrcad>-
the way for
1560 in an
ly and prcs-
' little it as-
)carance\vas
id conditions
le control of
hy, were not
Hut popular
could do to
c in favor of
was destined
ind was con-

Pi |v

Prof. A. C. Zenos, D. D., Chicago.

?i lili

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The PuritAiiR
a Mixed ClasH.

,' i

Presbyterian-
iPin in the New
World.

1038

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

trolled by the Puritans. But the Puritans were a mixed class, includ-
ing moderate Episcopalians, Presbyterians and Independents. Though
the strength of these elements was not formally tested, from the be-
ginning the Presbyterians were in the majority. But the dissensions
among the Puritans prevented the adoption of any of its forms perma-
nently. By appointment of the Long Parliameni an assembly of divines
met at Westminster in 1643, to revise the Thirty-nine Articles and pro-
vide a form of government for the English church. This assembly
found little difficulty in formulating a Confession of F"aith, which it
was led to do by circumstances instead of revising the Articles. But
the task of devising a plan of government proved a far more difficult
task. It was the desire of the majority that all should agree on this
pomt. It would have been a comparatively easy matter to coerce as
small a minority as the Independents and Erastians combined consti-
tuted, but the Presbyterians hoped and worked for unanimity. They
believed in the soundness of their principles and in the efficacy of free
discussion in bringing about the result they desired to reach. Thus it
came to pass that much time was consumed in long, diffuse repetitious
and ultimately fruitless debates over the minutest details of the ques-
tion of polity. Meanwhile the Independents, under Cromwell, came
to the ascendancy in the political sphere and Presbyterianisin received
a fatal blow in England.

" Yet while it was thus effectually checkmated in P^ngland a new-
field was opened for it in the New World. Already before the acces-
sion of Cromwell to power, many had ventured to cross the ocean in
search of a place where they might exercise religious freedom un-
molested. Through the seventeenth century the stream of emigration
continued. And as in its origin .so in its transplantation from the Old
World into the New, Presbyterianism was not controlled or directed
by one man or one center. It came not from one region, but from
well-nigh every country where it had fount! adherents. The French
Huguenot, the German and Dutch Reformed, the .Scotch Covenanter
and the English Puritan planted their colonies and set up their institu-
tions on these shores. Until the beginning of the eighteenth century
these elements worked together. Then those that used the Elnglish
language in their services of worship moved for a more compact
organization. In this they found a most efficient leader in the inde-
fatigable PVancis Makemie. The first presbytery was organized in
Philadelphia in 1705. This step led to a new impulse and growth, and
a decade had scarcely passed before it was followed by the organiza-
tion of the first synod. This was in 1716. In 1729 the synod passed
the adopting act, making the Westminster confession the authorita-
tive creed of the church. Thus after a quarter of a century of ex-
istence without a creed the church had a standard. Subscription was
required to the essentials only. But even thus those in the church
who had come from New England were not entirely satisfied. Two
parties therefore began to appear. One for the strict and one
for the loose interpretation of the constitution. The question of the

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

1030

lud-
)\\g\\
«bc-

rma-
vincs
I pro-
mbly
ich it
But
fficult
•n this
;rcc as
consti-
Thcy
of tree
Thus it
etitious
,c qucs-
[l, canie
eceivetl

i a new
c acces-
jcean in

Jom "<i-
lisrration

he Old
lirectea
jut troin

French

cnantei-
irinstitu-

centuvy

Eniilish
comp'K^t
the in<le-
anizetl in
owth, and
organiza-
od passed
authorita-
ury of cx-
.ption was
lie church

-,cd. Twi)
and one

ion o£ the

educational qualifications of the ministry began to be discussed about
the same time in consequence of the revivals led by the Tennents
and the increased demand for ministers. These discussions led to the
rupture of 1746 between the "old" and the "new sides." But the
differences between these sides were not essential and in 1758 the
breach was healed. Then came a season of growth, and the organiza-
tion of the church was completed in 1788 with the meeting of the
first general assembly. The question of the education of the ministry
was destined to reappear, and this time lead to the more permanent
division between what has been known as the Cumberland Presby-
terians and the mother church. In 1801 a " plan of union" was agreed
upon between the Congregationalists and the Presbyterians for the
more effectual carrying out of the missionary enterprises of botli
denominations. While this measure inured to the benefit of Prcsby-
terianism numerically, it also resulted in the lowering of the standards
to such an extent that many conservatives became alarmed. The
difference between the parties grew until definite efiforts were made to
settle the question in the trials of Albert Barnes and Lyman Beechcr.
In these trials the party favoring the looser interpretation of the
standards prevailed; but the opposite party continued gaining, and in
1837 took act'on which led to the disruption of the old and new
schools. The reunion of 1870 brought these two schools together, but
meanwhile the war of the rebellion caused another division that still
remains."

" Presbyterianism has been reproached for these disruptions. While
the spirit of disunion is not to be justified, it must be recognized, on
the other hand, that disruption under given circumstances is unavoid-
able, and if the unity, peace and purity of the church are the objects
to be aimed at by its organization, the Presbyterian church may be
forgiven if in the effort to secure the last it has not always succeeded
in preserving the other two. But it is not true that the existence of
disruption in its history is an evidence of the lack of catholicity in it.
Rather may it be safely said that whenever the reunion of Christendom
is effected Presbyterianism will be found in the forefront of those who
have labored the most zealously for it."

" Presbyterian Doctrine," by the Rev. Timothy G. Darling, D. D.,
Professor of Systematic Theology in Auburn Seminary, Auburn, N. Y.
The gist of this paper was as follows: "The chief peculiarity of
Presbyterianism is its definite system of doctrine. It stands for the
principle that the knowledge of the truth must precede and condition
the Christian life. Faith is nothing without something definite as its
object. The realization of the ideals given in the .Scriptures can only
take place to the extent that these ideals are understood and held as
convictions. The doctrinal standards of Presbyterianism arc definite,
positive and systematic. It does not encourage the view that truths
held separately are complete or effective; but that they undoubtedly
are when carefully correlated and associated with one another in a con-
sistent scheme. It proceeds therefore, on the assumption that the
Scriptures contain a system of doctrine.

Plan of Union.

Prpsbyterian
Doclrino

!i:.

ll,l!(i

v.. 5;.

;•' ii

aV';

it :\\

'?'"""! ' "'•"■'■■t^TJ^ffl^aESS!

1040

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

" This system has a center and a circumference, parts and mem-
bers. The cental place in it is occupied by God Himself. The corner-
stone of it is the sovereignty of God. God holds and controls the
universe absolutely and effectively and from eternity. He does not
go about either in inherent or self-imposed impotency depending for
the next move on the action of limited changeable creatures,

"The place of man in the system is that of a creature made in the
image of God but fallen into utter ruin and needing restoration to his
former condition. Man, however, 1. as not the power in himself to lift
himself out of his fallen condition. His state is described as spiritual
death. If he shall live again it must be by a process of resurrection;
but this process is from outside not from within. Regeneration is thus
independent of man's own activity.

*' Man is saved because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which is an
expiation of sin and a propitiation of God. The question whether this
expiation or atonement is limited or unlimited should have no place
in a system; it is an atonement not to man but to God. The invitation
siiould be extended to all to accept this atonement and be saved. As
God's purpose catniot be thwarted, those v.ho are regenerated and
have received God's grace persist in it to the end."

The Rev. David Schley Schaff, D. D., pastor of the Westminster
Presbyterian church, of Jacksonville, 111., read a paper on."Prcsbytcri-
anism and Education," as follows in substance: "Christianity and
education are inseparable. Throughout the whole history of the
Christian church this alliance has been noticeable. Kspecially at the
time of the Reformation, however, did the essential character of this
alliance shine forth. The fundamental principles of the Reformers
required them to lay stress on the education of each Christian. The
study of the Bible by the individual could not be insisted on without
education.

"Presbyterianism, more intensely than either generic Christianity
Presbyterian. • or the Protestant form of it, is allied to education. First, it is adaptcil
by its peculiarities to foster education. This adaptation is to be seen
first of all in the emphasis it lays on the sermon. The exposition of
the Word is the principal part of its public worship. The minister is
chiefly a preacher and teacher; the sermon is a discourse of instruc-
tion, not a harangue; its object is to train the mind so that it can
grasp and use the truth as given in the Scriptures. The worship of
the church does not appeal to the lesthetic faculty or to the emotions
as do those of some other denominations, but to the intellect.

"Second, this adaptation is to be seen in its doctrinal system.
The Calvinistic pulpit has been characterized by doctrinal preaching.
The creed and catechisms of Presbyterians are intellectual systems.
To understand them the membership of the church needs intelligence.
The Westminster standards, though somewhat too severe and cold in
their conception and expression and minute in detail, arc admirably
adapted to stimulate thought. The)' also require a certain amount ot
cultivation in order to be understood and accepted. Ami these creeds
are meant to be used by the people.

iBtn and
CJtioa.

liklu.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUGIOXS.

1U41

mem-
orncr-
•Is the
es not
ng for

; in the
\ to his
i to lift
.piritual
rcction;
,1 is thus

ich is an
thcrthis
no place
iivitation
vccl. As
ated antl

stminster
resbyteri-
anity and
ry of the
lly at the
er of this
Kcformers
tian. The
an without

hristianity
is adapted
to be seen
position of
minister is
of instvuc-
that it can
worship of
ic emotions

ct.

nal system,
preaching.
Lial systems.
.ntcUigence.

and cold >n
admirably
n amount of
these creeds

Third, this adaptation is seen in the stress laid by I'rcsbyteri-
anism on the activity of the laity in the management of church affairs.
It finds in the New Testament directly or by im )lication i>rinciples
which lay on the layman, a part of the burden of t le government and
discipline of the church. To do his work well in t lis regard the lay-
man must equip himself for it. This is also true of his position in
church judicatories, such as the session, the presbytery, the classis, the
synod and the general assembly.

"Fourth, this adaptation is seen again in the emphasis laid on a
personal acquaintance with the Scriptures. In the Hible is sound
authority. The ultimate court of appeal is the Hible not an>- ot the
judicatories of the church. Hut each individual must reach this court
for himself. It is to be supposed that the I*rcsb)'terian chii:'!! holds,
and will hold to the inerrancy of the Hible even in matters of non-
essential nature, such as geographical and historical details. 15ut
whatever difference of opinion there may be on this point the .Script-
ures are undoubtedly the infallible rule of faith and practice to every
loyal Presbyterian, and the church demands their acceptance. The
Hible, however, from its variety of content and comprehensi\eiiess of
scope, is in itself the means of a liberal education to the one that
makes good use of it.

"Secondly, in its actual history Prcsbytcrianism has proved itself
the friend of education. The Calvinistic system in New England may
be considered the source of inspiration for the large and useful educa-
tional work of that section. Presbyterianism as a distinct form of
Calvinism founded the Log College in > 746, which, under the names of
the College of New Jersey and Princeton College, has had such a
brilliant history. It was here that some of the ablest and most emi-
nent divines of the church have labored, such as Jonathan Dickinson,
Jonathan Edwards, Witherspoon and a host of others down to the
Alexanders and the Hodges and Dr. James McCosh, not to speak of
any now living and inofifice. The first theological seminary in America
was founded by the Reformed church in New York city, in 1S04; then
came Andover, then Rutgers in 1810, then Princeton in !cSi2, then
LanQ, Auburn, Union, McCormick, Xenia, Allegheny. Columbia, I lamp-
den Sidney, Lancaster and others representing different types of the
Reformed faith.

"Finally, the Presbyterian church makes provision for education
through all its organized agencies. Through its Board of Foreign
Missions it plants schools and colleges in foreign countries. The work
of its Home Missionary Board consists partly in founding and foster-
ing schools in the new regions of this land. Its Board of Frcedmen
cares for the education of the colored poi)ulation. It has a special
board, whose object is to aid needy young men through their aca-
demic, collegiate and seminary course on their way to the ministry.
It has another, whose sole object it is to assist to self-support newly
founded institutions of learning.

" In every way possible, therefore, it puts the cause of education

Tli(> Krii'ivl of
EMiiciitioii.

b>:

)\\

;!■ t:

1042

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

; 1
I

%'\

Presbytorian.
iam a MifHion*
•ry Religion.

Preobyterian
Reunion.

on high ground. It believes that a sound and well-trained mind
is the best possible preparation for a full and free spiritual life."

The evening session of the congress was held by invitation of the
Parliament of Religions in connection with the Parliament in the
Hall of Columbus. The first paper was read by the Rev. Herman D.
Jenkins, D. D., pastor of the P"irst Presbyterian church of Sioux City,
Iowa. The substance of the paper was as follows: "American Pres-
byterianism has been always animated by the missionary spirit. It
was started not for the purpose of founding a sect but of evangelizing
the colonists. It was a movement not to oppose any other church but
to advance, not to divide but to multiply. The Presbyterian Church
in America thus moved toward the needs of men. It made its home
in the pioneer's cabin; its house of worship it built in the clearing. It
grew with the growth of the nation. \\,xc\\ wave of growth carried
with it the Presbyterian form of Christianity. Thus at present Pres-
byterianism is preached in more than twenty languages throughout
the land and everywhere it finds a home. It is not limited to the East
or to the West. In New Jersey four per cent, of the population accept
it and the same proportion in the Indian Territory. Its home mission-
ary activity is most zealous and widespread. In consequence it has
grown much faster than the population of the country. While the lat-
ter has been multiplied sevenfold during the last hundred years, Pres-
byterianism has grown fortyfold. P>vidcntly Cod has blessed it as a
missionary church.

" Its foreign missionary work is not less remarkable for extent and
residts. It has nearly seventeen hundred missionaries in the foreign
field, besides seven thousand native workers. It has gathered one
hundred and fifty thousand members into its communion and over
three quarters of a million of adherents. The growth of the church
has been more rapid in the foreign field than at home. At home the
growth has been within the last ten years at the rate of thirty-nine per
cent; abroad it has been one hundred and nineteen per cent. Be-
sides these results there remain the results that cannot be put into
figures, of work through schools, hospitals and printing presses.

" This survey must have its practical lesson. P^angclism is the
cure of sectarianism. The needs of such a vastly ramified work must
be taken into account in all future efforts to modify the standards.
Missionary enterprises enrich the church with a practical theology.
We need not a new theology, but the adaptation of the old to the
needs and exigencies of evangelism."

" Presbyterian Reunion" was the last of the papers read. It was
by Principal George Monro Grant, of Kingston, Ont., and is as follows:
"At this Congress every church is called upon to review its history, to
state its distinctive principles and to ask whether it has sufficient vital-
ity to adapt these to changed conditions of time, country and society;
in a word, whether it has a moral right to continue as a separate organ-
ization, and if it has, why it does not present an unbroken front and
give a united testimony to an assembled world. The principles of a

THE WORLD'S COXC.RESS OF RKLIGIOXS.

]()4:?

mind

)f the
1 the
anD.
: City,
Pres-
it. It
elizing
ch but
:hurch
i home
ing. It
earned
it Pres-
)Ughout
lie East
n accept
nnission-
;e it has
; the lat-
irs, Prcs-
:d it as a

<tent and
r foreign
lered one
and over
le church
home the

nine per

ent. Bc-
put into

sses.

ism is the
work must

standards.

theology.

old to the

Id.

churcli constitute the law of its being. They may ho obscured for a
time, but if the principles be true they will rea.ssert themselves. They
are the only bases on which a reunion can be effected. The church
must be broad enough to include all who are faithful to its basic prin-
ciples, and strong enough to put up with varieties of opinion not in-
consistent with its life.

"Going back, then, to the Reformation to discover the principles
of Presbyterianism, we find that, first, the reformers were men of faith,
and the essence of their faith was theCiospel. The>- believed that Goil
had revealed Himself to Israel as a (iod of redeeming love, by ways,
methods and means suited to the childhood and youth of the World',
and that this revelation culminated in Christ andllis (iospcl. As the
revelation was recorded in Holy .Scriptures they counted these be>ond
all price, and they studied them under all the lights of their time with
all the fearlessness of men of science who may doubt theirown powers
but never doubt the truth of God. The first principle, then, of tlie
Presbyterian church, is that the church must be evangelical, and the
good news which it preaches must be that which is contained in the
Word of God.

"Second, the reformers were churchmen. They ilid not believe
that the individual religious sentiment expressed the whole religious
nature of men and that the term 'visible church' was erroneous. The)-
believed that the Lord founded a society or church, gave to it Ilimself
as Supreme Lawgiver and Head, gave an initiatory rite and an out-
ward bond of union, a definite portion of time for ])ublic worship and
special service, along with injunctions, aims, promises and penalties
that a .society requires for its guidance and which are now Scripturally
fixed for all time.

"Third, the reformers believed in publicly confessing their crceil,
or setting it forth in formal statements from time to time. These con-
fessions were testimonies, not tests. A faith in the Gospel made them
comparatively indifferent to formulas. What was originally a testi-
mony has since been made a test. It is the greatest error and mis-
fortune that the flower of the .soul of one generation has been con-
verted by a strange alchemy into an iron bond for future generations.

"Fourth, the reformers asserted the democratic principle and em-
bodied it in representative legislatures and courts, to express the will
and preserve the unity of the church. They discovered the individual
and gave him lis rightful place" in the church and in society. They
taught that man as man entered into union with God by asi)iritual act,
and that every man who did so was a king, a priest and a prophet. I
need scarcely point out how far we have departed in practice from this
])rinciple. We have made our church government aristocratic. The
laity are wholly unrepresented in our church courts, exce[)t in as far as
it may be said that all the members are laymen, because we have
abolished the medieval distinction of clergy and laity.

" I have sketched the principles that must be accepted as the basis
of any future union: The evangelical principle, the church principle,

Till- Crccil a
ToHtimouj, Not
iiTi'st.

Ill

K' :

w: \\

I'rouil of Our
■ 'roHbyteriun.
i8m.

1(U4

T//£ IVOKLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

the national and confessional principle, and the democratic principle.
Are we now prepared to act upon these principles frankly and unre-
servedly? If so, it seems to me that the circumstances in which wc
meet {jive us a wider horizon and a wider outlook than Presbyterian
reunion, thouijh that might come first.

" We have been proud of our Christianity instead of allowing it
to crucify us. So, have we i ot been proud of our Presbyterianism in-
stead of allowing it to purify and enlarge our vision and fit us for serv-
ice and sacrifice in our own day and land, along the lines on which
Luther, Calvin and Knox labored, until God called them to Himself?
We have thus made Presbyterianism a sect, forgetting that Knox's
prayer was, ' Lord, give me Scotland or I die.' God heard and answered
' is cry. Should not your prayer be. 'Lord, give us this great and goodly
iand, as dear to our souls as .Scotland was to Knox.' Remember that
wp shall never commend the church to the people, unless we have faith
in the living Head of the church; unless we believe with Ignatius that
where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church, and with Robert
Hall, 'He that is good enough for Christ is good enough for me.'
Alas, our churches have not thought so; therefore, our history is on
the whole a melancholy record. The ablest expounder of the New
Testament that I heard when a student in .Scotland was Morrison, !Mo
founder of the t^vangelical Union. Him the United Presbyterian
church cast out. The holiest man I ever knew was John McLeod
Campbell, whose work on the 'Atonement' is the most valuable con-
tribution to the great subject thatthe Nineteenth Century has produced.
Him the Church of .Scotland cast out. The most brilliant scholar I
ever met, the man who could liave done the church greater service
than any other Lnglish writer in the field of historical criticism, where
service is most needed, was Robertson .Smith. Him the P'ree Church
of Scotland cast out from his chair. Of course, these churches are
ashamed of themselves now, but think of what they lost, think of what
Christ lost by their sin, and if, wheresuch vast interests are concerned, we
may think of individuals, think of the unspeakable crucifixion of soul
that was inflicted on the victims. It would ill become me to suggest
that you do not do these things better in the United States. Yet, with-
out adverting to recent cases where the ashes of controversy are not,
I may be pardoned for saj'ing that the church which cut off at one.
stroke the presbytery of New Brunswick, and subsequently those who
formed the great Cumberland Presbyterian church, and which cut off
at another stroke four synods without a trial, need not hesitate to fall
on its knees with the rest of us and cry, 'we have sinned.' P'athers and
Brethren, God give us the grace to repent, and strength from this time
forth to go and do otherwise."

unrc-
ich wt;
^tcrian

wing it
ism in-
jr scrv-
1 \\\\\c\\
inisclf?
Knox's
iiswcrcd
l^ootUy
ibcr that
avc faith
itius that
U Robert
lor mc'
ory is on
the New
rison, 'l^^
;sbytcrian
1 McLcocl
uablc con-
nroduccii.
t scholar 1
tcr service
ism. where
rce Church
lurches are
ink of what
icerned, we
cion of soul
; to suggest
Yet, with-
rsy are not.
. oH at one.
V those who
fhichcutof
sitatc to fal
l<^athers and
om this time

T//E IVORLD'S COXGRESS OF JiEL/GIONS.
THE CONGREGATIONAL CONGRESS.

i(»ir,

When the first sugjTcstion came, as a thou^^ht from (iod, of a World's
Congress to be held in connection with the World's Cohiinbiaii I<:xpo-
sition, especially of a vast group and scries of religious coii^r,vsscs,
no one responded more quickly, or with a deeper cntluisiasni, than
did leading members of the Congregational denomination. The Par-
liament of Religions was only one part of the World's Religious Con-
gress. Half its meaning, and more than half its value, would have
been wanting, had it not been for the multitude of other great relig-
ious and missionary congresses which preceded attended and fol-
lowed the Parliament.

The genesis of Congregationalism was in England; its first exodus
to the New World was from Holland, and it was the" Mayflower " which
bore to Plymouth Re ■!; this choicest and fruitfulcst seed-corn of all
American immigration, religious, civil and educational. Congregation-
alism stands for the Evanj'elical faith, a regenerate life, and a principle
of church government; the church polity is that of a pure democracy,
under the one Lord and Master, Historically, Congregationalism was
the pure outcome of the Reformation, and was a return, straight and
immediate, to the sole authority of the Word of God. In all matters
of the religious life and church control its loyalty to Christ alone
makes it disown "the authority of pope, prelate, prince, or parliament."
The acceptance of the supreme authority of God, as revealed in His
Word and in Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, is the fundamental thought,
All doctrine, dll niotives, all rules of the Christian life are subjected to
this test. But, along with this independency of the local church, Con-
gregationalism holds to the idea of the fellowship of the churches. As
to the fittest methods of church fellowship, on the basis of the freedom
and spiritual equality of the several churches, there has been a good
deal of experimentation. If it took courage to dare to he fnr, it has
required an equal degree of courage, while insisting upon freedom, to
dare to enter upon terms of fcllozvsftip, mutual trust, council and co-
operation. The present system of "councils" and of "associations,"
local, state and national, and at length international, came about only
by degrees. The existing combination of the immediateness of each
one's accountability to God, of the independency of each local church
of all outside human authority, and with this an organized system of
church-fellowship, has been an achievement, the victory of a long-
growing "sanctified common sense." So that that which not long ago
seemed to the fathers impossible has now come to appear axiomatic
and altogether natural.

Congregationalists do not consider themselves better than other
Christians, whatever their ecclesiastical name, and they are apt to
affirm with all emphasis that "one is our Master, and all we arc breth-
ren." If they do not say much about "organic union" and the "re-
union of Christendom," it is because they care infinitely more about the
vital and the actual than the merely formal union, that ought every-
where and with all distinctness to be recognized of all who are really

('iiniircKiilidii.
nlihin.

.■'

:|i

!' 5^

I. «

1! 'i*

i' : ;l

IM ■; ■ ii .

If»"

104(5

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS.

-m

\ •'

\\i

! ,; I ■

one in spirit and life with Clirist. It is for this reason that Congrc^fa-
tionalists found such occasion for rejoicing and for hope in that great
I'arl lament of Man, with its more than one hundred and fifty distinct
congresses, that will always make the year 1893 so signally historic.
And it is for the same reason that they rejoiced most of all in
that sublime procession and grouping of the VVorld's Religious Con-
gresses, of which the Parliament of Religions was indeed the most
novel, the most picturesque and imposing, and perhaps the most
significant part.

Any fair statement and story of what Congregationalists had to do
in helping to make these congresses what they were, could hardly fail
to be of interest to intelligent religionists of every name. And,
firstly, it may be noted that the man who, after President C. C.
Bonney, had most to do in originating, creating and carrying through
to such victorious success the Parliament of Religions, Rev. John
Henry Barrows, D. D., though now pastor of a Presbyterian church,
was by birth, education and training, in all his earlier ideals, traditions
and ministry, a Congrcgationalist — "ten years a Presbyterian; two hun-
dred and fifty years a Congrcgationalist." And taking the congresses
all through, no other single denomination was so largely represented as
the Congregational, as will be .seen by a careful study of the various

('.mRrpRation- programmes. Of the Congregationalists who took leading part in the
aiirttM in the parliament of religions were: Dr. F. A. Noble, a member of the general

oDKretB. committee and who frequently assisted Dr. Barrows in presiding;

Rev. Maurice Phillips, Madras, India, who read a paper on Primitive
Hindu Religionand Primitive Revelation; Joseph Cook, Certainties in
Religion; Dr. Lyman Abbott, Religion Pvssentially Characteristic of
Humanity; President George Washburne, Robert College, Constanti-
nople, Points of Contact between Christianity and Mohammedanism;
Dr. T. T. Munger, Christianity as Interpreted by Literature; Dr.
Samuel Dike, the Christian View of Marriage; Rev. Mrs. Annis F.
F^astman, The Influence of Religion on Woman; Prof. George P.
Fisher, Yale University, Christianity a Religion of Facts; Rev. J. T.
Yokoi, Japan, Christianity as Understood by a Japanese; Prof. Waldo
S. Pratt, Religion and Music; Dr. James Brand, Christian P^vangeliza-
tion as one of the Working Forces of our American Christianity;
President Kosaki, of the Doshisha, Japan, Christianity as Verified by
PLxperience; PLvangelist B. Fay Mills, Christ the Saviour of the World;
Dr. Washington Gladden, Christianity as a Social Force; President
W. A. P. Martin, Imperial College, Peking, International Obligatic 3
to China; Dr. G. F. Pentecost, Present Outlook for Religion; Dr.
Francis E. Clark, Christianity as Seen bj' a Voyager Around the World;
Dr. H. Blodgett, Why Chinese Christians Should Unite in Using the
Term, " Tien-chu " for God; Rev. R, A. Hume, What are the Points ot
Contact and Contrast Between Christian and Hindu Thought, and
Editor W. T. Stead, on The Civic Church.

In the Congress of the Religious Press, four leading Congregational
journals were represented, the Advance of Chicago, the Congregation-

)*L

;rcga-
gveat
istinct
istoric.
all in
5 Con-
e most
ic most

id to do
rdly tad
> And,

at C. C
through
■ev. John
^ church,
traditions

; two hun-
-ongresses
csented as
he various
part in the
the general
presiding;
^ Primitive
^rtainties in
icteristic ot
Constanti-
i;niedanism;

rature; L)V
Annis 1^^-

George I •
V. Rev. 3. J
iW.WaW"

Evange\i7.a-

Christiamty;

Verified by

{ the World;

cc; Presidcin

\ Obligatie^^

Relicion; \ V
ndtheWord,

in Using the.

the Points ot

Frhought, and

.on

grcgati'
Congn-gati

onal

ft(j»/_6-C0w>«tv <o-CHi-

■ • -■"■"

Rev. Simeon Gilbert, D. D., Chicago.

/, i ': •':

11:

on-

ti;

_JS=:

!! 'I

f! ^

11: ;■' I ^

( I i

- 't

i. :.

•1

, ri

! i

i;
f

CoDKregntioD-
nli8tH in Mix-
MionB.

The Pilgrim

Fatherw.

104S

jy/A' WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

alist of Hostoti, aiul the Independent .'ind Christion Union of New York.
Among the papers presented were those by Dr. Simeon Gilbert, of the
A/tw;/ri', chairman of the committee; Rev. Howard A. Bridgman, of
the Conf^egatiomdist ; Joseph Cook; Rev. F. Herbert Stead, Lon-
don; Miss H. A. Farrand, of the Advance, and others. In other con-
gresses papers were read or addresses made by Miss Jane Addams, of
the Hull house, Mrs. Jo.seph Cook, Gen. O. O. Howard, Gen. C. H.
Howard and others.

In the World's Missionary Congress, Congregationalists were
represented by Rev. Dr. Walter M. Harrows, chairman of the General
Missionary Congress, and by Mrs. F. W. Fisk, chairman of the Wo-
man's missionary congress; also by the following speakers: Dr. Gra-
ham Taylor, Dr. Samuel H. Virgin, Professor Kozaki (Japan), Dr. H.
M. Scott, Dr. Francis K. Clark, Dr. A. N. Hitchcock, Dr. George
Washburn, Rev. J. L. Barton (Turkey), Rev. W. Klliot Griffis, Rev.
Gilbert Reed (China) and Dwight L. Moody; also by Miss Mary C.
Collins, Mrs. Moses Smith, Mrs. Flora A. Regal, Mrs. C. H. Daniells,
Rev. G. Frederick Wright and Fdna Dean I'toctor.

The Congregational Church Congress convened in the Hall of
Columbus, .September loth, the day just preceding the opening of the
Parliament of Religions. This congress had the honor of being the fit-
ting preface and prelude to the parliament, which was convened the
following day.

As each denomination was privileged to make a "presentation" of
its distinctive methods of church government and religious tenets, its
history and claims upon the attention of mankind, so the representa
tives of the church which in this country traces its ancestry to the Pil-
grims and the Puritans of New England, made their opening day, also
the "presentation day," showing alike the principles and purposes ot
Congregationalism, and tracing its history and the growth of its influ-
ence from the birth of the Congregational idea down to the present
day. Dr. Willard Scott, chairman of the committee, presided. Other
members of the committee were Rev. Simeon Gilbert, D. I)., Rev. J.
G. Johnson. D. D., W. K. Hale, F. W. Blatchford and William F.
Poole, LL. D. President Bonney, opening the congress, with the in-
telligence, ju.stness of thought and felicity of expression which char-
acterized all his addresses on similar occasions, said that, next to
October 22, 1492, on the scroll of the world's glories. December 21,
1620, should be inscribed; for, since the " Santa Maria" bore Columbus
to the New World, no more important voyage had been made by an>'
ship than that of which the " Mayflower" bore the Pilgrim fathers to tlu'
landing place of Plymouth Rock. This ship brought to the New
World little in the form of material wealth, but it was richly laden with
the seeds of liberty and justice, which, sowed in the fruitful American
soil, had produced during the succeeding generations such harvests f)l
civil and religious liberty as had not been surpassed by those gathered
elsewhere in all the world. Wherever throughout the great republic
the children of the Pilgrim and the Puritan had gone, flowers of the

w York-
•t, of the
rman, of
[d, Lon-
her con-
Idanis, of
.n. C. H.

ists were
c General
[ theWo-
: Dr. Gra-
i), Dr. H.
)r. George
riffis, Rev.
s Mary <-•
[. Daniells,

lie Hall of
ling of the
ciing the tit-
nvencd the

cntation" of
,s tenets, its
rcpresenta
■y to the Pil-
ing day, als..
purposes «)1
I of its influ-
:) the present
ided. Other
D., Rev. J,
William i^.
with the in-
which char-
that, next to
December 21.
ore Columbus
made by any
n fathers to Uu'
t to the New
hly laden with
itful American
ach harvests o
those gatherc-a
great repubiu
flowers of tlK

•

■ ^ '.'-•,

S^^v'*»-?1

^^1

j^|V

^^*

•^^

-f^k <

ifBKr'

< '

Rev. Alejcander McKenzie, D. D., Cambridge, Mass.'

I ■

■1

! i •■

■li H'

I' i:

■m

! W t

1 -lii

1:1 if

I ' -i

Firfit ThiiiKH
i n roncroga-
tiunulism.

1:1

1 ''

ku i

1050

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS.

highest culture had sprung up in their footsteps. Wherever they had
made their homes, cultivated farms or builded towns, the highest do-
mestic virtues had been conspicuous; pieliy, peace and good order had
flourished, and education, both for the people and in its higher forms,
had been a dominant power. The Congregational church, he said,
represented the town meeting in civil government, and the free con-
gregation in the church. The town meeting was the nursery of the
republic, and the church, which is its spiritual life and guide, was the
means by which the providence of God had elevated this primary
council of the people for the purpose of good government, from a
sordid strife for leadership to an almost sacred college of preparation
for the highest duties of Christian citizenship. Thus the Congrega-
tional church occupied a peculiarly exalted and influential place in
American history. In a brief response. Dr. .Scott glanced at the suc-
cessive stages of religious thought, oriental and occidental, which had
led the way to the movement that issued in Congregationalism. The
oriental mind, he said, was a good listener, but not such a good
thinker. It was therefore left to the European to iliscover man's na-
ture as God made him. He began by looking inward rather than out-
ward, and this study of the constitution of man resulted in a .system
of ethics or religious philosophy. The next step was the translating
of this philosophy into the language of the people. In America there
was yet another step in the religious movement peculiar to our coun-
try and institutions. What we want now is to translate this system of
religious philosophy into human behavior and live the things we have
heard. The Puritan and the Pilgrim of today is he who is living for
the social emancipation of the world.

"First Things in Congregationalism." Prof. Williston Walker, of
Hartford Theological Seminary, in a strong, scholarly paper, outlined
what may be termed the evolution of Congregationalism; its origin in
England, its partial organization in Holland, its divinely guided voy-
age to America in the "Mayflower," its early history in New England,
and its subsequent development. If any type of church government
deserved to be called American it was Congregationalism. Its for-
mative influence had been felt in a greater or less degree by all the
religious bodies that occupied this land. It had modified other sys-
tems of church government, making them vastly different from what
they are on P^uropean soil; while, if its adherents in name were not
the most numerous of the tribes of our American Israel, '^'^ Christian
body equaled the Congregational in services to education and to those
mterests which make for the intellectual well-being of our nation. If
the Puritans gave us the love of education, the executive force and the
business ability which have marked the descendants of New P^ngland
parentage throughout our land, the Separatists gave us Congrational-
ism. The task which they accomplished was the Congregationalizing
of American Puritanisms.

"The Congregational Idea." Prof. Mary A. Jordan, of Smith
College, Northampton, Mass., set forth its elementary characteristics

ley ha*-^
lest do-
der had
r forms,
lie said,
ICC con-
y of the
"was the

primary
:, from a
jparation
lunsrcga-

placc in

the suc-
vhich had
ism. The
h a U^od
man's na-
r than ovit-
, ii system
translating;
erica there

our coun-
s system of
igs we have

livinti for

Walker, of
icr, ovitlincd
its origin in
guided voy-
;w KngUmd.
government
5m. Its for-
;c by all the
d other sys-
it from what
me were not
-o Christian
1 and to those
ir nation. It
force ant' the
s;ew England
Congrational-
;gationalizing

Ian, of Smith
characteristics

Prof. Williston Walker, Hartford, Conn.

; ?; I' i

The ConKre-
gational Idtia.

ConKreRation-
filism o{ To-
day

1052

T///; IVORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

with penetration and justness of thought, emphasizing especially the
demand it makes for a definitely and continually thoughtful quality in
the religious life. It tolerates no free-and-easy way of settling one's
religious accounts, and favors no easy-going liberality. !t cannot be
content with fog and moonshine. The history of Congregationalism,
she declared, makes it, of natural right, the most thoughtful of
cliurches. Indeed, without constant, aggressive, discriminating, intel-
lectual activity, the Congregational church had no reason for being.
Robert Browne, Harrison, Greenwold, Barrowe, Ainsworth, John Rob-
inson, John Goodwin and John Milton — if they did not stop to assert
the duty of religious thought, it was because they were so terribly in
earnest in securing the means by which to make it possible. Church
fellowship, that amounts to an3'thing, could not exist in an intellectual
vacuum. By every requirement of loyalty and consistency, the Con-
gregationalist should be, in his theology, as in everything else, a stu-
dent, a thinker. Reform belongs inevitably to his programme. God
must be served by the intellect as well as with the heart. Congrega-
tionalism demands, today as always, a virile, intellectual religion. It
was in perfect accord with the Congregational idea when Phillips
Brooks declared that, "Worse than any blunder or mistake which any
man can make in his religious thinking, is the abandonment of religious
thought altogether and the consignment of the infinite interests of man
to the mere region of feeling and emotion; it really ought to be out of
our best thinking power that our deepest love is born." In this gen-
eration, of all the world has known, it is not safe to neglect the intel-
lectual element in our religious life. The ideal of the Christian
democracy of today demands the intellectual vigor and enterprise of
the Puritan as well as that humane, that divine passion for humanity
which makes each one ready to put the best that he has at the disposal
of all, for the advantage not of self but of the great congregation.

" The Congregationalism of Today." Dr. Henry A. Stinison, of
New York, said: " In taking our place in the Parliament of Religions,
wc announce to the world that Congregationalism exists; there had been
generations of Congregationalists who hardly knew they were such, so
remarkable had been their denominational unselfishness. They had
little thought of pushing the denomination, and much of forwarding
the kingdom of Christ. Where, he asked, is there a parallel to the
disinterested labors of two centuries of Congregationalists in found
ing colleges and academies for all the land without a thought of selt-
aggrandizement? They extend across the continent from Bowdoin
in Maine to Pomona in California — open to all, never Congregational
in any restricted or sectarian sense, but Congregational in parentage
and dependence for their daily support. We believe that the church
is the body of Christ. We need no priest, no clergy, no bishop, no
eldership to mediate or to secure for us access to the Lord. Therefore
it is permitted to us also to claim that, as a denomination, wc have
exalted the work of our laymen and have laid exceptional emphasis
upon the duty of special culture on the part of laymen to meet their
tasks."

■Uy the
ality in
g one's
inot be
nalism,
itful of
g, intcl-
r being,
in Rob-

assert
rribly in

Church
ellectual
he Con-
ic, a stu-
ic. God
ongrega-
gion. It

1 Phillips
/hich any

religious
tsof man

be out of
I this gen-

the intel-

Christian
terprise of

humanity
le disposal
ration,
•timson, of

Religions,
re had been
ere such, so

They had

forwarding
allel to the
,ts in found
jght of selt-
)m Bowdoin
igregational
in parentage
; the church
o bishop, no
1. Therefore
ion, we have
nal emphasis
to meet their

H r

Rev. Henry A. Stinson, New York.

*i n

'Mk

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y'v '

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WiiWWK,^,

ill

( i

■ ■ I i I '. ■ f

!l .!

i Ml

l<riti!<li H n d
Aiii.ricim Con-
i;r(>KatioiialiHtH

The WcHf nnd
South.

Other PapoFB.

loot

TiV/i WORLD'S CONCRKSS OF REUGIONH.

" The Rchitiont" of Hritish ami American ('on^ne<4,itioiiaIists."
The Rev. I Iiij^h I'edlej', of VVinnepe^f, said: " In ICiij^hiiul there is a ^reat
brotherhood of the churches known as hulependent orConf^rej^ational,
a brotherhood that takes in about four thousand churches. In America
there is another brotherhood of about five thousantl churches bearing
the same name. Hoth of these represent practically the same denu)-
cratic conception of the church v>f Christ. Hach has had and has today
puljiits that are moldiufr human thouj^ht in the wider circles; each of
these has a litej'aturc worthy of the deepest respect; each of these
has its institutions of learning; each has its history written large
in the chronicles and still larger in the character of the nations in
which its lot has been cast. Three words, he said, might be used to
describe the relations between the two great bodies. These are:
Kindliness, curiosity and criticism. There is kindliness. No one could
doubt that who attended the meetings of the International Congrega-
tional Council two years ago. There is curiosity, too, and curiosity is
the virtuous side of ignorance. We are not curious where we know.
There is, he frankly admitted, a fairly massive amount of ignorance
in Britain about American Congregationalism. In order that the two
great churches in England and America might draw more closely
together, he suggested three uniting agencies. Some form of inter-
national journalism that should acquaint each with the doings of the
other, international councils and international colleges."

" What Congregationalism had done in the West and South." Dr.
A. K. .Sherrill, of Georgia, said: This was thought to be too large a
theme for any twenty minutes. To trace the all-pervasive work and
influence of tho.se two glorious agencies, the American Missionarj' So-
ciety in the West, continually westward from the famous " Hyram
river" to the Pacific, and the American Missionary Association in the
.South, founding and sustaining universities, colleges, normal and other
schools for the colored people all over the .South, beginning in this even
before the war had closed — all this would be to trace a great deal ol
the finest and most fruitful history of our country during the past hall
century.

Yet larger was the inspiring task of Dr. Judson Smith, Secretary
of the American Hoard, Boston, to tell how in the worldwide mission-
ary enterprise Congregationalism had Opened the Nations. In the
treatment of this magnificent theme it was shown how, through the
American Board of Missions — the oldest foreign missionarj' societ)-
in America— there had been planted the new centers of light and civ-
ilization in almo.st every part of the world. Enough had already been
done to show how it is that the union of all nations is to come about,
and that " parliament of man " which is the dream of prophet, poet
and philanthropist. The subject of Dr. Alexander McKenzie's brill-
iant address was, "Congregationalism and the World," and that of
Dr. E. W. Gunsaulus's paper, which he wastoo ill to read, was " Puritan-
ism in Eloquenceand Literature."

Altogether, inadequate though it was, this combined " Prcscnta-

alists.'
is a ^icp.t
•Rational,
1 America

:s bearing
me tlcnu)-
has today
:s; each of
, of these
tten huge

nations in
be used to
These are:
) one couUl

Congress-
curiosity is
:c we know.
{ ignorance
hat the two
nore closely
rm of inter-
oings of the

South." "Dr-
,c too large a
vc work ami
issionary So-

lous " By»'\"^
ciation m the
Tial and other
<rin this even
i great deal ol
rthe past hall

lith, Secretary
hvide mission
tions. In t he
w. through tin-

ionary society
■ light and civ-
d already been
to come about,
{prophet poet
.cKenzie's hriU-
\\- and that ot
.1,'was " Puritan-

„ed " Prcscnta-

Rev. Frank Gunsaulus, D. 0., Chicago.

<I1 !i

: k

■!,>'

ili

''^'»'tfMi%.m<tMtr,;

1 ;.'

u^ it evident that, among
tion of Con.re.ationaU.^^^ aT^creTtn^cU— ^^^
all the Christian forces and ag ^^^ ^^^^u^ToM, the Congrc-

closer, justcr n?°/^^,vf/Sdom of Christ in ^^^i^^V^J^'nhonored place,
deavor to actualize he kmg ^^.^gnized and J°\;\" there issome-

thingI'u.eCongregag-^

and inspiring t° VncT' T^eidcaof thesp^^^^^^^ ^. t cxclu-

thrcc measures of H^^^^;^ tionalism. could no^ ^ont j.^^ ^^^

and distinctive '" ^ongregai t«^"^^",' *!," n the home, in the

sively for the men. It ''t."\\_ % the churches, »""*-, ^ in the
Slight for tV\e women, al- ^^^^ ^^

school. Accordingly, It ^^c^ ^^^^^^ j^^^^. l"^V^!? , th to 14th, \vcrc

Congregational Congress f^^^^'^^^.^ions, ^^P^embei nth to 4 ^

Beecher Preusznci ^^ h oU ^^^^^ evidently been J r.tte^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^

well prepared. 1"*, pap realized ".'^^I'V,.^,! elevat on and

rnlcLclulness, as though each^ o ,uey evinced marUdcl^v^
so great an occasion, lo ^ay ^ j^^ble power in tl^e - j^ ^^^

enfehtcnment of thought, anrt a ^^^^^^ goes withou t^^^^ > .^^^^^^^^
t lei? thought, would be o"ly to y^^^^^^^^^ '^"^*"'' ivaS which the
the matter of education ana 1 ^^^^^^^ <^r'Vn^^cior the doing
days are leaving opened to ^^^ ■ ,,d "^^^^'^'^..p the darkness

schools can offer, and every 11 ^^^^^, ^f ^'Sh*";|'. the world over.
?o the utmost their part in the 3 ^,^j ^^ar and far tnc ^^^^^

and lessening the «orro^ s ot ma ^^^^ ^Ky merited only

And if in this Cong';eg^^'^*\^J,J,^s So fault of th*^^''^' .^^Jt C^o ^^^ did.
(he lion's share, 't at anV ^^^^J^, f^r all th^tthey set out to^^ ^^ ^^
■commendation and gatetu ^^ i" \^'^^^Ccrega ional women at

The papers, P"°"^"''„^rs presented by Congrct,d ,^ ^^^^ ^

show how wide f "'^ ;'^" ^ed by them. historically Considered,

was covered and 'l^^f^^Son to Woman H^^^^oricai y

The Re ation of R^^g'^^ ^ew York; The p^^^^^]^ ^f the Pd-
Rev. Mrs. A"?}%^;„5d Sis; Hymn for tV"i,Cf ^^^^jtan Mothers,
Idea, Mrs. A !;• ^"^S^i^on ohnson, Chicago, Jhel^ ^^^ p tan
grims, Mrs. James Gibson j influence of the Fiig ^^^^.^^ ^as-

, among
ng into
one en-
Congrc-
d place,
is some-
cinating
t in "the
^ so vital
)t exclu-
ike good
le, in the
art in the
id rose so
4th, were
r Splen-
'ns for it.
s. Roxana
singularly
h exceed-
,vas tlue to
vation and
ng forth of
iaying; foi'
en in these
t; which the
' the doing
le darkness
world over,
to have had
nerited only
do and did.
ought to be.
al women at
)uld make a
[ter of regret
en these win
lought which

Considered,
and Puritan

n of the Pil-

itan Mothers,

and Puritan

Austin, Mas-

km, Rev. Miss
has done tor

Iran's Work in

i III

•1

Mrs. C. H. Taintor, Chicago.

ii;

•r I

105S

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

ill

the Church, Mrs. Elvira B, Cobleigh, VVashiiifjton; Poem, Miss Emily
Gilniorc Aldcn, Illinois; Women as Teachers in the Congregational
Church, Mrs. Sarah B. Cooncr, California; Women at the Outposts of
Congregationalism, Mrs. Elizabeth Emerson Humj)hrey, Illinois; The
Mayflower as a Symbol of Faith, Mrs. Ella Heecher Gittings, Colo-
rado; The Christian Home in its Relation to the State, Mrs. E. H.
Merrell, Wisconsin; to the Church, Mrs. Joseph Ward, South Dakota;

'ontribntorii to the Labor Problem, Miss Jane Addams, Chicago; to Social Life, Rev.

. le ongresH ^|jj,.y. L,. Moreland, Illinois; The Growing Independence of Woman,
and the Home, Mrs. George H. Ide, Wisconsin; The Church and the
Children, Mrs. Julia Holmes Boynton, Massachusetts; Congregational-
ism in New Countries, Mrs. Louise J. Hevan, Australia; The Modern
I'ilgrim Woman,' Miss H. A. Earrand, of \\\c Advance ; Silhouettes of
the Women of an Old Congregational Family, Mrs. R().xana Beeclier
Preuszncr, Chicago; Woman and the Bible, Mrs. Edgar Wylie, Illinois;
On the Frontier, Miss Mary C. Collins, North Dakota; Poem, Miss Ella
G. Ives, Massachusetts; Settlements for Women Workers, Mrs.
Rebecca II. Chectham, London; Christian Educational Work "n the
New West, Miss Millie A. Hand, Wisconsin; Hymn, Mrs. G. B. Will-
cox, Chicago; A Bit of History Concerning the Higher Education of
Women, Aliss Harriet N. Haskell, Illinois; Women and the Social Life
of the Church, Rev. Miss Jeannette Olmstead, Ohio; What Congrega-
tional Women have done for the Colored Race, Mrs. (i. W. Moore.
Tennessee; Gospel Generosity, Mrs. Kate Upson Clark, New V'ork;
Hymn, Mrs. Margaret E. Sangster, New York; Women in the Making
of the Newer States, Mrs. C. H. Taintor, Chicago; Aims of the V'o:k-
shire Woman's (iuiltl of Christian Service, Mrs. Ella S. Armitage,
England; .Sacred Singers of our Church, Mrs. M. B. No.ton, Vermont;
Our Churches, Our Colleges, Mrs. A. A. F. Johnston, Ohtv>; Congrega-
tional Women as Pioneers in Foreign Missions, Mrs. .Sarah S. C.
Angell, Michigan; Hynm, The New Womanhood, Mrs. Merrill E.
Gates, Massachusetts, and Summons of the Coming Century to the
Women of Today, Mrs. Martha J. Bradley, Illinois.

li ii

TIlh PhiloBO-
l>liy of Muthod-

IHllI,

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CONGRESS.

This great body was represented by an able corps of representa-
tives, who occupied from September 25th to 30th, inclusive. Presen-
tation Day was Tuesday, the 26th, in the Hall of Columbus. The sub-
stance of the papers here follows:

" The Philosophy of the Methodist Doctrine." The Rev. M. S. Ter-
ry, D. D., Evanston, III.: There is no written creed in the Methodist
church, out a "common consensus of fundamental doctrine, so well
understood and cherished by the great body of our people that no min-
ister or layman can noticeably make any considerable departure from
it without speedy detection. Wesley's Fifty-three Sermons, 1771, in

!i^

'i4.

I Emily
jTational
posts of
ois; I'hc
rs, Colo-
ns. E.H.
Dakota;
.ifc, Kev.
Woman,
1 and the
;{rational-
c Modern
)ucttes of
I Bccchcr
c, Illinois;
Miss Klla
:crs, Mrs.
ork n the
J. B. Will-
ucation of
Social Lifi^
Congrct^a-
VV. Moore.
New Vork;
the Making
f the Yo.k-
. Armitai^e.
1, Vermont;
;'ConRrega;
Sarah S. C.
Merrill K.
iitury to the

f reprcsenta-
ive. I'resen-
us. The sub-

KCV.M.S.Tcr-
he Methodist
;trine, so well
^e that no mm-
eparture from
lions, i77Mn

Mrs. George Sherwood, Chicago.

»|. I

I i\

1 ■ , ■

':!■■

. ' t

■ ' 1

■•' li

1*11

(n^

Si '■

; . 1 ;. !

I i

1000

7'A'^ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

i I til

The Epworth
Leagne,

Methodist.
Polity.

f ■ i

Social
lema.

four volumes, is ' the most authoritative form of Methodist doctrine.*
These, along with his ' Notes on the New Testament,' constitute the
theological standards which are formally recognized in the ' Deed of
Declaration,' and in the trust deeds of all the VVesleyan chapels of
England. By common consent these have been accepted for a hun-
dred years as containing the substance of doctrine everywhere held."
Dr. Terry defined these dogmas under three heads : I. " In their
practical character, as answering to the needs and longings of man's
religious nature. II. In their successful conflict with opposing systems,
especially with Calvinism. III. In their adaptation to the catholic
spirit of the modern Christian world."

"The Epworth League; Its Principles, Ideas, Methods and
Possibilities." — The Rev. William Ingraham Haven, Boston, Mass.:
" The Epworth League rests upon two principles : One, that there is a
peculiar period of life called youth, with its noticeable characteristics ;
the other, that this is the period for bringing one's powers into
obedience to a cultured and sanctified will." * * It " would give to
every youth the shield of England's prince which bears the simple
legend, ' I serve.' We believe that soul alone is blest who lives his life
for the good of others; that such a life sanctifies wealth and gives
peace to him who is poor,"

" Polity of Methodism." The Rev. Jacob Todd, D. D., Philadelphia,
Pa.: " Methodism has twenty-nine organizations. The class-meeting
is ' the primordial cell of organic Methodism.' Then comes the
society, then the quarterly conference, then the district conference,
then the annual conference, last of all the general conference. The
peculiarities of Methodism are ( I ) the class-meeting, ( 2 ) probation,
( 3 ) local preachers, ( 4 ) itinerancy, ( 5 ) general superintendency."

"Ladies' Aid Societies." Mrs. Jennie Fowler Willing: "This
society is all the odds and ends of woman's organized effort to help
along in church work. It bought, or built, and furnished the parsonage.
It bothered its motherly head over the broken dishes, leaky tubs and
crippled chairs in that same patient home. It cushioned the church

Ccws. It did everything, from binding up the broken toe of a
eggar baby to topping out the church steeple — everything ihat
nobody else wanted to do, for which nobody gets any thanks — work
that is never toasted, feted, or exploited. Its work is like that of the
patient, all-burden-bearing mother, little thought of till it is gone, and
then it is tremendously missed."

" Methodism and Social Problems." The Rev. David H.Wheeler,
D. D. LL. D.: " Methodism preaches a Gospel for individual men. It
Prob- shares, with all the other evangelistic bodies, an intense belief in the
value of the individual soul. It shares with the great body of patri-
otic Americans the intense belief that all rights are individual rights;
that it is the business of government to safeguard individual rights:
that there cannot be any other rights. Methodism cannot approach
any plan for improving the world as a question about masses or
classes. As Christians, we believe in single and responsible souls. As

doctrine,'
stitute the
; ' Deed of
chapels of

for a hun-
lere held."

"In their
■s of man's
ng systems,
he catholic

ethods and
;ton, Mass.:
lat there is a
ractcristics ;
powers into
ould give to
3 the simple
lives his life
th and gives

Philadelphia,
class-meeting
n comes the
t conference,
erence. The
2 ) probation,
ntendency."

illing: "Jl"^
effort to help
the parsonage,
eaky tubs and

d the church

en toe of a
crythinfe that

thanks— work
ke that of the

it is gone, and

id H.Wheeler,
idual men. It
c belief in the
t body of patri-
div idual rights:
dividual rights;
annot approach
30ut masses or
nsible souls. As

K-

i.f ■'

fe^'?'"" "

W.B.CeNKlYti.CMl (

Rev. J. O. Peck, D, D., New York.

.•!■■•

HHj^g^

1062

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

The Method -
ibt Status.

KeTivala.

citizens, we believe in the common rights, just as we believe in the
common redemption, for every single soul in the nation. The 'mourn-
er's bench' is the bridge over which each soul must pass from sin,
whether from the masses or the classes."

" The Status of Methodism." The Rev. H. K. Carroll, D. D., of the
New York Independent: " The Methodist body became an independent
body in this country in 1784. At the beginning it had only its vital
faith, its burning zeal to spread the Gospel, its simple but novel meth-
ods of work, and its power, born of the baptism of the Spirit, to reach
the hearts, touch the consciences and transform the lives of the com-
mon people. The common people heard the Methodist preacher
gladly, and crowded Methodist altars, filled Methodist class-books,
and multiplied Methodist churches.

" It is the glory of Methodism that it won its membership, not from
other churches, but from the unconcerned, unconverted multitude.

"At the present time all branches of Methodism have 51,489 socie-
ties, according to the census of 1890. No other denomination or de-
nominational family has a number equaling one-fourth of the Meth-
odist total, except the Presbyterian, which returns 13,476. The Roman
Catholic and other Catholic bodies stand next below the Presbyterian,
with 10,276. The total of all bodies is 165,177. It would, therefore,
appear that those accredited to the Methodist family constitute
nearly one-third of all the societies of all denominations in the United
States. Methodists constitute somewhat less than twenty-three per
cent, of all communicants of all denominations, and nearly thirty-three
per cent, of all Protestant communicants. In other words, nearly every
fourth communicant is a Methodist, and among Protestants every
third."

"Revivals." The Rev. F. C. Iglehart, D. D., New York city:
" Revival is from re vivo, to live again. Revivals arc good or bad.
They must necessarily be occasional, but they are instrumentalities
used by the Holy Spirit, in conversion." Public meetings, IJible read-
ings, prayer, music and the will of the sinner were mentioned as agen-
cies in the work. " The Holy Spirit may be willing, the pastor and the
members may be willing, there may be preaching, praying, singing,
and yet the sinner may, and often does, refuse to come to the .Saviour.
It is quite popular, nowadays, not only for the enemies, but the friends,
of Christ to apologize for sinners and publicly abuse the church be-
cause the unconverted are not brought into the fold. This course is
as mistaken in policy as it is bad in principle. The avarice of Ju-
das was more powerful than the love of Christ. The logic of these
abusers of the church would blame Christ for not saving Judas, and
the apostles for not hoi ' .ig a prayer-meeting and believing in his
conversion. The church is not perfect. She comes far short of her
duty. But whatever good has been done, she has done; whatever
souls have been saved, she has brought to Christ."

" Methodist Colleges and Universities." Henry Wade Rogers, D.
D., Evanston, III.: " Prior to 1768 there was :ict a Methodist church in

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

l(Hi3

; in the
mourn-
Din sin,

..of the
pendent
its vital
el mcth-
to reach
the coni-
preacher
ss-books,

, not from
tudc.
,489 socic-
ion or dc-
the Mcth-
he Roman
isbytcrian,
^therefore,
constitute
the United
yr-thrcc per
thirty-three
tearly every
tants every

York city,
od or bad.
umentalitie^
Uible read-
ned as aj^cn-
istor and the
ing, singing,
tlie Savjovn-.
t the friends,
c church bc-
his course IS

varice of J"-
ogic of these
ig Judas, and

ieving in his
short of her

ne; whatever

America. In 1787 the first Methodist college was opened. In 1892
there were fifty-four; value of their property and endowments, less
their debts, 819,366,196; number of instructors, 1,276. and the number
of students, 21,903. The value of the property and endowments, less
the debts, belonging to all its educational institutions, §26,022,392,
while the number of institutions was 195, instructors, 2,343 and
students, 40,026."

Dr. Rogers advocated " rallying the strength of Methodism to
the support and upbuilding of our most promising existing universities,
to the end that they be enabled to occupy as commanding a position
in the educational world as is commensurate with the dignity of the
Methodist Episcopal church."

" Methodist Journalism." The Rev. David H. Moore, D. D., editor
Western Christian Advocate: "John Wesley began to print Methodism
when he was in his seventy-fifth year. The first American Methodist
periodical was the Western Christian jSIonitor, in Chillicothe, Ohio, in
1 8 16. Since then the periodical press has been a powerful ally of
Methodism. Of a truth this is Mercury's age, not Mars. The inkpot
is more to be feared than the powder horn; steel pens than Damascus
blades; revolving presses than machine guns. Every other means of
influence is aggregated in the press. It informs, educates, amuses,
rouses, rules. Distance nor depth can elude its searchlight. No
other Church has so many papers, seventy five, almost one-seventh of
the total number of religious papers — 553 — in the United States. In
1893 the circulation of the official papers was one paper for every nine
and seven-tenths members of our church. The quality of our papers
should be improved; the many should be consolidated into few, and
they must be cheapened in price; every pastor should be an active
agent, and thus the quality and circulation of the press would be
increased."

Dr. Moore frankly pointed out some of the defects of the church
journalism. It is timid, apprehensive, shrinks from Biblical criticism;
has not enough of the modern spirit. " The modern s[)irit is Christian.
Christ is coming into society to redeem it with processes and methods
never used before, and we do not clearly discover Mis coming. He is
regnant in the thought, activities and life of society. The spirit of the
age is Christian; that is, it believes in Christ, not always recognizing
His Deity, but signally loyal to Him. If the spirit of the age could be
personalized and utter its creed, it would say:

" If Jesus Christ is a man,

And only a man, I say
That of all mankind I cleave to Him,

And to Him will cleave alway.

If Jesus Christ is God,

And the only God, I swear

will follow Him through heaven and hell,

The earth, the sea, the air."

••This remarkable trend of the age toward Christ should be more

ColIeKPH and
UnivereiUeH.

ill

Methndist
JouiDoliBin.

h '

IV '1

''■1

• li bii

■**"^-^'«„

1064

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

m I J: I

Epworth
League Slis-
eion.

! '!.. i

1 i

clearly discerned by Methodist Journalism, and therefore more
heartily nurtured and developed."

" Mission of the Epworth League." The Rev. J. W. Bashford, D. D.,
president Ohio Wesleyan University: "This organization started in
Cleveland, Ohio, May 1 5, 1889. Itrepresentcd an all-round Christian life.
It sought, in the language of its noble founder, Hi::hop Vincent, 'for
more Bible knowledge, more literary culture, more personal purity, and
more practical service.' Also, 'to seek the blessing of heart-purity as
taught in the Holy Scriptures, to abstain from all questionable amuse-
ments, to study the Bible each day, and to give daily thought and
effort to the salvation of souls.' They sought for Christian coopera-
tion. They desired to transform the young people of Methodism
from a mob into an army. Its motto, ' Look up and lift up,' was
adopted from a happy speech made by Bishop Vincent." Defining
the purposes of the organization. Dr. Bashford said: " Personal
culture, crowned by communion with God and resulting in Christlike
characters, is the first duty of Epworth Leaguers."

" Missionary Training Schools." Miss M. S. Gibson, Principal Scar-
ritt Bible and Training School: " The origin of the wonderful organi-
zation at Kaiserswerth by Pastor Fliedner is well known to all
branches of the church of Christ. Kaiserswerth is the autotype of
the modern training school, and its work and workers are an inspir-
ation to the whole church. # # *

" In our American Methodi'^m there are five training schools in
the Methodist Episcopal church, and one in the Methodist t^piscopal
church south, the latter by the special authorization of the General
Conference. Of these three are in connection with deaconesses work,
while admitting other students; the others are distinctively mission-
ary.

"The Bible is, of course, the central text-book; other departments
are: The history of the Christian church; the evidences of Christianity
and a study of comparative religions; the missionary fields, including
statistics and the manners, customs, religious systems and needs of
heathendom; domestic economy, daily practice in housework, prepara-
tion of work for industrial schools; practical training in city mission
work by house-to-house visitation among the neglected classes; visit-
ing prisons, hospitals and reformatories under the direction of mature
Christian workers; conduct of meetings for women and children;
lectures on elementary medicine and study of nursing, preparation of
food and general care of the sick; also, a complete course of study and
practical experience in hospital work for students desiring to become
trained nurses; training in teaching in Sunday-school normal lessons,
and giving Bible readings; physical culture; sacred music, vocal and
instrumental- bookkeeping; temperance, viewed from the physical
and moral standpoints; lectures by missionaries, preachers and philan-
thropists on subjects profitable to Christian workers. These schools
furnish to students a comfortable Christian home during years of train-
ing, wherein they are cared for physically, mentally and spiritually."

^1:

i.D.D.,

trted in
lianlifc.
ent, 'for
•ity, and
)urity as
; annise-
ght and
coopera-
>thodism
up,' ^vas
Defining
Personal
:hristUke

:ipa\ Scar-
ul organi-
wn to all
itotype of
an inspir-
#

schools in
Episcopal
he General
esses work,
;ly mission-

lepartmcnts
Christianity
including
needs oi
rk. prepara-
city mission
asses; visit-
on of mature
nd children;
reparation ot
of study and
r, to become
i-mal lessons,
ic, vocal and
the physical
rsandphilan-
licse schools

7'//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

1005

Naming and Describing the Institutions in dil'feicnt parts of the
country, Miss Gibson said: " The work must commend itself to the
best judgment of every one of our Lord's servants wlio would hasten
the coming of His kingdom on earth!"

" Deaconess Work in the Methodist l-lpiscopal Church." Mrs.
Lucy Ryder Meyer, Chicago: "This movement began in Chicago in
1885. It is independent of ecclesiastical associations. The first
Deaconess Home was established in Chicago in 1887. In 1888
a home was founded in Cincinnati, and in 1889 one in Minneapo-
lis and one in New York. Others followed in rapid succession.
The characteristics by which deaconesses may be known arc six. Dea-
conesses are (i) trained, (2) unsalaried but supported, (3) volunteers,
(4) costumed, (5) living mostly in commiinites called homes, (6) au-
thorized by the church. No woman can become a visiting deaconess —
for two classes of workers arc well recognized among us, the visiting or
evangelistic, and the nurse deaconess — who has not spent the greater
part of one year in the study of the Bible, sacred history, methods of
work, and Methodist doctrine, while a second year of probation is
given to practical work with a course of reading. The nurse deaconess
must receiv(; a careful theoretical and practical training extending over
a period oi two years in connection with some reputable hospital, in ad-
dition to some Biblical study. There are at present eleven hospitals
under Methodist Episcopal management in the United States. Of
these, the splendid Brooklyn hospital was the first in the field. The
hospital at Portland, Ore., was the second, but Wesley Jin Chicago,
established at first as a deaconess hospital, followed hard after it.
Christ hospital at Cincinnati, the deaconess hospitals at Denver,
Omaha, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Saginaw and St. Louis, and the
Philadelphia Methodist P^piscopal hospital, complete the list. Of
these eleven hospitals eight are now under the care of deaconess
nurses."

"Contributions of Methodism to Literature." The Rev. W. F,
Whitlock,D.D., Delaware,Ohio: The essayist declared that "( i ) Method-
ism has furnished a literature of substantial and permanent value, (2)
asymmetrical, well-balanced literature, ( 3 )a literature for the people,
(4) a literature of power, (5) a catholic literature, that (6) has advo-
cated moral reforms. It (l) has concentrated at the cross, (2) pro-
moted church organization and work, (3) antidoted pernicious litera-
ture, and (4) unified the tone and spirit of the church. It has been
able and useful. The church has now the largest religious publishing
houses in the world. They are established in the great commercial
and radiating centers of the country. They have twelve thousand pro-
prietors, distributed all over the field, who act as agents; they have al-
ready a patronage, capital and income that enable them to command
the services of the ablest pens, and to issue books and periodicals at
prices that will render them accessible to all. The church was never
so well prepared to meet the injunction of Wesley— to make cheap
prices and sustain them by large sales. The service demanded is two-
fold—first, to our own people; second, to the country at large."
68 ^

Doaconoss
Work.

Methodist
Literatare,

'I ;

i '

I «

:il

10C6

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Theological
ScliooU.

Young People

Ir' V

" Methodism and her Theological Schools." The Rev. Geo. L. Cur-
tis, D. D., Dc Pauw, Ind.: The author gave a history of the primitive
" school of the prophets" in the early days of Methodism, and passed
to describe the advantages of the Modern Divinity School in the up-
l)uilding of the Methodist church. It was bitterly opposed at the first,
but now: "In the Methodist Episcopal church are seventeen theo-
logical institutions, with a property of $663,636, an endowment of
81,557,466, teachers, seventy-two, and 863 students in 1891. From
the first there have been over four thousand eight hundred en-
rolled in these schools. Besides these in some of our colleges there are
departments for instruction in many of the special studies required
of the preacher. These schools of theology are for the English speak-
ing ministry, the pure .Scandinavian, the African or Freedmen of the
United States, the celestials of Asia, the Hindu learned in his subtle
philosophy, the German and the Italian. These schools originated in ne-
cessity, each school has an individual history; there is remarkable uni-
formity in the several curriculums; their studies bear on the mental
and moral culture of students, and fit them for the work of .saving souls;
they qualify men for heroic self-sacrifice; yet they are not supported
as they should be, though severely criticised, and no doubt defective,
they are yet doing a grand work."

"Sunday schools." The Rev. Frank Crane: The Methodist Sun-
day-school has a threefold function:

1. To train the children of Christian homes.

2. To teach adults the truths of the Bible.

3. To gather and instruct the children of non-Christian homes.
Under the third head Mr. Crane said: "How needful is such

work as this only a pen of fire could tell. No chapter of the wretched
.story of city pauperism and crime is more tear-compelling than this of
the children. To one for whom childhood has always seemed the
purest idyl this side of heaven the revelation of the fearful condition
of the child in the crowded tenements of the great city is appalling.
Visit their squalid dwellings. Think of babies nurtured there. Hell,
not 'heaven, lies about them in their infancy.' 'They are damned
into the world.' Lust is their father, brutality their mother, vice their
teacher, filth their companion, drunken crime their ambition, hunger
their inspiration, and drunkenness their heaven."

" Methodism and her Young People; Sunday-schools." The Rev.
A. S. Embree, M. A., Topeka, Kan.: "The Sunday-school was at
first the simple scheme of a benevolent priest to gather the waifs from
the street and impart to them some rudimentary knowledge. A little
farther on an effort to teach something of truth and duty. Finally, as
in our day and country, a vast system, bringing to its aid the powers
of the printing press, the highest scholarship, the personal attention
of an army of men and women who carry to the work commendable
equipment of mind and heart. Today we have, in round numbers,
thirty thousand schools, more than three hundred thousand officers and
teachers, and of pupils a number equal to one-twenty-eighth of our

,eo. L. Cur-
e primitive
and passed

in the up-
l at the first,
itecn theo-
lowment ot
^91. From
lundred en-
res there arc
les required
iglish speak-
dmen of the

in his subtle
ginatedinne-
iiarkablc um-
a the mental
{saving souls;
lot supported
ubt defective.

Icthodist Sun-

stian homes.
;edful is such
{ the wretched
ng than this of
/s seemed the
arful condition
ty is appalUng.
d there. Hell,
cy are damned
other, vice their
mbition, hunger

ois" The Rev.
.V- school was at
.r the waifs rom

vvledge. . A 'tt ^^
luty. Finally, as
aid the powers
,rsonal attention
rk commendable
round numbers,
.sand officers and

iity-eighth of our

Hev. Ferdinand Iglehart, D. D., New York.

H; n

iii I

H J

;-|l

iifii

MiMM

ff.:^!^ i!

;f; e 'Si

•■'i§

! JL.

Women
EUucutioD.

I . !

Mothodist
Doctrines.

i ■ ^

'ii ill 1;

-I -

m ill

1068

T//j; WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIOIONS.

entire population. It is common to refer to the Sabbath-school as
the nursery of the church. I would like to put all possible emphasis
upon the thought which that expression naturally conveys. It is to my
mind the nursery, the only nursery that remains to Christendom; and
the future of present day religious organizations depends now as never
before upon the religious development of the race while yet in its
childhood."

"Women in Methodist Education." Prof. Susanna M. D. Fry,
Ph. D., St. Paul, Minn.: "What traveler does not bring a memento
from the grave of John Wesley? Hut who crosses a step beyond to
Kunhill-fields to the grave of Susanna, upon whose new stone stands
the legend, 'The mother of nineteen children?' Susanna Wesley has
been called by high authority the 'founder and legislator of Meth-
odism.' Why not add educator? She was president and faculty of a
good classical home school where social usages, morals and religion,
Latin and Greek, were taught; and from which at least two boys were
graduated who made their mark in the world.

"John Wesley founded schools and the women helped him, just as
they should. Lady Maxwell gave him ;6^500 with which to open his
celebrated Kingswood school, and ;^300 more to pay debts which had
accumulated. Mrs. Elizabeth Garrett founded Garrett Biblical Insti-
tute by a gift of 5i50,OOo, in 1853, and it seems to some anomalous,
that although founded by a woman, the school has never extended a
formal invitation to women to enter its walls. Mrs. Garrett's gift was
the largest ever given for education in the new world up to 1853, by
man or woman, except that of Stephen Girard, of Philadelphia. Six-
teen Methodist colleges report gifts from women amounting to
$714,500. The Woman's P'oreign Missionary Society supports 353
day schools, forty boarding schools, orphanages, English boarding
schools, and thirteen training schools. The total number of pupils in
schools is set down at thirteen thousand one hundred and thirty-five,
and the number of women under instruction as thirty-one thousand
two hundred. The Woman's Home Missionary Society carries on
distinctively educational work in two of its departments. Methodism
founded in 1834, at Macon, Ga., the first woman's college in America."

" Peculiarities of Methodist Doctrines." The Rev. Thomas H.
Neely, D.D., LL. D., Philadelphia, Pa.: "John Wesley and his fatliei
were educated Church of England ministers. The son had no intention
of organizing a new church, but his doctrine of justification by faitli
caused his practical rejection from the Episcopal church.

" This doctrine of a free and full salvation by faith is at the founda-
tion of what are called peculiarly Methodist doctrines. In one sense
this was not a new doctrine. Wesley taught the philosophical doc-
trine of the freedom of the human will, a dogma now accepted by the
leading philosophers. This is the key to Methodist doctrine. Then
came the doctrine of the witness of the Spirit to those who are regen-
erated. After this came the doctrine of Christian perfection, lie
magnified the most important practical doctrines and put little stress

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

1069

,o\ as
.ihasis
to my
iv, and
, never
t in its

). iM-y.

;mentu
ond to
stands
;ley lias
f Meth-

ilty ft ''
fcli^ion.

)ys were

n, just as
open his
hich had
cal Insti-
lomalous,
:tended a
s ifift was

hia. Six-
unting to
)norts 353
boarding
pupils in
thirty-five.
: thousand
carries on
Methodistn
I America. '
Thomas n.
(I his father
no intention
ion by faith

tthefounda-
one sense
ophical doc-
epted by tlie
trine. Then
lo arc regen

•fection.

t little stress

upon those which belonged to the rcahn of metaphysics or mere spec-
ulation. Wesley put more emphasis on Christian character than he
did on mere dogma, though he believed in creeds as well as deeds.
Following his example Methodism has always been broad and at the
same time evangelical. As one has said, some churches have tried to
preserve their spirituality by their orthodoxy, but Methodism has
preserved its orthodoxy by its spirituality. Methodism is orthodox
but liberal. It is liberal but orthodox. Methodism is the evangelical
broad church with a broad and simple creed; making more of spiritual
life than of theological disputations, but at the same time tenaciously
holding the truth as it is in Christ Jesus."

"The Methodist I^piscopal Church and the Sunday-school."
Robert H. Dougherty, I'll. D.: "Tiie Suiulay-scliool was one of the first
instrumentalities employed by Methodists. When, in i;Si, Robert
Raikes, in the true spirit of Christ, bearing on his heart the heavy mis-
cry of the neglected children of Gloucester, asked, 'What can we do
for these wretches?' he was answered by a Methodist young woman:
'Let us teach them to read, and take them to church.' Mr. Wesley
promptly adopted the Sunday-school idea, as, indeed, he adopted
every good idea he could find. In 17S6 the first Methodist bishop,
Francis Asbury, established the first Sunday-school of any denomina-
tion on our continent. Through several periods of development the
Sunday-school movement has passed to the present: The exploration
of the Bible is the discovery and exploration of the human soul. The
discovery of a child is a process to be slowly pursued during long
years. Every kind caress, every rude rebuff, every experience of man's
falsity, every lesson learned in school, every precious Bible text com-
mitted to memory, every teacher's smile, every newspaper taken up
and read, every person that meets the slowly developing infant soul,
every force that is brought to bear on any side of his character, as an
investigating or stimulating force— is a pioneer, a discoverer, an ex-
plorer of the deep recesses of the human heart."

"Woman's Foreign Mission Work." Mrs. Kmily Muntington Mil-
ler: "Woman's independent work in foreign missions dates back
but twenty-four years, yet it may be questioned whether a new era in
missionary conquest should not be symbolized by the woman with a
lamp. Years of toil and sacrifice and devotion had indeed opened the
way; prejudice had been, in a manner, conquered; the power of the
Gospel to redeem had been demonstrated; but the work of church and
school had been perpetually undone by the heathen mother in the
heathen home. Permanent advance was scarcely possible until woman
lighted her candle and began to sweep and to search in the darkened
house for that lost treasure buried so long in the dust that its precious-
ness was forgotten. The work she set herself was to supplement
that already undertaken, by carrying Christianizing influences into the
homes closed to all other teachers, to secure the children through the
years when they were plastic to influence; to train and educate wives
and mothers — one might almost say to create a new womanhood, so
impossible to heathenism seemed its very conception. ♦ * *

I'lin Sundax-

flCllUol.

ForpiRn Mis.
sion Work.

i')U

: 1

, \^A

I 'SK** ^«lk^ ■ .,i^.j. j^ ^ ^

^^^rrPF'iS OF RELIGIONS.
THE WORLD'S CO^GRESS ut

!i. il !■ :i|

l"'" ""■ . ,,,, working force of 5.665

alone mu.^recon.tuct._^^_^^^ „f t >c Jorth tl atj-a^ J ,

^Zkll Sth! this had been scUlcU by^l ^^^ j.,j,„,^„rt, Kock. It

£„ settled by •>;- °;,;;;r„rt, Rock It
must go :>outw, V..... supreme. "^;^''r„ . -Lniy prevailed by

more.than the__»wo,a O-t^v^, 1„, fc\™ 1 , '"aS moven.ent was at

- I

Work.

rruirSe^on^^ntheMou^^
^,cre members of the cxu^U j^, Cincinnati August 7. i« -^^^^.^^^ ^i

t^S;S"^A^a&;oaue^^

branch is at work in an par ^^ The Rev. C. H. Payne.

one thousand students and ^^ TheRcv.J.O. Peck.D.D.:

dollars." .^nnrvWork of Methodism, . I^^aivine interest in our

"The Missionary WorK ^ object ot mv n . ^ labor

..The work of missions s ^l^^^^^^.^nserved by »"^^^^"i>om center to
world, and the only end « bc^^^ ^^ ^''''t'^f^-^,2o^^oi Christ and
ar^d love. Missions is the .^ ^ ^ut a - " philosophy

circumference our holy re b ^ mankind. /"'^ ' ;,^ -..^ 'origin was

'iSs church for the saWaon^of^ Methodist chuichm^^ts ^^^^^^^ ^^^^

of the kingdom of heaven;^ ^^ ^^^^ ^'g^^''^ J he almost lifclcssness

'ra'J.o=roK&-hed^^^^^^^^^

' ■•?"-"!r;;^;^c"a"^?lhl oJ*at .and, a^^

,eUca> teuton anu ^^^^^^^^^S^^^^^ ^
Missionary Society ot uic

5.665
i\y in-
atc by

' The
ccurcd
nation,
I. The
North
the na-
cd, and
it it was
ock. It
iiilcd by
lit was at
;cute the
withdrew
.\re\v. It
nch, who
jcd a call

rch. This
akc frecd-

H. Payne,

n the aim
]C famous
opened in

seventeen
sical senii-

with forty-
ix million

Peck.D.D.:

Mcst in our
»ught, labor
n center to
,{ Christ and
philosophy

s'orisi" ^v/^^

I against the

,t Ufclessness

was to reach

revive evan-

ho denomina-

nsclical zeal

yrwhere. The

■^ alone has at

THE IVOJiLDS CONGRESS OF KELIGIONS.

1071

least four thousand missionary workers in the forci^ni work aiid five
thousand in home missions. This society raised last year for iorei^Mi
missions alone 51,041,393, which is the l;ir}:fest sum contributed for that
work in 1892 by any denomination in America. The ainuial contribu-
tion of all Methodism for missions is over iS3,ooo,ooo. The nienihers
and probationers of heathen converts in all Methodism are over three
hundred thousand. The representatives of Hinduism and Hiuidhism,
frescoing the nakedness of their effete religion, may come to the
World's Parliament of Religions, and suggest, with the indorsement of
the liberals who renounce evangelical Christianity and the lil)eral
press that sought to strike down our Christian Sabbath., that perhaps
the final religion of the world would be a compromise, a composite of
all religions. Out upon such vapidity! Christianity with a super-
natural Christ, a supernatural revelation, and a supernatural lif-j in the
heart of her millions, witnessing to her divine origin and saving and
cleansing power; with her banners farther advanced than ever before;
with her augmenting legions more victorious than ever, has no com-
promise to make with heathenism! It is the final religion."

" Our Colleges and Universities." The Rev. Bradford 1'. Raymond,
Middletovvn, Conn.: The first half century of Methodism was one of
" unsuccessful beginnings and discouraging suspensions." But, Mr.
Raymond said: "We may enter the twentieth century with pardon-
able pride over the work we have done in the last one hundred years.
And with confidence may we provide for better work in every depart-
ment of research, believing that the Christian ideal of manhood will
rule us in the future as in the past. We are working now with forces
like those which uplift the continents."

" A Columbian View of Methodist Church Extension." The Rev.
A. J. Kynett, D. D., LL. D. He said: "At the end of the first quarter tuuHioii":
of the second century of our denominational history, our branch of
the Christian church has upon its rolls two and one-half million mem-
bers, twenty- four thousand churches, and $130,000,000 of church prop-
erty; more than doubling our membership and the number of our
churches and multiplying their value more than three times. If this
republic, which the world calls great, has anything in it worthy of
the admiration of mankind, it is because it is the outgrowth of Chris-
tian faith and supreme devotion to religious liberty."

"The Freedmen's Aid and Southern Education Society." The Rev.
Geo. K. Morris, D. D., Cincinnati, Ohio: "In the fall of 1862 was
formed the ' Contraband Relief Society,' whose object was to meet
the pressing wants of the escaping slaves who had been declared con-
traband of war. The .Western Freedmen's Aid Commission was
formed by those who, looking into the future, clearly saw that some-
thing must be done to provide for the education of the Freedmen.
Looking back over something less than a tliird of a century, we can-
not but rejoice at the great work already accomplished. Over three
millions of dollars have been spent. The school property secured is
valued at nearly two millions. Tens of thousands of men and women

C'hurcli E.t.

!l!

i!i

il! 1:1

;f il

H:,:

■1 '.
'■I

1 ■ .

! -^1]

; ii:^:*l

■

„s U-0.LO-S coNC^ESS Of nsuco^s.

the thouuiuuu /'"^ ":-:\. . to be rcvciilccl lo vn^

prophecies ol 7^' ^ 1 J,,,^ess ami .)f tears." ^^ j„hn, O. H..

Uc I'a.uv. l.uU ;• ^";i;'',V '. ca ..W. H.csc "'-l";'."'";: 1 .^^ u, slay,
stratetl tncir 1 IK" tin- cmiip"^'-'" '-' i r .hu-itioii

Chnrch Extcn-
eion>

Im^,

I '.

isscd

il ihc
Us of
, anil
dwelt

0. o..

.1 col-
cnion-
j stay.
:s l)OS-

.1). '.:>.,
of the

•Ul into
1 trans-
)iintain,
;m over
in. Ho
laborers
I as He
le; (Hirs
csts and

verdure
st cities.
I f^ow of

nedinto

icre. and
J, will be

of (iod's
ic always
,vc always
n and our

royal dia-

Episcop'i^
he work of
,ther direc-
,vcr for the
developo^l.
•o-tliirds of
element of
furnish for
t advantav^^e
Id of cliort;

Miss Frances E. Willard, Evanston, 111.

■.i|

-i :?

-■a*-^.^^^...,.

1074

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

(If

I ill

a quiet, unseen and pervading influence, the result of combined pa-
tience and strength, more potent even, than what is gained by mere
numbers and display. It is an encouraging fact that the value of
organized efforts of women in Christian and philanthropic work is be-
coming more fully appreciated."

" Methodist Deaconesses in England," Mi:->^ Dora Stephc nson (Sis-
ter Dora), London, England: " A Christian deaconess is a consecrated
Deaconesses, woman working on principle and system for the glory of God in the
salvation of man, and making that her one business. The idea of a
deaconess comes down from the earliest days of Christianity. In the
Epistles mention is made of widows and virgins who were set apart to
the work of the church, and from the writings of the early fathers it
was evident that the deaconess was accounted a regular officer in the
church. In the church of Constantinople alone we read of forty dea-
conesses being employed. George Eliot has drawn for us a wonderful
picture of the great Stradivarius in his workshop at Cremona. There
the king of violin makers stands exultant, yet humbled by the wonder
of his handiwork, and in a burst of ecstasy exclaims as he gazes at the
great instrument his hands have formed:

'Tis God gives skill,
But not without men's hands. He could not make
Antonio Stradivari's violins

Without Antonio.'

" The words startle us, shock us even, yet surely there is a deep
truth lying underneath. God chooses to uplift humanity by the min-
istry of His children."

" Methodist Journalism." The Rev. Charles Parkhurst, D. D., Zioti's,
Herald. Describing the growth of Methodist journalism and referring
to the fact of denominational proprietorship, Dr. Parkhurst alluded to
lack of comprehensiveness, lack of independency, lack of modernness,
inadequate support, and lack of leadership, as defects of the church
press. But he ccmp'imented its ability: "Let a thoughtful and candid
Methodist group the papers of the leading denominations and com-
pare them with those of his own church, and he will have no occasion
for chagrin. Our Advocates have, in all their history, been interesting
and able."

Francis E. Willard. — Unable to attend the congress, Mrs. Lucy
Rider Meyer read the following letter from Miss Willard:

"Among the many invitations that have come to me within the
past year, in connection with the congresses at the Columbian P^^xpo-
sition, none has been more cherished than that of my own beloved
sisters in the church of my choice. I felt confident that I should have
the pleasure of joining in the love-feast appointed for September and
bearing my testimony in the general class-meeting of our worldwide
sisterhood, but the discipline (of physical fatigue) has been so con-
strued as to rule me out of your blessed general conference, although
you had chosen me as a delegate in due form. This will, however, I
hope, prove to me to be a means of grace, and I shall sing in spirit

Methodist
Joarnalism.

THE WORLDS CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

<i)

d pa-
mere
ue of
is be-

n (Sis-
crated
in the
a of a
In the
part to
liers it

in the
ty dea-
nderful

There
wonder
s at the

a deep
the min-

D., Zion's.
referring
lluded to
Jernness,
ic church
id candid
and corn-
occasion
iteresting

»Irs. Lucy

/ithin the
ai) Expo-
1 beloved
lould have
mbcr and
worldwide
n so con-
, although
lowever, I
T in spirit

with many another loyal-hearted Methodist woman who, for similar
rcbsons, is debarred from giving in her experience on that occasion.

' Come on my partners in distress! '
and closing my musical soliloquy with our favorite

'Oh! that will be joyful, when we meet to part no more! '

"By way of compensation for my disappointment in n.ingling heart
and voice with you in the happy assembly of Methodist disciples, I
was privileged to enjoy a most tender and beautiful reception at the
City Road chapel, London, some months ago, from our brothers and
sisters of the Wesleyan church in the dear old mother country. It
was the fulfillment of many a dream to stand in John Wesley's pulpit
and speak of what the Lord had done for my soul through the gener-
ous and helpful ministry of our communion and fellowship, and I have
never stood in the midst of an audience more sympathetic and
responsive.

"Some rare relics of our Saint Susannah, mother of the Wesleys,
were presented to me, which I should have been glad to bring to the
Methodist Women's Congress in Chicago. I have also visited (as I
had the privilege of doing for the first time in a quarter of a century)
in the Lincoln college in Oxford the room in which the "Holy Club"
was organized. A pulpit is in this college from which Wesley was wont
to 'improve his gift' from time to time, when he was here after his
graduation. Ascending its steps, and entering its hallowed precincts,
I prophesied in true Methodistic fashion to a small audience, consist-
ing of my traveling companions, Mrs. Hannah Whitall Smith and her
son, to the effect that within twenty-fivt years Methodist women would
find that every separating wall had fallen flat between them and the
full privileges and powers of the church they love, and which they
have helped to make what it is today, the greatest denomination in
the greatest of republics. Artificial barriers are everywhere becoming
undermined; soul is asserting itself above sex, and mental and spiritual
powers being made the only final criterion of value. Let everybody
do that to whi.'h he or she feels called, if that calling is to do good;
this is rapidly becoming the dictum of Old as well as of New England,
the keynote of which was struck, as I am proud and grateful to remem-
ber, in what was once called the far, but now the forceful. West.

"May the blessing of God be upon every woman who casts in her
lot with you at your blessed feast of tabernacles, whether slie be a
foreign missionary woman, a home missionary woman, a white ribbon
woman, or that greater and better being which combines all three, and
may the anointing power come upon each and all in pcntecostal meas-
ure, is the fervent wish and prayer of your loyal and affectionate
sister." Fran'ces E. Willard.

1:1

m
if

li: 1

Frances E.
Willurd.

1:1 ?

u -I

i! ■"

:?1 ! F

■i I

*'^^^^^ll^^B

Rt.-Rev. Samuel Fallows, D. D., Clnc;;^o-

1077

p re-
el
is-
c-

I'lil-

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

THE REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH CONGRESS.
The Rt. Rev. Charles Hdwartl Clicncy, D. D., of Chicaj^ui,
sided on Presentation Day, September 14th, and papers were prcsciitc
on The Historical Position of the Church, by Dr. Cheney; its Di^
tinctivc Principles, by the Rev. Benjamin T. Noakcs, D. D., of Clevt
land, Ohio; its Minor Problems, by Mrs. Lucie Brothersoii Tyn^, of
Peoria, 111., and its Outlook and Opportunities, by Rt. Rev. Samuel
Fallows, -3. D., of Chicago, who says in the course of his address:

" By the Anglo-Saxon race, in the Nineteenth Century, in the
United States of America, and largely in the city of Chicago, was the
movement inaugurated which led to the founding of the Reformed
I^piscopal Church.

"The creed of this church is not a cast-iron frame to cramp, but is
like that elastic portion of a living organism, the finely textured skin,
which contains but does not compress tho human body.

" It can state every article of that creed in the very language of rjhI,,,,.,..
Holy Scripture itself, and thus it rests upon the pure teaching of God '"ws" Dt'dnV
as its one immovable foundation, and not upon the shifting, contra- KpiscoilaiB! ''
dictory and erroneous commandments of men. The Bible, the whole
Bible, and nothing but the Bible, is the basis of the church's belief. It
has therefore brought the one hemisphere of truth, embracing the su-
preme sovereignty of God, into unison with the other hemisphere of
truth, embracing the inviolate freedom of the will of man, in one
rounded sphere; the teachings of philosophy, experience and the in-
fallible Word.

" President Patton, of Princeton, once said: ' Every man, when he
prays is a Calvinist, and when he preaches, an Arminian.' This church
brings the Calvinist and the Arminian side by side, with heart beating
over against heart, and says to each ' Preach in concert, in love, and in
power, of the Holy Ghost, this dual truth: Work out your own sal-
vation with fear and trembling, for it is God that workcth in you both
to will and to do of His good pleasure.'

" In that sphere of truth it holds firmly with the Jew, the unbroken
unity of God, with the Unitarian the oneness of the Divine Being and
the complete humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ; with the Swedenbor-
gian the Supreme Deity of Him, who was God manifest in the flesh,
and with the primitive church, ' concluding the same,' out of the ulti-
mate oracles of truth it holds to the threeness in one of the Father,
Son and Holy Ghost, and thus offers in the divine Trinity ' the fullness
of life, salvation and comfort for man.'

"It has carefully provided- that it shall not have within itself any
hierarchs to lord it over God's heritage. The General Council, which
is the creation of the clergy and laity of the church, has the supreme
authority in the ratification of the election, and in the consecration of
its bishops, and these bi.shops are ever to be held simply as first
among their equals, the presbyters.

" And above the bishops, as above all else in the church, that Gen-
eral Council rises as the representative of the entire communion, before
whose legislation and decisions all must bow.

If'):,,!

^iiM:

Hi.)

-[01^

.rn'S CONGRESS Of RELIGIONS.

THE ^VORLD S CON

.,„ accorded her nghthjlV^^' ^^^^1,

..Woman. wltU^an;.^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

to th.^TC of d'u^rch g°\^Xi ep copate. it ^v'^^be^pbant^^ ^^^
special toim oi historical ep j j^g it may ^i^tual-

n^^^^ "?^rouCrd^conomy, that by a.^^^^.^^ /=""' stem vUich this
iormof tboutva the Congreg ^ ^^ ^^^ Trontributors oi

The vital truth tor ^^^^^^h, is sec ^^^^^^ ^''^Scers of the

representa tve. ot t» ^^ ^^^^^^^ has. ^^ ^^,

church of Christ." -

ThU body convened on the 'iS^e, flowed by R-„fc?un,. D.

Ch»P'!\'S;fM Louise Thomas Thep^P ^ _ Rev t;

0..-a^:.lus.a^y--.£D..aanes.^^

■

•ivileges,
i chvircn
s to each

nor men

that any

t in every
ive some,
he virtual-
which this
ributors ot
,ers ot the
tion of the
e one great
r recogmzed

nd county to
icnt state is
es; and thus
.n progress—

■sintheprog-
,te\v manitcsi .
' ^u Thus
hurch. I J"

Christian fra
, j^d so the best
society today,
•anches of the

Rev. A. 3 Can-
Rev. Augusta J.
Amos Crum, ^

:.'terstephen

" Every system
andamental p™

.,alism.stheU»_

Sfoft *ngs, and
"„ the ligM.f.J'

k;rch-:e^-'

Rev. B. T. Noakes, D. D., Cleveland, 0.

^M:^,.

.irr

lOSO

////■; irORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Up;;

Piii

i \ .

Punishmpnt
Diticiplinary.

Divine Om-
nii)ot('iico iiud
Uumau Agency

God's character, lie said "that having chosen the wronjr, man still had
the power to choose the right, and that God can so educate him as to
induce that choice. Hut Universalism is not a system of 'Natural-
ism.' It has room and a place for Christianity. It recognizes the
work and mission of Christ. It does not, however, see in Mis mission
any effort to change the character of God or reverse the moral order
of the world. Christianity is not a reconstruction, but a revelation of
what is. It shows us the Father; it does not change the character of
the Father. * * But in so much as Christianity is a new spiritual or
moral force in the world, it is not in opposition to any such force already
in the world. It does not seek to reverse the natural order of things.
It is supernatural but not ' unnatural.' It does not oppose nature; it
adds itself to nature. The only thing it opposes is sin, and this be-
cause sin is unnatural. The sinner is out of and not in the natural
order; therefore, Christianity opposes him and seeks to bring him back
into the natural order."

"Punishment; Disciplinary; The Atonement; Reconciliation; Life a
School." The Rev. Elmer H. Capcn, D. D., president of Tufts College,
Massachusetts. He said: " Universalism revolts from the theory that
punishment is to vindicate God, or execute wrath and vengeance upon
man. It is inflicted on account neither of the injured innocence nor
the anger of God. It has its place in a great plan which contem-
plates not the destruction but the perfection of humanity. * * The
moral universe is viewed in the form of a spiritual household — one
family on earth and in heaven. God is the Father. Man is the child,
liut one motive is possible in this holy relation. That motive is love.
The aim of punishment is twofold. It is first corrective, designed to
cause the sinner to halt and turn about in the way he is going. It is
also stimulative, seeking to create a new purpose and lead to repent-
ance, so causing the sinner, not only to abandon his sin, but to
enter humbly, cheerfully and affectionately into the service of God."
This view gives a clear perception of the function of Jesus Christ.
"He is a mediator, a highway over which God could come to humanity
and make His abode with them, the tender and reconciling friend,
taking men by the hand and leading them into the presence of a just
and merciful Father."

" Divine Omnipotence and Human Free Agency in the Problem of
.Salvation." Rev. C. F:ilwood Nash, D. D.,of Brooklyn, N. Y. Premis-
ing that the omnipotence of God cannot be shown from the teachings
of science or philosophy, but only from the Scriptures, he states that
"all Christian sects make it the primary postulate of Christian theism.
It is limited only by the nature of things. Omnipotence is not a mere
store of energy, mere quantity or quality of force. It is itself rather a
product of the harmonies of the divine nature, from whose every
attribute and function it collects its generous toll. It possesses full
information, agrees perfectly with the constitution of things, is
impelled by infinite love for men, has an infinite passion for righteous-
ness. Consider the omnipotence of an absolute, unconquerable will-

II i; 5

■if

iir

Rev. John Wesley Hanson, Chicago,: '^-^

:i:!

I I

r 1 , t

> !

.,'.?

I 'M

1083

T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUGIONS.

The

Result.

power, an all engrossing, immitigable purpose! Think what the pale
shadow of this in men has done and estimate what it must effect in the
Eternal." The speaker proceeded to discuss the points: (i) if om-
nipotent, God must be having His own way; (2), if any soul is lost as
God is omnipotent it must be because He is unwilling to save it; (3), all
God's attributes lay His power under the necessity of securing to each
soul the highest possible good. Replying to the objection that human
nature opposes God's purpose, and that God has confined the possibil-
ity of securing salvation to this life. Dr. Nash showed that man's
freedom of will interposes no insurmountable obstacle to God's omni-
potent will, also free, and he closed by saying, " The offense of Uni-
versalism is that it

" Dare not fix with mete and bound
The love and power of God."

It declares: '"He sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the
inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers.' God must win; man also
will win, and come off more than conqueror through the conquest of
God, even over himself."

"Universal Holiness and Happiness the Final Result of God's
Final Government." Rev. John Coleman Adams, D. D., Brooklyn, N. Y.
This paper was one of the ablest read to the congress, but it was so
dovetailed as to render quotation very diflRcult. A passage or two will
enable the reader to judge its quality. After defining and illustrating
the law that all motion is along the line of least resistance, Dr. Adams
said: "Within and without the soul, in the nature of man and the
nature of things outside him, the line of least resistance is in the
direction of goodness, the fulfillment of the soul's true life, conformity
to the divine will and purpose. All a man's inner nature protests
against the deflections of sin. We resist our ownselves, or rather we
have all our own moral organization against us when we do evil. Sin
is the violation of our own natures, and when we do violence to those
natures there is a great outcry from within. Looking into the soul
alone, we find that 'the way of the transgressor is hard.' His own
nature is a constant resistance and hindrance to the sinner. The re-
sistance which man's soul makes to every fr°sh indulgence in evil, the
unrest of the passions, the pangs of remo :se the still more bitter tor-
ment of evil dispositions whose satiety brings still insatiate cravings —
all attest the fact that his moral nature is organized so as to make the
line of least resistance run in the direction of righteousness." Tracing
through the Scriptures the prophecy of the final end of evil and the
triumph of universal good the essayist closed by saying: " History
is prophecy. The future is writ in the past. The record of our race
shows one long, unremitting conflict, from the dreary lowlands where
the human race began to the fair plains where now it builds the cities
of its pride. But it is a running battle toward peace, purity and per-
fection. Man has fought his way to the higher life. All his upward
Struggle has pointed to a time when good shall triumph over evil, holi-

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

1083

pale
n the
i om-
3st as
3), all
I each
luman
ssibil-
man's
omni-
,f Uni-

ind the
an also
juest of

)f God's
:i, N. Y.
; was so
two will
ustratinu
r. Adams
and the
is in the
,nformity
; protests
rather we
evil. Sin
: to those
the soul
His own

The re-
in evil, the
bitter tor-
cravings—
) make the
." Tracing
:vil and the

" History
,{ our race
ands where
Is the cities
ty and pei-
his upward
er evil, holi-

ness prevail over sin, and the final victory rest in very truth with the
cohorts of God." * # ♦

"The Harmony of the Divine Attributes." Rev. Edgar Lcavitt,
Santa Cruz, Cal. This paper elaborately reviewed the positions of
those who teach that mercy and justice in God are antagonistic; that
"a God all mercy" would be "a God unjust," and from a wide variety
of considerations established the position that all the divine attributes
are phases of divine love. He said: "The divine attributes then are
all in harmony with one another; they need no reconciliation for they
are not unreconciled, except to the misunderstanding of man, and are
incapable ol becoming so. The conflict which men think they dis-
cern is only apparent, not real, like the conflicts which the ancients
thought they saw in nature, and which they thought rctiuircd many
conflicting gods to account for them. Modern science reduces nature's
apparent conflicts under unitary law, thus corroborating the mono-
theistic teaching of Hebrew-Christian revelation. So will, thought
and faith, the study of our experience and the Scriptures, harmonize
and unify all the divine attributes in this central and essential one of
love, and show that St. John made no partial or one-sided statement
when he said; ' God is love.' Since ' God is love,' love must have pur-
posed, planned, directed, foreseen and foreordained final universal
holiness, because anything less than this would be inconsistent with
the divine love and with its infinitude; and since ' love never fuileth,'
God cannot fail in the finally perfect consummation of His plan."

"The Intrinsic Worth of Man." Rev. Everett Levi Rexford, D. D.,
Roxbury, Mass. "The value of man is shown in the symmetrical culture
of his faculties, disclosing in human life the image and the grace of
God." * * Illustrating his theme by specifying the great men who
had. as Kepler said: "thought the thoughts of God after Him," Dr.
Rexford concluded: "In all great characters we read the larger
fulfillment of the common prophecies that are written in the nature of
God's children everywhere. In Jesus of Nazareth we see the fulfill-
ment of those august prophecies written in the spiritual nature of man-
kind. Following the paths of His ascent we reach the borders of the
imperishable realities, and there in those vast altitudes, amidst the
fadeless splendors of an unwasting life, man discloses his transcendent
worth by lifting to his regal brow the radiant crown of his own immor-
tality."

" Universalism the Doctrine of the Bible." Rev. Alonzo Ames
Miner, D.D., LL. D., Boston, Mass. Regarding the Bible as author-
ity. Dr. Miner proceeded to quote its testimony in behalf of universal
salvation. The principal texts quoted were Ps.cxxxlx, 1-12; Isa. xxxv,
1,2; xlv, 22-24; Iv, 10. 11; Ixv, 17. 18; Rev. xxi, 1-6; Heb. ii, 14-15; Ps.
ii, 7, 8; Isa. xlii, 1-4; Daniel vii, 13-14; Luke iv, 16-21; John xvii, 1-4;
Romans viii, 20, 21; viii, 37-39; i Cor. xv, 24-28; 47-48; Phil, ii, 9-1 1;
Heb. viii, 8-12; Ps. xix, 7-11. He showed the application of his cita-
tions. He said: "Let us turn now to another point of view, anew
and the most important aspect of the question. The Bible is given to

TlinDi
Atlrit)iil('
luunizi'd.

vino
'I Hur-

„..J

l*v

MnnVIntrin-
rth.

sic W

BiMoUui-

verBiilisni.

Ii' y

^' liv, I

1 ;i

I I i

i ' !

'!;•' I i

t i

i ;i'

I' f,

; pi'

1 u nnt simply to foretell,
„an for the accomnUsh^ent o. a mora. worWj " t,v^a|on,,«m.nt

which pnnian y was ouu .a ^^^^ <^"^!"'"^^'"nobiect lesson to

Tng in its spintuahty ^f^^^^^ Vie thus becomes an object ^^

man. was revealed to the um .^^tion of ^od amon^ ^^

Uiechildren of men as^P^ •^^^^,,, 1^, i, fitly f^l'^J^'Z,^''' Holding
it is possible to Pr^^^"\ e^ ress image of "'!^ fbfd) prophetic
the Father's glory ^f ^'^^^ble that there ^^^"^^"^uie that these allu-

this place it -. ;-;ty,i^?r^l the ages; l^^-^y^^^firgnlfic^ to the
alius ons to l^'"\tnrouK ^ „ breadth ana sij, ^cy and

Sgnificance, thus mak.ng tnc ^^^^^

-""SaSng th,o„«U the BWe tV,^^^^^^^^^^^ S,eory to

""^^t shave^wc ien that the B.blejsjts^mv^n_^,_j,^ „overnn—

nvotecl nis 111^- */■" „.. i_ ic its own jusiin*-'"'"—
'we seen that the ^f ^^^^.'^ j of God's government,

M: 1

teaches us the ^l'^";;;'';;rH is servants, it is ^J.^^^'^j ^tionsV In both

and of the 'fl^P'^f \"^' ,^^11. His purpose. ^"'J^^i^J^s justifying the

ter. His attributes, His JJi . j^j,^^ out propneaes j .J^^ His

the Old Testament a"d Ncnv ther ^^ .^ ^^ "J'the eenem\ record

declaration that God is love that through the^enc ^^ ^^._

tender mercies ^-^^ «vei: ^u ^ j j ^^^"Sy (0 oi the

of God's government runs tne k ^^^^^^^ ^nd ""'^ersa^ity j j^_

have seen ^If t^at t"e ^^tribut.on, a^'^^^^^^' perfectly concurrent

with the bi^eadth, tuune Centuries.

apostles, and q'-ofiVTiSo-zao). Origen (A- D- >86:^54)^ f

Nyssa(A. U- 329- :5/ />

I : II

foretell,
lishmcnt
■cfore, to
„riptures.
)n of the

c acconv

of God,
\f decpen-
s spirit in
: lesson to
ig men as

rhtness of

' Holding

prophetic
these allu-
ince to the
igency and
iiy thereon
ireadth and
and har-

upon tout
\c theory to

fication. It
government,
His charac-
,ns. In both
Astifying the
and that His
eneral record
rpose of uni-
ty (i)of the
of His minis-
ibitaunityof
he ages. We
nt, the proper
t and spiritual
tly concurrent
n the ultimate

ive Centuries."
the teachings
e days of the
80-150), Clem-
254). Theodore
78), Gregory of
lany others, ll

f ''

Rev. Dr. Thomas J. Sawyer, College Hill, Mass.

\ % ;

1. i

:'■ y-y>

Obscuration
of Universal-

list '

U 1 :

In Hi' '' '^

108(1

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

his scholars, and in the
D, 420), the weight of
e of universal rcsto-
evidcnt to the

ore

was shown that from A. D. 220-400 there were but four theological
schools in which young men were prepared for the Christian ministry in
all the world, and all four inculcated universal restoration. Clement and
Origen, who were the first to define the generally accepted doctrines
of the church, were quoted, and also Dietelmair, who says: "Univer-
salism in the fourth century drove its roots down deeply alike in the
cast and the west, and had very many defenders;" and Giescler, "The
belief in the inalienable power of amendment in all rational creatures,
and the limited duration of future punishment, was general, even in
the west and among the opponents of Origen;" and Doedcrlcin,
" The more highly distinguished in Christian antiquity any one was for
learning, so much the more did he cherish and defend the hope of
future torment sometime ending." After a large number of quotations
from the early fathers of the church, the author quoted the Rev,
Thomas Allin, Episcopalian, who says in a recent volume: "In that
famousageof the world's history, * * ♦ Universalism seems to have
been the creed of the majority of Christians in the east and west alike;
perhaps, even of a large majority, * * * andin the roll of its teachers,
* * * were * * * mostof the greatest names of the greatest age
of primitive Christianity;" and Dr. Edward Heechcr, Presbyterian,
" Beyond all doubt, in the age of Origen and
times of Theodore of Mopsuestia (A. D. 200 to
learned and influential ecclesiastics was on th
ration." The paper closed: "Nothing can
careful reader of the early history of our religion than that the anni-
hilation of sin and evil, and the universal elevation of the human fam-
ily to holiness and happiness, was the primitive doctrine of the Chris-
tian church. Our distinguishing doctrine is not, therefore, as many
suppose, a new one; it is the revival of an old one. It is a return to
the positions of Clement, of Alexandria, seventeen hundred years ago.
It is the rejuvenation, the restoration, the renaissance, the re-birth of
Christianity."

" The Obscuration of Universalism in the Early Church and Middle
Ages." Thomas J. Sawyer, D. D., Tufts College, Mass. In accounting
for the eclipse into which the doctrine of restoration entered from the
sixth century onward. Dr. Sawyer alluded to the edicts of the Emperor
Justinian (A. D. 544-553) condemning it, and tracing the persecutions
of Origen (A. D. 186-254), he quoted Dr. Schaff as saying: "The
condemnation of Origen struck a death blow to theological science in
the Greek church, and left it to stiffen gradually into a mechanical
traditionalism and formalism." " And in this condition it has remained
ever since. The same author pronounces Origen ' the most learned
and ablest divine of the ante-Nicene period, the Plato or Schleier-
macher of the Greek church,' and thinks ' even the errors of such men
more useful than the merely traditional orthodoxy of unthinking men,
because they come from an honest search after truth and provoke new
investigation.'

" That Universalism was condemned by the Emperor Justinian in

THE WORLD'S COA'C/iESS OF REUUIONS.

logical

istry in

:nt and

ctrincs

Jniver-
in the

r, "The

matures,

even in

dcrlcin,

was for

liope of

otations

he Rev,

"In that

s to have

St alike;

:eachers,

atest age

byterian,

[id in the

weight of

sal resto-

it to the

the anni-

man fam-

he Chris-
as many
return to

y^ears ago.

e-birth of

nd Middle
iccounting
d from the
e Emperor
^rsecutions
ng: "The
science in
mechanical
LS remained
jst learned
jr Schleier-
f such men
inking men,
irovoke new

10S7

}

an imperial edict, not, however, ratified by a council of the church, is
a fact well established. Tlie emperor was an earnest Christian in his
way, no doubt, but anxious to rule the church as well as the state, and
to do both by imperial authority. As described by the historians, he
was often ruled by his wife, and she was often ruled by some crafty
priests, who as frequently sought their own interests as those of tlie
church. Hut the good emperor thought himself the church's tuirsing
father and had no doubt that he was able to settle all questions in
theology as well as those of state." The words of the emperor's edict
are as follows: ' If anyone says or holds that the punishment of the
demons, and of ungodly men is temporal, that is, that after a certain
time it will come to an end, and there will be a restoration of the
demons and ungodly men, let him be anathema.'

"But it is not in the realm of thought chiefly that we are to seek
the causes of that obscuration of Universalism which marked the
Middle Ages. There were a hundred unfriendly influences in the
political condition of Christendom and the general state of society
In the breaking up of the unwieldy mass of the Roman Empire, in the
incursions of barbarous nations, in the absorption and imperfect
assimilation of pagans, with their ignorance and superstitions, it is one
of the miracles of history that anything of Christianity was finally left."

"The Bible; Inspiration and Revelation." Rev. George II. i„„>;,„,i „
hmerson, L). U., Boston, Mass. Ihis essay was an attempt to eluci- nmi Uevoiation
(late the confession of faith of the denomination, that the WMt-
"contains a revelation from God," a "revelation in a sense quite unuKe
that in which other books may have been said to reveal Mis will and
purpose." Plenary, verbal inspiration, was not claimed. "The thought
of the Bible, not its literary record;" "the spiritual substance, not the
literary form," is inspired. The paper rejected the theory that the
entire Bible is the Word of God on the one hand, and on the other that
all books and persons are inspired as really as were the authors of the
Scriptures. There is "a commanding peculiarity in the inspiration
that is distinctively Biblical." "The quality of inspiration must be
largely affected by the special nature of the truth it afifirms and makes
clear." Even after the concession that the influence which moved
Shakespeare in the creation of "Hamlet" was in its "root," its primi-
tive substance, " identical with that which stirred Paul to write the
eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, how dissimilar is the
inspiration as it acts on, and is re-acted upon by the subject-matter of
that chapter, from the quality it assumed when it produced the solil-
oquy. Exalted and even sublime as are elect passages in the great
drama, we pass from them to elect passages in the writings of the
apostle who counted it a joy to suffer stripes in allegiance to a divine
Master. We suddenly, and with something of shock, find ourselves
lifted into a new estate— in truth, a new world. Had Shakespeare at-
tempted anything like the tone which pervades the Epistle to the
Galatians, we should have pronounced him a lunatic; his subject-matter
would not have accounted for it; no subject-matter proper to the dra-

¥11

1 I

f\ I

n ■

108S

T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

If*' ■ '

,' * ' 1

i''

Mnn'R Intel-
lect, Aff<«cti(>o,
Aspiration.

The Idea
Salvation.

matic art can make other than incongruou.s a tone and unction and
manner of authority which are as natural to the apo.stlc as the atmos-
phere to the hmgs. A relentless psychology may compel us to regard
Shalccspearian and Pauline inspirations as similar at the fountain, but
words fail in any attempt to describe their difference in the stream.
* * * Alike in popular and in critical thought, revelation is the
correlate of inspiration. One may be called the vehicle, and the other
the matter conveyed." The substance of this essay was that the
doctrines, principles contained in the Bible, are inspired truth, that the
Book contains a revelation of truth, to guide mankind to duty, holi-
ness, happiness,

" Man, Intellect, Affection, Aspiration," was treated by Rev.
J. Smith Dodge, of Stamford, Conn. It was shown that the intellect,
aspirations and sentiments of man imply a common destiny of good
for the race. " When the researches of physical science were in their
infancy they consisted mainly in ascertaining and grasping the facts
of nature; but the human mind has long since busied itself with a
broader survey, trying to enlarge the groups of its knowledge, to bring
tli-^m into relation with each other and to feel after some vast arrange-
ment which shall unite the whole physical universe in one. Elaborat-
ing these fruitful thoughts the conclusion of the writer was reached
that while the intellect, the aspirations and the sentiments do not con-
stitute, they fairly represent, the spiritual constitution of man. And
since we have found that each increasingly demands some scheme of
human well-being which shall include the entire race, while each is
met by a corresponding capacity of human development, we may con-
clude that the divine wisdom which created and rules mankind has in
this way made known the end toward which it works, the universal
blessedness of man."

" The Universalist Idea of Salvation." Rev. Charles h. Eaton,
D. D., New York <,!*y. "Anselm, the saintly archbishop of Canterbury,
anticipated the Universalist idea of salvation when he said, 'I would
rather be in hell without a fault than in heaven with one,' The
modern conception of salvation does not emphasize locality, but
character. It does not deal with place and time, but with qualities of
mind and heart that are independent of place and time. In other
words, solvation is a state and a process." This thought was elaborated
at length. " The test of salvation is simple and effective. We are not
compelled to throw ourselves into the future. We are to ask plain
and everyday questions: What is a man's speech? Is it honest and
reverent? What are his conduct and spirit? The measure of worth
is evident, ' By their fruits ye shall know them.' We are not living
good lives because we are saved, but we are saved because we are
living good lives."

VVhat is the relation of Christ to salvation? "He exhibits in His
life complete harmony of the human and the divine, and teaches us
how we may at the same time Hvl in peace with God and in helpful
and happy relations with our fellows. He reconciled the demands of

action and
the atmos-
■; to regard
untain, but
the stream,
tion is the
tl the other
as that the
ith, that the
I duty, holi-

;d by Rev.

he intellect,
iny of good
vere in their
1^ the facts
itself with a
dgc, to bring
^ast arrange-
;. Elaborat-
was reached
s do not con-
man. And
ne scheme of
while each is
we may con-
inkind has in
the universal

cs H. Eaton,
f Canterbury,
said, 'I would
h one.' The

locality, but
;h qualities of
lie. In other
,'as elaborated
;. We are not

to ask plain
it honest and
isure of worth

are not living
ecause we are

:xhibits in His
ind teaches us
and in helpful
he demands ot

69 Rev. Dr. A. A. Miner, LL.^. Bostm, Mass.

ii !:

I' ■•' f

■;■«

S.\

The Higher
Criticism.

Attitnde 'i'o-
ward ScieiiCo.

1090

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

time and eternity, and in the midst of the doubts and confusions of
life, shows how we may nourish an abiding hope and create a sym-
metrical character." But He was more than historical and ethical.
"Salvation, the Universalist declares, is not confined to this life.
Repentance is the door of salvation. Repentance, however, is possi-
ble on this or the other side of the line of death. Death has
no significance whatever so far as the essential processes of sal-
vation are concerned. As we lay down the burdens of earth we
take up the obligations of heaven. Relieved of the body of
flesh, its weaknesses and the temptations that inhere in it, but, not-
withstanding, the same human beings that walked the ways of earth.
Not only does the soul remain the same, subject to the impulses, the
restraints, the hopes and opportunities of the law of God, but every-
where in this life and every other life we are under the dominion of
the same power and love. Wherever and whenever a soul turns to
God, forgiveness and help will be granted. The sun shines at one
end of the covered bridge we call death. Docs it not shine at the
other end as well?" Salvation is a moral, religious, spiritual process
moving man's highest faculties and thus producing character, which
will ultimately be attained by all souls.

"The Higher Criticism." Rev. Massena Goodrich, Pawtucket, R. I.
Defining the "higher criticism" the essay stated that his branch of the
Christian church is in full sympathy with its purposes and accepts its
conclusions. " Hut its assumptions we do not concede. In so far as
the higher criticism bases its conclusions on the impossibility of
miracles, it assumes what no man is bound to concede. God is in
nature and in providence, and the tokens of His might arc so mani-
fest in heaven above and earth beneath, that no man can rightly under-
take to set limits to His power. \i He has seen at any time that a
wondrous display of His energy will rebuke human arrogance or con-
ceit, and wring from the tongue the ejaculation, 'My Lord and my
God,' it may be a sufficient reason for His baring His arm. But the
ascertained dates and facts of authorship of the books of the Bible
our church welcomes, as it does all truth."

"The Attitude of the Universalist Church Towards .Scienc ,"
Rev. I. Ivt. Atwood, D. D., St. Lawrence University, Canton, N. Y.
"The attitude is one of interest, sympathy and expectation. It has no
hostility of feeling whatever. The attitude of the Universalist church
is still one of interest, sympathy, expectation. While, if the term be
construed in its narrower and usual sense, as concerned with observa-
tion and experiment in the study of physical nature, the formula which
expresses the attitude of the Universalist church toward it would not
have to be changed." # # ♦

He welcomed the growing friendliness between science and theol-
ogy, and rejoiced that the branch of the church he represented had
ever looked with confidence on the achievements of science, sure that
the author of both science and Christianity would secure their perfect
harmony. "The real difficulty is, that no one knows what true rclig-

isions of
: a sym-

ethical,
this life,
is possi-
iath has
s of sal-
earth we
body of
, but, not-

of earth.
)ulscs, the
Hit evcry-
minion of
I turns to
les at one
ine at the
al process
:ter, which

ucket, R. 1.
inch of the
accepts its
n so far as
issibility of
God is in
so niani-
;htly under-
time that a
ncc or con-
)rd and my
But the
of the Bible

Is Scicnc .
nton, N. Y.
It has no
^alist church
the term be
ith observa-
>rmula which
it would not
#

:e and theol-
resentcd had
ice, sure that
their perfect
at true rclig-

Rev. J. S. Cantwell, D. D , ^^uicago.

«"

i't' 1

i'v

1 i

f i

■f

••

' %

'!*:'■ !

' ■ 1

. ■' I

1092

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

i\\f\ .{\

m 1

III

III H

!■!

ion is or true science. Rcli<]jion as accepted and expounded, and sci-
ence as apprehended and taught, are both faulty and incomplete. The
dissonances between systems thus imperfect are likely due to the fact
that neither has yet struck the true note. In any attempt to bring the
two into accord w t are embarrassed by the want of a standard pitch.
If we take our key from religion, which variety shall we select? And
whichever we select, we shall not dare to assume that it is without a
flaw or a quaver. If we start from science, its name is yet legion and
its voices jangled. Neither has yet found absolute and final expres-
sion. If, then, ,ve brought them to a forced and momentary harmony
it would be only to find them breaking into discord again with the
very first movement of progress in either. * * * God is, and every
man is God's spiritual child, and the final meaning of the cosmos, as
well as of the human soul, is moral. This is what all searchers shall
at last find out. And in that eon, near or remote, all paths of real
knowledge shall be seen to lead the inquirer to Him in whom all live
and move and have their being."

" Denominational Organization and Polity; The Position of Women
in the Church; Sunday-scliool Work." Hon. Hosea W. Parker, Clare-
mont, N. H. After describing the origin of the Un'vcrsalist Church
Organization in America, and defining its polity as a modified Congregationalism,
and Polity. resembling the American government — a representati\e democracy,
purely republican- perfected in iS66, he stated that its General Con-
vention is only one distinct body, it has all the functions of a legisla-
tive, executive and judicial government.

Of the women in the church he said: " The women of theUniver-
salist church represent, in an eminent degree, the advance thought in
liberal theology at the present time. In every branch of this church we
find them foremost in its varietl work. * * As Christian thought has
advanced, the relati(Mis of women to all of the progressive movements
in human society are better understood anil appreciated. We find
them toilay in our colleges, as students and professors, and in all the
callings and professions of life, but in wo place is she doing better or
more efficient work than in the Universalist church. The divinity
schools of (iiir church have opened wide their doors, and the young
women are last coming forward to prepare themselves as Christian
teachers and preachers.

"As early as kSi6 a Sabbath-school was formed in Philadelphia,
and in 1817 a school was instituted in Hoston. In 1S19 there was a
school in Stoughtoii, Mass., one in Gloucester in 1820, and one in
Providence, R. 1., in iSji. From 1830 to 1840 a large number were
established in New luigland, also in New V'ork, Pennsyhania and
Ohio. The .Sabbath-school is and has been an important factor in
religious work, in coni" ction with the Universalist cliurch. It has its
publications and its HI m. tries wherever the Universalist doctrines are
preached or taught."

" Love the Rasi of Education." Prof. N. White, Ph. D., Lom-
bard University, G.ilesburg, 111. The theme was elucidated with great

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

1093

'' .1

ind sci-
te. The
the fact
-ing the
d pitch.
? And
ithout a
rion and
cxpres-
larmony
with the
nd every
(smos, as
icrs shall
IS of real
m all live

){ Women
:cr, Clarc-
st Church
tionalism,
cniocracy,
ncral Con-
a Icgisla-

heUniver-
hou^ht in
church wc
houghthas
movements
Wc find
d in all the
i<r better or
he divinity
the youn^
s Christian

hiladclphia.
there was a
and one in
vnnlicr were
ylvania and
nt factor in
,. It has its
Joctrines arc

Ph. D., Lom-
d with great

force. "The recognition of 1 ve, as the supreme principle and inter-
preter of human lite, must awaken new energies in the service of man.
Love knows nothing of the law's delay, no failure of purpose, no
exhaustion of strength. This must be so since love gives us the clue
to the divine purpose and every experience of life is seen to be a stage
the divine ordering of our life. Wc press on, for every act of

Loye the
BasiH of £da-
cation,

iii.

. ''-l

Unityot
Forces.

m tne aivme orucrmg or our lite. Wc press on, tor every act of
service establishes new and closer relations between us and God. As
life interpreted by love unfolds itself before us, it becomes charged
with new and deeper meaning, since that meaning is expressed to us
in terms of love, and the worth of true love when once felt is never
questioned nor denied. This earthly life when interpreted by love rises
and expands more and more to the proportions of the heavenly."

"Science Indicates the Unity of FoVccs; Hence the Unity of Final
Cause; Manifested in the I'rogressof Knowledge; Industrial, Commer-
cial and International Relationships also Indicate the Brotherhood
of Man." Rev. VAw'm Chapin Swcetser, D. D., Philadelphia, Pa.
After showing that nature was never so well understood as now, and
that, whereas, its phenomena had for ages been supposed to be caused
by conflicting forces, the search-lights of modern science are revealing
the fact that man was the ultimate purpose of the solar system of
which our earth is a part, he said: * * *

" Among all of the wonderful discoveries which science has made
in modern times there is iione more profound than that of the correla-
tion and conservation of forces, and none more far-reaching in what it
implies with reference to the destiny of mankind. * * * It allows
but one creator, one ruler, one governor, one source of all energy, one
great first cause, of whom and through whom and to whom arc all
things."

In the outlying world epitomized by the exposition, and the more
civilized man becomes the more noticeably will be seen the oneness of
the race. And illustrating his theme in many wajs. Dr. Swcetscr con-
cluded thus: " lu]ually, then, by those teachings of nature which
indicate that, from the begiiMiing, the Author of the human race has
designed its ultimate perfection, and by thc^c which indicate the unity
which binds its members together, we are led to the conclusion that
it can have but one destiny, a destiny befitting its heavenly origin, a
destiny worthy of the children of God. That destiny will not be
accomplished until all shall have come to a perfect manhood, to the
measure of the stature of th^ fullness of Christ."

"The Woman's Centenary Association." Mrs. Cordelia A. Ouinby,
Augusta, Me. The address fully described the origin, history and work rpnti!nary"AB.
of this national body of Universalist women, organized in 1870. at ^ociation.
which time a permanent fund of S3 5. 000 was established. It has
planted and maintained a mission in Glasgow, Scotland, has fostered
missionary interests in various parts of this country; has issued sixty-
eight tracts and circulated more than five million pages all over the
world, besides many thousands of volumes of books and pamphlets*
hf^$ collected and disbursed for church work more than $250,000,

Womnn's

1094

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

The Japan-
ese Mission.

Woman's
Home Mis
sions.

War, Peace,
National Hou>

"Foreign Missionary Work: The Japanese Mission." Rev. George
Landor Pcrin, D. D., Tokio, Japan. Dr. Perin's address was a vit^orous
vindication of foreign missions, and of the necessity, utility and
success of the Univcrsalist Japanese Mission, organized A. D. 1890.
In the course of his paper he inquired: " Who should be sent as mis-
sionaries to tell men of God if not those who from the first made the
Universal Fatherhood of God central in their jirayers and in their teach-
ings? * * A Universalist without the missionary spirit is a contra-
diction in terms. Such a one suggests the idea of partial Univcrsalism.
To the true Universalist there is no Jew and no Gentile, no bond and no
free, no favored race and no favorite spot in v*hich to work." He
declared the motive of the Japanese Mission to be to give the Gospe'
to Asia, for the blessing of the Orient; its aim to convert men to the
Christian life; its method to educate native ministers, and he had
found the results fully justified the enterprise. \i\ the course of his
address he said: "There is no place on earth where ultra-orthodo.xy
has less influence than in Japan. Until within a few years past there
have been none but orthodo.x missions in this country; and yet it is
entirely within the facts to say that the native leaders of Christian
thought are more liberal than the liberal Congregationalists of Amer-
ica. It is simj^ly impossible that extreme orthodox doctrines shall
ever control the Christian thought of this country. If this shall ever
become a Christian nation, as I confidently believe it will, it will only
be through the preaching of a simple Christianity, freed from theolog-
ical difficulties, in which the love of God for all men stands out clearly
as the central me?jsage." * * #

" Woman's State Missionary Organizations." Mrs. M. R. M. Wal-
lace, Chicago, 111. Mrs. Wallace referretl to the state associations of
women organized in the various states, and described their work for
their church, "helping struggling churches;" "caring for the parish
poor;" "sustaining .Sunday-schools where no church exists;" "liqui-
dating the church debt," etc. She said: "The .strong point in these
organizations is the fact that the women have more time and patience
for the 'little beginnings' that would perplex and puzzle the state
boards which labor in the larger fields and on a grander scale; and
like gleaners they will make use of the grain left behind by the busy
harvesters. They are more willing to begin with a small outlook,
toiling on with more zeal and hopefulness for the final culmination of
their prayers. Their faith never falters, though the way be long and
the days dark. They quietly and steadily march along saying, 'the
kingdom of heaven is at hand.' When a church is finally forced to
close its doors, as .sometimes happens, experience shows 'tis a woman's
hand that holds the key, waiting and watching for the day of better
things."

" War, Peace and National Honor." Rev. Henry Blanchard, D. D.
Portland, Me. Admitting that war is incidental to the lower stages
of man's development, he contended that too much honor has been
given to war and warriors, and while some wars have been noble

ill

;v. George
a vit'orous
tility and
V. D. 1890.
:nt as mis-
: made the
hcirtcach-
s a contra-
iversalism.
ond and no
,ork." He
the Gospel
men to the
nd he had
mrse of his
-orthodoxy
^ past there
ind yet it is
.f Christian
ts of Amer-
trines shall
s shall ever
it will only
om theoloR-
s out clearly
#

. R. M.Wal-
;ociations of
;ir work for
r the parish
ists;" "liqui-
)int in these
md patience
zle the stale
r scale; and
by the busy
nail outlook,
dmination of
be long and
, saying, 'the
lly forced to
'tis a woman's
Jay of better

mchard, D. D.
; lower stages
Dnor has been
'e been noble

Ik ■

i \

Mrs. M. R. M. Wallace, Chicago.

^--•WWi.v

109G

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

iv.mw

N'.i

Crime and
Ponishmeut.

Christian
Ethics.

■ I 'i

and honorable to one side, he urged that peace is the goal toward
which all things should tend. He insisted that the evil of war should
be inculcated in our schools and colleges, but held that the great
panacea is in our religion, which puts a new meaning in " national
honor," which means national service. His closing words were:
" In such an hour, it is meet that we should feel, as never before, the
solidarity of mankind, and long tor and work for the federation of
nations. The great gun of Krupp's manufactory is in its place in
yonder fair. It tells v/hat man has been able to do in creating instru-
ments for man's destruction. But there, also, is the gigantic search-
light with its 200,000,000 candle power, showing what man has done to
use the wondrous agent we call electricity, to illumine darkness and
fog and storm. That is a fitter symbol of the coming times than the
gigantic gun. On one of Louis XIV. 's cannon were the words, 'The
argument of kings.' Our search-light shall declare it is the argument
of the people. The time is coming when we shall have no need of
cannon. The time will never be on earth when we shall haVe no need
of light. Invention amazes; aits increase; the twentieth century will
reap great results from the marvelous achievements of the last twenty
years. Invention, arts, I solemnly believe, will make useless bayonets
and sword and cannon, but light, more light, in material form, will
only symbolize the light which thought shall give to the great prob-
lems of society. If all the electric thoughts of this last decade of the
Nineteenth Century could blaze out in light, as does the great search-
light yonder, it would show us the path of the future upon which we
are advancing — the path, growing brighter and brighter unto the
perfect day, wherein shall be made real the vision that has forever
haunted prophet and poet of ' peace on earth, good will to men,' — the
day when war shall be no more; and that nation shall be greatest which
best serves the world."

"Crime; Capital Punishment; Intemperance." Rev. Olympia
Brown Willis, Racine, Wis. " A large part of the misery of the world,"
said the speaker, " results from crime. It does not result from Eve's
transgression, nor are there two opposing forces at work striving to
rule the earth. Human society is unfinished." The acts of men are
largely experimental. The criminal is a man, a child of God, astray;
"an experimenter who has blundered, his own worst enemy. He ap-
peals to our sympathy, while his conduct calls for our condemnation."
How should a Christian government treat him? Retribution belongs
to God, and government should have but two purposes in punishing —
the protection of society and the rescue of the criminal. The death

f>enalty does not lessen crime, nor cruel punishments decrease it.
'risons should be schools; man's punishment should be like God's,
medicinal.

"Christian Ethics." Rev. A. N. Alcott, Elgin, 111., asked: "Can
Christianity be made a living, working, realized religion in daily human
affairs? Can men succeed and strictly practice it? Questions of the-
plogical doctrine are at present as nothing to the world in comparison

THE WORLD'S CONGEESS OF KELIGIONS.

100<

toward
r should
\c great
national
is were:
fore, the
ration of

place in
ig instru-
ic scarch-
s done to
iness and

than the
,rds, ' The
argument
lo need of
fe. no need
:ntury will
ast twenty

, bayonets

form, will
Treat prob-
:adc of the
^eat search-
n which we
r unto the
has forever
1 men,' — the
:atest which

vr. Olympia
[ the world,"
t from Eve's
: striving to
of men are
God, astray;
ny. He ap-
idemnation.
tion belongs
1 punishing—
The death
i decrease it.
e like God's,

asked: "Can
n daily human
jstions of the-
in comparison

to the importance of this question: Is Christ

success, workable in business and politic

ian ethics, as a path to

self affirmatively. He cjuotcd ( i ) tiic precepts and

IMr.Alcutt declared h

im-

Nevv Testament in proof; (2) tli

examples in tiie

, . , <^ connnon law; (3) the oneness of

humanity— human society is a unit, and (4) tlic verdict of time. He
insisted that experience shows that honor, hone-sty, in the long run,
succeeds— in business, politics, everywhere. Among many .striking
illustrations he referred to our own national history, and said: "The
reaction of the unetliical on society to its vast injury is forcibly illus-
trated in both business and politics, at one and the same time, by the
institution of slavery at the South. Thousands of men wore success-
fully kidnapped, their toil was successfully enforced. Chains were
successfully imposed on millions. Hut \\o\. onl)- was this success a
constant social and agricultural curse during its continuance, but the
unethical industry at length jiroduced rebellion, came near ruining a
nation, cost North and South billions of dollars, more money than the
slaves ever earned; cost, moreover, thousands aiul thousands of lives,
the agony and tears of eight million homes, the strain of a four years'
civil war, and left a blight on soil and on hearts and minds in the land
of the orange blossom that has not yet spent its withering and baneful
force. Was this unethical business, this unethical politics a success,
measured by the yard-stick of time?"

"The Contribution of Universalism to the World's Faith," by
Rev. James M. Pullman, 1). D.. of Lynn, Mass.. was the last paper
presented. Dr. Pullman nameil five great thoughts which his denom-
ination had given to religion: (i) l-"aith in man; (2) faith in the
beneficence of evil; (3) the organic and spiritual unity of the race;
(4) the interminableness of man's progress; (5) eternal hope. The
concluding words were:

"A gulf of deepest mystery surrounds this island-earth on which
we dwell. We must build within ourselves the bridge of faith, which
alone can span the wide abyss. Let me illustrate what I mean by the
figure of the cantilever bridge. A cantilever is a bracket. A canti-
lever bridge is a double or balanced bracket. When the gulf to be
spanned has a reachable bottom, we can build our piers upon it. lay
the beams of our bridge over them, and so cross the chasm. Where
the gulf is too deep, or the
solid towers on both shores.

waters too swift for this, we can erect
swing our suspension bridge between

The Contri-
hutiuii of Uiii-
vcrHuliHiii to
tli« World'B
Faith.

them and so cross. Hut the gulf which surrounds us here is unfath-
omable; it has no reachable bottom, and no visible further shore.
Our only resource is the cantilever. We must build our solid pier of
fact on our own side of the gulf, start our truss-work from the top of
that, and then we can build out over the abyss just as far as we build
the balancing worth and faith inland in our own souls. By all the
laws of spirit, the unseen Hridge-builder on the further shore will build
toward us as far and as fast as we build toward Him. The stronger
and more out-reaching our hope, the sooner will the junction be
formed between man's desires and his Maker's purposes. The only

,1:1: i

U., !i

! i

:i :1l

1. i

1098

THIC WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIUJONS.

Uniyersalisni I care anythiiif^ about, is that which builds the bridge of
eternal iiupe over the ^ulf of sin and darkness, anil makes (iod acces-
sible to the lost soul and straying feet of the weakest and worst of
men."

TJiP ThwiIoB.
ical Method

MoTempntA
in Foreittn

THE UNITARIAN CHURCH CONGRKSS.

The proccedinf:;s of this Congress were very elaborate and compre-
hensive, covering the historical, doctrinal and ethical positions occu-
pied by the Unitarians. The sessions contiiuieil fron> September i6th
to the 23d. Distinguished scholars and divines contributed tt) the
interest of the Congress; among them the Rev. Theodore Williams, of
New York, discussed the Representative Men; the Rev. M. St. C.
Wright, of New York. "The Theological Method of the Movement;" the
Rev. T. R. Slicer, of Huffalo, traced the history of the Unitarian idea
from the .Sermon on the Mount to the Niceiie creed (A. I). 325). He
declared that "the absolute being of God remained untouched through
the growing centuries by the growing claims of Christ. No father of
the church, for three centuries after Christ, lost sight of the subordi-
nation of Christ to Cod, or claimed Him to be otherwise than a repre-
sentative of the I""ather. The rank growth of dogma began in the Third
century. The Holy (ihost was not given a place as the Thinl Person
of God until the I^ighth century. The true, original Unitarians were the
Jews of the I<'ir>t centurj , but tlH)se now known as early Unitarians were
those who sought to revive the simple primitive faith in the unity of
God of the early Christians." The Christian church deteriorated from
the Third centiny until a mistake was regarded as a crime and an im-
puted error fatal.

"The Church of the Spirit " was treated by Rev. Anna Garlin
Spencer, and papers were read bj' Revs. Augustus M. Lord; I'', (i.
Peabody, I). IJ., of Cambridge; Horatio .Stebbins, D. D., of San Francisco,
and S. R. Calthrop, of Syracuse, N. Y.

"The Unitarian Movement in P'oreign Lands" was treated by Pro-
fessor Gordon, of Manchester, Pjigland; the Rev. V. W. M. Hugen-
holtz, of Grand Rapids, who described the status in Poland, Italy and
the Netherlands; Professor Honet-Maurj', the situation in Switzerland
and France, where Channing is held to be a prophet, and he predicted
that the time is coming when the Calvinistic churches of France will be
liberal.

A lively address was given by Mrs. Laura Ormiston Chant, ol
England, who said "there are three steps in religion, ( 1 ) soap and
water, (2) plenty to eat, and (3) good clothing." Smiles and laughter
hasten the journey.

Rev. Dr. J. IL Allen gave an historical sketch of Unitarianism
during the prc-transcendental period, from 1800 to 1S35, when it
existed only in and around Hoston. The Rev. Geo. H. Hatchelor de-
clared that its characteristic is still transcendental, inasmuch as Emer-

r
''I

c bridj^c of

tlocl acccji-

nd worst of

and coniprc-
^itions occu-
lt cinlK-r i6th
billed to the
Williams, of
:v. M. St. C.
)vcincnt;"thc
nitiuiaii idea
1). ^20- He
ichcd through

No father of

the subordi-

than a reprc-

u\ in the Third

Third Person

uians were the

Jnitarians were

the unity of

criorated from

ne and an im-

Anna Garlin
. Lord; 1'. (i-
San Francisco,

treated by Pro-
W, M. llu^'en-
and. Italy and
in Switzerland
d he predicted
f France will be

iston Chant, oi
._ (1) soap and
iics and laughter

of Unitarianism
, iS:^5. when it
I. Ikitchelor dc-
smuch as Emcr-

Rev. Robert Collyer, New York.

3' 'I

I-

]' H

111. II

I i

1100

TiVA" WOKLDS COXGKESS OF KEUGIONS,

I :i}

1 ■ ^

1: \ ^'

son was its great exponent. Reason and right as revealed in man's
mental and moral constitution is man's ultimate authority. The Rev.
John C. Learned, of .St. Louis, declared that the principles of lOmerson
and Parker still characterize the denomination, lie said;
Uittorioal. "The impulse given by Parker and ICmerson to our churches has

been pushing toward some such culmination as this Parliament of
Religions, a noble sympathy of faith and fellowship, though it will be
a long time before the music of this divine classic will seem sweet to
ecclesiastical ears. This impetus was largely heightenetl, first by the
publication of several books which formed an epoch in theological
thought, Darwin's 'Origin of Species' and Renan's ' Life of Jesus," and
others; and the outcome of the war for the abt)Iiti<)n of slavery brought
limitless possibilities of material and spiritual advancement. The
Unitarian denomination shareil in the new hopes, invoked the spirit of
organization, and the growth in breadth and depth goes on steadily
and rapiilly."

The Revs. Messrs. Ilornbrooke, Crooker, Crothers, Simmons and
Savage unfolded the Unitarian doctrines; man's knowledge of religious
truth results from his own experience; Jesus, "an ascending man;" an
immanent (Jod revealed " in law which is love, and love which is law;"
Link°iii*E^ man, " the last link in evolution," still containing scjmc of the elements
lution. Qf ti,^. beast, but moving upward, and working them out; and in the

words of Dr. Savage, the instincts of the soul and psychological
science give the warrant of life eternal.

Specimen expressions of opinion may be taKen from the papers
read. I'rofessor Toy, of Harvard University, dec!, .red that all Uni-
tarians accept ...c results of the higher criticism; the Rev. Dr. Thayer,
of Cincinnati, said, "there is no partial revelation;" the Rev. Dr.
Crosskcy, of England, rejected all miraculous interference with the
laws of nature, and regarded every event in outward nature and in the
history of man as resulting fiom evolution, and held all rites, cere-
monies and ordinances as subordinate to obedience of the laws of
God.
(ireatUnitar- The names of Channing, Margaret Fuller, Alcott, Dwight, Kliza-

ians. beth Peabody, t)merson, Ripley, Whipple, Hedge, Ticknor, Lowell,

Prescott, Palfrey, Motley, Bancroft, Pllverett, Sumner, Curtis, Hryant,
Longfellow, Holmes, Samuel G. Howe, Dorothea Dix, Mary Carpen-
ter, Dr. Hellows and others were referred to as among those who had
adorned the Unitarian annals. Prof. F. G. Peabody described the
philanthropic genius and work of his church. Rev. A. P. Putnam,
D. D., sent a paper describing the poets who had sung the broad faitli
of the liberal church.

The statistics of the denomination were given by Rev. Grindall
Reynolds, Secretary of the Unitarian Association; W. H. Lyon, secir-
tary of the National Conference, and Rev, F. L. Hosmer, Secretai \
of the Western Conference. Also, the condition of the Unity clubs,
Young People's Guilds and other subsidiary organizations was given.
The American Unitarian Association reported " two hundred and fifty

d in man s
The Rev.
L){ Kincrst)n

lurches has

.rli.-imcnt of

r\\ it will be

L-ni sweet to

, first by the
theological

f Jesus,' and

^rcry broii^ht

:ment. The
the spirit of
on steadily

Mnimons and
re of ielij;ious
in^ man;" an
rthich is law;"
the elements
l; and in the
psychological

m the papers
that all Uni-

L'V. Ur. Thayer,
the Rev. Dr.

cncc with the

ture and in the
all rites, cere-
of the laws of

Dwight, Kli/a-
icknor, Lowell,

Curtis, Bryant,
, Mary Carpen-

those who had
^ described the

A. 1*. Putnam,
r'the broad faith

ly Rev. Grindall
H. Lyon, secn-
osmer, Secretary
the Unity clubs,
tions was eiven.
lundrcd and fitty

Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Chicago.

(Secretary General Committee.)

'\\

lili

Unitarian
Promise.

1102

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

or three hundred and fifty churches, with a missionary income of
$40,000 a year."

The topic of the last session was the " Unitarian Promise." The
Rev. Ida C. Hultin presided, and addresses were made by Revs. Ed-
ward Everett Hale and Caroline J. liartlett; also a paper from the
Rev. W. C. Gannett was read by proxy. lie urged j:^rowth inwardly;
union with all liberal faiths, and that the Unitarian church aim chiefly
to be a church of the Holy Spirit.

An interesting woman's meeting was held, in which four valuable
papers were presented on "Woman's Theological Emancipation."
Judaism was represented by Miss Mary M. Cohen, of Thiladelphia;
Universalism by Mrs. Jane L. Patterson, of lioston; the Free Religion-
i.sts by Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney, of Boston, and Unitarianism by Rev.
Marion Murdock, of Cleveland.

The papers of this congress, if gathered into a volume, would be
be a choice contribution to the 1 terature of religious thought.

^'l

\ \ Vi

African
HethodiHis.

Momola
Massaquoi.

THE AFRICAN METHODi.Tf EPISCOPAL CONGRES.S.

The Genera! Confc-ence appointed the following board of man-
agers: Bishop B. F. Lee. D. D., LL. 1)., Bishop Jas. A. Handy. D. D.,
Rev. T. B. Calwell, Rev. J. H. Armstrong, D. D. (treasurer), ami Bishop
B. W. Arnett was made general manager and representative to all
rcligiors congresses, : nd also chairman of committee on programmes.

The first meeting was the missionary congress of the A. M. V..
church, which convened .September ig, iSg^. at 10 a. m., in room VI 11.
in the Art Palace, Bisliop li. M. Turner, D. D.. presiding. An address
was delivered by Dr. Wm. B. Derrick, secretary of missions, who gave
an account of the missionary work of our church in llayti, San Do-
mingo, Bermuda, Demarara, Liberia and .^ierra Leone. Dr. D. H.
Williams and Bishop H. M. Turner delivered addresses during the
day. On Wednesday, September 20th, liishop B. W. Arnett presided
and addresses were delivered by Bishop Tanner and John M. Hender-
son. The missionary congress was well attended and able addresses
were delivered by Prince Momolu Mas.sa(iuoi and Dr. Morte, of y\frica.

On Thursday night the citizens of Chicago gave a reception in
Bethel church to the members of the A. M. \\. congress. Bishop A.
W. Wayman presided, and addresses were delivered by Rev. D. A.
Graham, R. Y.. Moore and J. D. Bryant. S. Lang Williams delivered
an address in behalf of the citizens of Chicago and Bishop Giant re-
sponded in behalf of the bishoi.\s, and Dr. L. J. Coppins in behalf of
the general officers of the church. Also the members of Quinn
Chapel, Bethel church, and St. Stephen's church, gave a banquet, at
which representatives from evciy state of the Union were present, and
participated; it was the largest reunion of African Methodists ever
held.

The Late Bishop Daniel A. Payne, D. D., L. L. D.

11:

A''

S-, :

if :.

''*«'*»»..4*»..

1104

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

iim .

r');.i

. J

Meaning o f
the Congress.

Dr. Mercer's
Good Words.

The congress formally opened in Washington Hall on Friday,
September 22d, at lo a. m. Rev. J. W. Beckett, D. D., of Baltimore,
conducted a praise service, after which Bishop Abram Grant offered
prayer. Bishop B. VV. Arnett introduced C. C. Bonney, president of
the religious Congress Auxiliary, who, in the course of his address,
said:

"Man at last takes his position in the world as man; for man con-
sists of character and virtue and intelligence and deeds. Whatever
may be the appearance of the man, whatever may be his external garb
or the color of his skin, if his mind be not ennobled with intelligence
he is not man.

" The meaning of this African Congress, which is broader than your
denomination, which assumes a significance greater than an^- denomina-
tion could hold — the significance of this meeting to all the world is
greater than can readily be comprehended. Africa in America is the
hope of Africa throughout the whole world. Elvery sorrow which
your race has suffered in my country, every agony you have endured,
every privation you have suffered, you are now being rct)aid and shall
yet be repaid a millionfold by the blessings which shall follow you.
It is not the first or only instance in which the hand of Providence has
been seen in sorrow and affliction. All the history of the world is full
of such examples as this, but yours seems to me one of peculiar con-
gratulation and glory.

"One other thought I think I ought to express. It is the tribute
of the other races of mankind appropriately given on this occasion to
the deep religious character of the African race. To them faith and
hope and prayer and supplication are as natural as to take the food
which the kind hand of Providence gives to sustain the bodily life. No
more touching chapter in the history of the African race can be found
than that which will record the religious experiences of that race in
America."

Prince VVolkonsky, of Russia, responded to a call in a few words.

Mrs. Isabella Hooker, sister of Harriet Beecher Stowc, said: " I am
proud to come with you; I am proud to sit close to you, and I want to
say to you that the dear sister sitting at home there, her soul gone
on, if she could be herewith you it would be the pleasure of her life.
But she speaks through me to say to you that all that you have done and
are now doing verifies the ideal of you that she pres,ented in that
•Uncle Tom."'

The Rev. L. P. Mercer, of Chicago, was called upon, and re-
sponded:

"I want to reaffirm to you what my brother has said inyourbehalf
in his words of welcome. I want the privilege of saying to you a
thousandfold more, if I can pack it into a word or two. 1 want to say
to you, brethren of the colored race, that the teacher from whom I
have learned almost all I know, the only wise God our Saviour Jesus
Christ, has taught me that the Africans are best beloved because they
love to be called obedient and come with wide open hearts and teach-

Friday,
timore,
offered
Aent of
Lddress,

an con-
hatevev
nal garb
lligence

nan your
;nomina-
world is
ica is the
w which
endured,
and shall
[low you.
clcnce has
)rld is full
uliar con-
he tribute
ccasion to
faith and
;c the food
y life. No
[\ be found
hat race in

few words.

iaid: "lam

d 1 want to

soul gone

of her life.

vc done and
iited in that

)on, and re-

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Iior.

able minds to learn of the only wise God, and they arc affectionate,
patient and helpful, net only one to another, but to all who hold it to
be the glory of the angelic life that each shall have his joy and delight
in the service of all the rest; and I love the colored people, not of
Africa, whom I don't know, but of America, whom I have known."

Rt. Rev. D. A. Payne, of Wilberforce, Ohio, president, presiding,
.said: "The Christian mind and the Christian church are always ascending
higher and higher in its ideas of God and man. We hope that in the
papers that will be read today and tomorrow and the next day we
shall have such utterances from these dear brethren, who have written
out their thoughts and gone down to the depths of their religious ideas,
as will show to this community and to the world the very spirit and
nature of the African Methodist Episcopal church." Bishop Payne
was followed by a paper entitled:

"Rise and Progress of the African Methodist Episcopal Church," Dr. Bandy's
by Rt. Rev. James A. Handy, D. D. Among other things Dr. ^'""''■•
Handy said: "In the year 1766 Phillip Embry organized a class of
Methodists in the city of New York. One of them was a negro woman.
Robert Strawbridge, at Baltimore, Md., the same year, organized a
class of twelve persons, one of whom was a negro woman. We have
been in the Methodist church ever since our admission by Embry and
Streuvbridge, over 127 years. * * * African Methodism had its
birth in an age of rigid opposition to Christian fellowship before or at
the common communion table of the Lord; every inch of ground or
position of the colored members among the Protestant denominations
was fiercely contested. Nevertheless, we continued in Lovely lane,
Strawbridge Alley, Baltimore and old St. George's street, Philadel-
phia, until April, 1816, when in solemn convention, assembled under
the protection of Almighty God and the justice of our cause, we or-
ganized the African Methodist church.

"The African Methodist Plpiscopal church is one of the agents at
work to restore the earth to its pristine and primeval purity. African
Methodism from its incipiency demanded and today demands a higher
form of courage and endurance, discipline and order. It is a Method-
ist P^piscopal church, not a Congregational, nora Presbyterian church;
it is a church governed and superintended by bishops, who are elected
and ordained to the work of the episcopacy, with general, annual and
quarterly conferences.

"God has blessed and prospered the work put in operation by the
'Heroic Fifteen,' Allen, Hill and their associates. The less than three
thousand communicants of 18 16 are today five hundred thousand; the
eleven preachers who met in the convention seventy-seven years ago
are today represented by fifteen thousand itinerant and local preachers.
"Our Sunday-schools contain 408,176 scholars and teachers. \Vc
have 5,710 church buildings, 1,037 parsonages, five colleges, twenty
school-houses, one publishing house, one department of finance, four
Episcopal residences. We have a total of 6,757 buildings with a valu-
ation of $8,309,622. Our mission work in Africa embraces two annual
70

HOG

T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Ifci*

«l

. '- ■ ■ !

1 '

. a 1 . R

i..

M i 8 B i o n o f
the African
MethodititH.

conferences, one within the Liberian republic, the other at Sierra Leone,
west Africa. More than forty teachers and preachers are employed
and several schools arc daily opened throughout the year for educa-
tional and industrial training. In the West Indies — Bermuda, llayti
and San Domingo our missions are in a flouiishing condition.

" The mission of the African Methodist ICjiiscopal church, as her
name indicates, is to the weaker races, lirst, to glorify God by lifting
them to a higher plane morally, religiously, intellectually and indus-
triously. Second. To stand as a broad Christian protest against caste
in the church, in the pew, at the altar, in the jnilpit, at the sacramental
table, giving to all the opportunity to grow and to develop into full,
grand manhood and womanhood; putting into active operation the
moral and religious forces of our blessed Methodism, forming an
alliance of Christian thought, Christian work. Christian love with our
darker kinsmen of Central and South America; then with our united
intelligence made strong by our Metliodism, with faith in God, and
with our brothers of the Lesser and Greater Antilles marching under
this banner — onward — onward, to the land of our ancestors, we will
preach the Gospel of a free, full and common salvation to the millions
of our brethren there! "

"The Philosophy of the l^[Mscopacy of the African Methodist
.Episcopal Church" was treated by the Rev. J. Kmbry, D. D., busi-
ness manager of publishing department. He said: "The American
Methodist l*4)iscopal church is a legitimate branch of the Methodist
family, and doctrinally it is at one with them all. In her ecclesiastical
frame she adopts the theory of episcopacy as the administrative
agency. In this she stands abreast with all episcopal bodies, and
believes that she has the primitive episcopate, and feels sure that het
bishops are as high as the highest. She dismisses the idea of apos-
tolic succession, but still insists that the office is of sufficii-nt dignity
and responsibility to warrant a separate ordination by the imposition
of hands."

"What are the Demands of the Hour?" was discussed by Bishop
pemandH of B. T. Tanner, D. D. First. "We are to recognize the supremacy of
law. We have passed through that stage of a people's life and develop-
ment when luck, chance or good fortune may be supposed to rule, a
sort of go-as-you-please race through life. Second. VVe must appre-
ciate our individual responsibility. For the church and race have
passed through tne era when others were responsible for them. In the
past we could truthfully lay our poverty, our ignorance, and even a large
share of our immorality at the door of others. Not so now. We, our-
selves, are responsible for our ignorance, poverty and immorality, and
not another. Third. As a church we must appreciate our responsi-
bility. The age demands that the church shall look after the spiritual
condition of the people, the education of the children; that the
ministry and the church shall instruct the people on the most intelli-
gent lines, and shall require each member to perform his whole duty
to himself, to his family, to his country and to his God,"

tho Hour.

rra Leone,

employed
for educa-
ida, Hayti
n.

rch, as her
by lifting
and indus-
rainst caste
acramental
)p into full,
eration the
ormins an
ve with our
. our united
,n God, and
ching under
;ors, we will
the millions

n Methodist

D. D., busi-

ic American

le Methodist

ecclesiastical

dministrativc

bodies, and

sure that her

idea of apos-

kient dij^niity

he imposition

led by Bishop
supremacy of
J and devclop-
Dsed to rule, a
Ic must appre-
md race have
them. In the
lul even a l^ivge
low. We, our-
nmorality, and
; our responsi-
er the spiritual
dren; that the
he most intelli-
his whole duty

i n

>f.

ijt

;;ii'

'■'' I

Rev. J. H. Armstrong, D. D.

;:i

■i;!''!

1108

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

; ^:

. . i

!l|iiil

"The Religious Press, its Power and Influence," by the Rev. H. T.
Johnson, A. M., D. D., Ph. D. Dr. John.son said that so far-reaching
is the press in its scope, so lofty in its mission, so telling in its operations
on individuals and society at large, such a designation as that which
says it is the fourth estate in the realm or republic is a fit and well
merited tribute. To the distributing center of this intelligence and
power the nation owes its perpetuation and life. In comparing the
religious and secular press he used the following language:

"From this engine of power and illumination the individual, fam-
ily, society, church and nation owe their perpetuity and well-being.
As to strength of morals, justice of administration, soundness of
dogma, excellence of purpose and grandeur of constitution it is the
salt of the earth and the light of the world."

"Tile Heroines of Methodism liefore the War," by Bishop Wesley
Heroines He- J- Gaines, D. D., paid a glowing tribute to the pioneer women of the
fore the War. church and state, and said: "Without their aid and cooperation the
greatest works of the past would have been failures." lie named
among the heroines of the race and church Phillis Wheatly, the
poetess; Francis L. Harper, the authoress; Mrs. Richard Allen, Mrs.
Mary Campbell, Mrs. Fanny Coppin, and others who were the pillars
of the church in its infancy. He said that "although people think
that they are suffering now, still the darkness before the war was much
greater. y\ll honor to the heroines of Methodism before the war!
Too much cannot be said of their piety, love and devotion. May their
names be written high upon the Lamb's Book of Life."

"The Literature and the Authors of the A. M. E. Church," by the
Rev. L. J. Coppin. "It is marvelous when we consider that this work
of founding a denomination was begun without money, education, or
social prestige. In the words of our revered senior bishop: 'Poor and
lowly, an outcast, and despised of men, it feebly entered into being,
but with a manifest destiny of greatness which has been developing
for over three quarters of a century." The day-star of freedom for the
race had not cast its first ray of light beyond the horizon of oppres-
sion; in many portions of our country it was regarded as a crime for
pennons of African descent to learn to read a book, to say nothing of
making books The founders of African Methodism did not make
any false pretensions to learning. They were unlettered men, and they
knew it. Their great leader was as modest as he was pious, But
while these men were unlettered, they had character, common sense
and a great cau.se. Only seventy-seven years have passed since the
founding of the African Methodist Episcopal church, and I am asked
to write of her literature and authors. With much gratitude and
hope, may we not exclaim: ' What hath God wrought?'

"During the first fifty years of African Methodist effort but little
writing was done. The autobiography of Richard Allen, published in
1833, seventeen years after the organization of the church, is brief and
unpretentious. It is the record of his life, experience and Gospel
labors, to which is appended the rise and progress of the African

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

lion

. H.T.

aching
rations
which
id well
CO and
ing the

al, f am-
i-being,
ncss of
: is the

Wesley
I of the
tion the
; named
itly, the
en, Mrs.
e pillars
lie think
vas much
the war!
Vlay their

," by the
his work
ation, or
Poor and
to being,
cvcloping
,m for the
)f oppres-
crimc for
lothing of
not make
1, and they
ious, But
mon sense
since the
am asked
titude and

rt but little
ublished in
is brief and
md Gospel
the African

African
Mt't hodiHt
liookH.

MethodLst Episcopal church. No doctrines are proinul-^atcd no
egotism IS displayed. It is simply a plain statement of facts, such as
should have been given to the church by its foumlcrs. The first offi-
cial item that we have looking toward bookmaking is that which re-
cords the election of a book steward at the annual conference held in
Baltimore in 1818. The first historical item, showing any practical re-
sults, is the report of Rev. Joseph M. Carr, who. as general book stew-
ard, reported in 1835 that he had published one thousand disciplines,
one thousand hymn books and two thousand annual conference min-
utes. Two years later the conference decreed the publication of a
quarterly magazine, which may be styled the American Methodist
Episcopal Review in embryo. As text books for our young men
who are preparing for the ministry, and as associate books Un reading,
we have fourteen written by African Methodist authors. They are as
follows:

"Church Polity, D. A. Payne; Apology for African Methodism, B.
T. Tanner; .Semi-Centenary of African Methodism, D. A. Payne; Way-
man on the Discipline, A. \V. Wayman; Turner's Catechism, A. M.
Turner; Life of Richard Allen, auto-biography; Outlines of History,
B. T. Tanner; Cienesis Re-read, T. G. .Steward; Metliodist Polity. H.
M. Turner; Forty Years' Recollection, A. \V. Wayman; Seventy Years'
Recollections, U. A. Payne; Digest of Christian Theology, j, C. Km-
bry; Divine Logos, 11. T. Johnson; Relation of Baptized Children to
the Church, L.J. Coppin.

"On my library shelves there are fifty-four bound volumes, and a
still larger number of pami)hlets by colored men. These volumes
have been gathered indiscriminately from time to time. A classifica-
tion of them revealed the fact that forty-five out of fifty-four arc by
African Methodist authors. A further classification shows tiiat most
of the works are historical and biographical; others are on science,
classics, theology, poetry and social cjuestions. Some arc upon mis-
cellaneous subjects, as for instance the A. M. \\. Budget, si.\ volumes,
by Bishop B. W. Arnett."

"The Triumphs of Liberty." The thirtieth anniversary of the
Emancipation Proclamation of President Abiaham Lincoln was cele-
brated in Columbus Hall, September 22, 1893. at 8 p. M. The meeting
was held under the aus])ices of the Parliament of Religions. The LiTiprty
audience was composed of about five thousand persons, from all parts
of the world. After the preliminary exercises Professor O'Gorman. of
the Washington Catholic University, read the pai)er of Father J. R.
Slattery, of Baltimore, " The Catholic Church and the Xegro Race."
At the conclusion of the i)apcr Bishop Benjamin W. Arnett, D. D.,
delivered an address on " Christianity and the Negro." J.Madison
Bell, of Toledo, read a poem. Bisho]) B. W. Arnett. acted as master
of ceremonies, and delivered an address upon " The Triumphs of
Liberty."

The day's services closed by singing "The Battle Mymn."

On Saturday, September 23d, the congress convened at lO A. M., in

TriiimphB of

: I ,1

'I
:i 1

f ' ti-

,1, ,"■'

.lii'' : \

L'f 1
i! ■ '

■

ifi

i ' i

I.;-

I'r I

fd I''

If:
if •

! I a

K '. < ■

■ :■ I ii

Heroes Be
fore the Wbf.

1110

7Y/£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Hall VIII. The attendance was lar^c; a number of interesting^ papers
were read. The Sunday services consisted of prcachinjj in the various
churches, both at morninjj and at night. In the afternoons were the
women's mass-meetings in the three churches. At Ouinn chapel Mrs.,
Wayman presided, and addresses were delivered; at Hethel church,
Mrs. Arnett presided; addresses were delivered by IJishop 1). A. I'ayne,
and Mrs. L. M. Montfort the oriental lecturer upon the "Women of
the Kast;" at St. Stephens church, Mrs. Tanner presided, and addressc
were delivered by Mrs. .Sarah Jane Woodson ICarly and .Mrs. Laudonia
Williams. Hishop A. Walters, of the American Methodist I^piscopal
Zion church, preached a sermon on "Our .Sister Churches, or Unity
in Spirit, Without Uniformity in .Service."

On Monday morning, at lo A. m., in Hall III. the Congress
assembled, Bishop H. M. Turner jjresiiling. Addresses were delivered
by Bishop Grant, Professor Council and others.

Monday night the Congress convened in Washington Hall, Bishop
B. T. Tanner in the chair. Thousands of ])ers()ns came out to hear the
adtlresses and songs. Hon. I*'re(lerick Dcniglass and others spoke.
The meeting closeil in a glow of enthusiasm.

Tuesday in Hall HI. the Congress reconvened. Bishop Wayman
presiding. Able papers on religious and educational subjects were
presented and discussed.

On Tuesday the closing meeting was held. Bishop Wayman pre-
siding. The attendance was ver\' large. Atldresses complimentary to
the "management of the congress" were deli\ered. The congress voted
a gold medal to Bishop Arnett fc»r his services during the l^irliament
of Religions. The Congress closed by singing " (iod be With Vou Till
we Meet Again."

"How may Elementary luUication be Promoted to Meet the
Wants of the Negro in Rural Districts" was discussed by Mrs. Lau-
donia Williams, principal of public schools in Indianapolis, .She named
among the wants instruction, discipline and training, such as shall
secure the harmonious development of all the faculties, the perfecting
of all the capacities, and the develojjnient of the mind toward truth.
* * * If the child's senses are to be cultivated, it must be done

methodically.

All forms of systematic knowledge have

elements reaching down and back to the very beginning of the child's
conscious existence, and they will distribute themselves through every
period of his life. * * * Mental and manual training should go
hand in hand; it is just as desirable that youths be taught "to do" as to
"think," and this must be done if the aim be the development of power
to discharge the duty to family, church and state.

"The Heroes before the War" was the topic of Bishop H. M.
Turner's paper. He said: "I would like to review the work of Bishops
Quinn and Watters, and also the career of Bishop D. A. Payne, sitting
on the platform, the oldest Methodist bishop on the globe, and I
would not be surprised if he is the oldest bishop on the globe anyway;
the pioneer of an educated ministry, who has done more for the edu-

T papers
; various
were the
pel Mrs.,
church,
\. Payne,
('omen of
iddresse'
[.auclonia
episcopal
or Unity

Congress
delivered

lU, Bishop
hear the
,'rs spoke.

) Wayman
>jccts were

ynian pre-
mcntary to
rrcss voted
I'arlianicnt
th Vou Till

Meet the
/ Mrs. Lau-
She named
.ch as shall
c perfectins^
award truth,
ist be done
aedj^e have
,f the child's
irout^h every
g should go
"to do" as to
cnt of power

lishop H. M.
rk of Bishops
Payne, sitting
globe, and I
lobe anyway;
e for the edu-

■; -I ■ :

11 !■

!,>'!

Rev. S. T. Mitchell, Wilberforce, Ohio,
Pres. Wilberforce University,

' f'l!

ii'M

! , i

1112

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF KELIGIONS.

1 , ;;']!'

P i o 11 p r
liiiildorH.

Uacea.

)

(■:
"l

cation of his race than any man today who treads tliis earth; whose
name will l)la/e upon the pa^es of iiistory forever, and as lonjf as
merit shall lie valued and labor and sacrifice and words full of yemsof
thoujjfht stir anil actuate, shall be honored and revered by men."

"The I'ioneer Huilders " was the theme of Hishop Abram Grant,
D. D. lie said he would "point you a black soklier, a statesman, side
by side with Georj^^e Washington, Toussaint L'Ouverture, the states-
man, soldier, martyr anil the father of llaj-tian independence. If you
were to ask me for the i)ioneer builders 1 would refer you to the man
who saw the aj^^e in which we live, over thirty years aj^o; who said that
we must build lighthouses all alon^ the shore— intellectual lighthouses,
institutions of learning in every state must be built, then would I point
to you our senior bishop, Daniel A. I'ayne, who stood alone. For
years, very few of his church, very few of his own race woulil come
with him; but with faith in God, he founiled W'ilberforce, and clungto
it, and today as a result of his fidelity, we have fort\' institutions of
learning dotting our lanil. As he looks over the fields of the past he
can truthfully say, '1 came, 1 saw, 1 coiKiuered.' "

"The Mission of the African Methodism to the Darker Races"
The Darker was a paper by Rev W. li. Derrick, 1). D., secretary of missions of the
African Methodist liscojial church. " The African Methodist l"".pis-
eopal church is the most powerful as well as the most effective relig-
ious organization for the moral, mental and spiritual development
that is to be found on the face of the globe among the darker races;
looked to as she is as the great spiritual source from which the sons
and daughters who are classified among the ;\fricaii and ICast Indian
are to receive light. Iler leading object is the general interest of the
dark man. Reasonings anil opinions of different shades and bearings
have indeed been expressed as the result of experience anil continuous
observation, expressing an earnest desire for the welfare of the human
race, and especially of those who bear the impress of Africa.

"The course of events with regard to Africa has brought, by ex-
traordinary means and circumstances, the clearest and strongest proof
of a divine rule in human affairs that was ever made visible to mor-
tals. The removing of the gross darkness which covers that land of
precious memories; the dri\ ing away the clouds, which seem to hang
as a dark curtain; the restoration of its past grandeur; that land where
Abraham sojourned, where Jacob lived and died, where Joseph was
exalted, Moses born; that land which furnished an asylum to Mary
and Joseph, in which the infant Jesus was sheltered from the avenger's
hand; that land, the home of Pharaoh, the land of Nimrod; that land in
which Kgypt is found, the great source from which sprang ancient arts
and sciences; that land of the pyramids, where the palms, the pome-
granates, the myrtle, where frankincense and myrrh and all that is
precious of earth's products are to be fountl; that country of whicb
prophets wrote, saying aloud: 'Out of l^gypt have I called my son.'
Her four hundred millions, black in complexion, shut out from the
light of Gospel truth, must and shall hear the Gospel story; there A£-

I«

ul bcaiin^^s

Hon. Frederick Douglas, Washington, D. C.

If ■'

1 1

ill '

ill,; I

' ! i!!

Tho MprI in
Education.

') '. -5

)

m i>

Lyjii

1114

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

rican Mcthoilism has a mission, and that mission is to that people who
are today bowint,' to j;ocls of wood and stone. It will be cleaily seen
that this cluireh orj^janization must remain asan indi'i)endent body, which
will enable it to better develop tiiose true principles wliicli can alone
secure the complete remodelin},', and a permanently established relig-
ious property in dark and benif^hted Africa."

"The Possible and Probable Relation of the American Nej^ro to
the African Continent I'rom a Christian Standpoint" was next read by
Rev. T. W. Henderson, 1). i)., who, in speakingof thefutureof Africa,
said: "With the future of Africa the American nej,Mo is destined to
have much to do. In the past his share has been small, but in the
future it is to be great. May it not be that the (ireat Creator means
that the very cruelty here j)ermitted shall eventuate in so turning the
mind of the American negro toward his fatherland as to eventuate in
his playing a great part in the civilization of that wonderful land?"

" For two centuries and a half we have had some opportunity of
participating in the civilization of this land, and it is but reasonable to
conclude that the great body (jf the race who have not enjoyed equal
opportunities with us should nevertheless share in the benefits to
be derived from the knowledge we have gained by being here. In
some way or other, our Maker is to bring good out of the evil that
has been our lot in this land of cruel bondage."

"The Ideal in Piducation" was presenteil by 1^ W. Arnett, Jr., A.
I^ "It is impossible by grafting or blending or modification to pro-
duce an ideal system of education which is not clearly an assimilation
and utilization of the principles of the leading states of antiquity, the
schools and universities of the Middle Ages and of the renaissance.
* * * The prime aim of the ideal of our moilernizcd educational
life is ethical, the development of character; and its system is the
spirit which gives equally to the child of the humblest and veriest
peasant and of the multi-millionaire, by co-ordination, the content of
a complete education."

"The P'inances of Our Church," by Dr. J. II. Armstrong: "The
first eight years of our present system 5195,971.88 were collected for
general purposes, and $58,791.56 were paid to support superannuated
preachers, widows and orphans of itinerant ministers." He further
stated "that from 1880 to 1887 the second eight years, §404,267.40 were
collected, showing that in the first year the average per year was
$24,496.48, while for the second eight years it was $50,523.42. During
the last eight years the widows and orphans received $161,706.96, or
$20,213.37 per year. The income from 1888 to 1892 was $391,622.36.
While these figures look large, yet it is less than 16 cents per year for
each member of the A. M. E. church."

The Rev. C. T. Shaffen, M. D., D. D., secretary of church exten-
sion, declared that "the Christian church, which is the public confession
of our faith in God and His Son, Jesus Christ, is a standing, silent,
but awful protest against vice of all kinds, against the profanation
of the holy Sabbath, against drunkenness, skepticism, infidelity and

pic who
rly seen
y, which
;in alone
cil rclifj-

^ci;ro to

read by

f Atrica,

stined to

lit in the

or means

nint; the

ntuatc in

and?"

tunity of

;onable to

^'cd equal

L-nefits to

here. In

evil that

ett, Jr., A.
)n to pro-
siniilation
icjuity, the
niaissance.
ducational
:em is the
nd veriest
content of

on^: "The
lUectcd for
srannuated
He further
267.40 were
r year was
2. During
1,706.96, or
§391,622.36.
cr year for

.irch exten-
: confession
ling, silent,
profanation
fidelity and

Mrs. S. J. Early, Nashville, Tenn.

li n v:

1116

T/fE WORLD'S CONGRESS OP RELIGIONS.

'1i!K";AH:t :ii ;'

II, r

j': ir

fc I ■■ Pf

'ill

t ' *i|l

J-

•,

r^^H[

^^H

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i\\

The Ministry
and the Pew.

Old Church
and New.

the Generating
D., Wilberforce

agnosticism. It is a perpetual memorial of Jesus Christ and the
redemption of a fallen world, through his atoning blood, shed upon
Calvary; and as steward to whom God has intrusted His gold and
silver we ought to see that every town, village, hamlet and set-
tlement is blessed with a Christian church, where tl : pure Word of
God shall be preached, and the Holy Sacrament I : administered."

"An Intelligent Ministry, a Benevolent Pew,
Power of Reform," by J. P. Shorter, A. M., LL.
University. "Yes, the leading thought of the world is to under-
stand better — more intelligence. VVhat mean all these congresses,
these parliaments? There could have been a Columbian P'xposition
all of sight, but not in this our day. When men sec they want to hear,
and when they hear they want to understand — inhilij^cn'."

"The Negrc Prisoners in the South" was discussed by Rev. W. H.
Mixon, of Alabama. He said: "In 1 890 there were 97, 175 prisoners
of all ages and grades m the United States; that 24,277 were colored."
He also stated that a large percentage ot convictions in the South
were on account of color more than on account of crime. "It is my
opinion that we, as ministers, have not done our full duty to the pris-
oners in the South. We have not visited them as it is our duty to do.
We should mold public sentiment in favor of establishing reformatory
institutions for lighter crimes, and for younger criminals, and as min-
isters of the Lord Jesus Christ it is our duty to visit the prisoner in
his cell and to see that he has been brought to a knowledge of the
Gospel. The A. M. E. church must wake up to this as she has to all
reforms which have for their object the bettering of the condition o*^
the negro."

" The Music of Our F'athers" was by Rev. Evans Tyree.

"The Old Church and The New," by Rev. D. A. Graham, pastol
of Bethel A. M. ¥.. church, Chicago. The speaker compared the old
buildings with the new, the old services with the new services, the old
music with the new music. " The old time music touched the soul,
the new pleases the ear; the old church was built of solid timber; con-
victions were deep; conversions were clear and the lines of demarka-
tion between Christian and sinner were plainly drawn. Old time
Christians worshiped God in spirit and in truth; the new worship
Him according to fashion. The old time people sang for themselves
and worshiped God; now they pay a choir to sing music that nobody
knows and that nobody can sing. The new church has advanced into
the nonessentials of the worship of God but not into the essentials.
The sermons have more science, but less vThrist."

lixtract from Dr. J. T. Jennifer's speech: "Africa needs this vin-
dication; that continent has its part in God's economy, and its people
are His children. We hope your united wisdom and work may help
to blaze the way through the wilderness of conjecture, query and con-
troversy, regarding the negro's future destiny, and that your delibera-
tions may restilt in indicating his contribution to the development and
progress of mankind. The reliable data of facts in relation to Africa

: pn

H. T. Johnson, Editor Christian Recorder, Philadelphia, Pa.

■i

■'MK.-.^.-.,,

si.! l!

i'l-; i

ill I

V:.

I :

. ; ■ *

n ■

Temperance.

AddrAHg of
Frfdorick
DuukIhhs.

1118

TJ/£ IVORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

and her people, which you have brought with you to place before the
bar of public opinion, will do much for Africa and her people,"

"The Church and Temperance Reform and Especially Scientific
Temperance Instruction in Schools and Collet^es" was the subject of
a paper by Jno. R. Scott, B. D., President of Kdward VVatters College,
Jacksonville, Fla., who said, among other things: "It might seem
strange to the unbeliever, that Cliristianity has done little to sup-
press intemperance, and that even in this city there is one saloon
for everyone hundred and sixty inhabitants; but, as we look over the
history of the world, we find that Christianity has been working and
building up an influence against intemperance. Not more than a gen-
eration ago it was considered no disgrace to patronize a saloon.
Through the first half of the present century no work was attempted,
no labor done without the 'jug of whisky.' Christianity aiitl Chris-
tian teaching has changetl all this. The man wlio now becomes in-
to.xicated loses the respect of his fellowman, and the man who sells
into.xicating drinks is nt)t only banished from society, but carries with
him his wife, no matter how good she may i)e, his children and his
household."

"The Theological Seminary; its Place in the Education of the
Negro," was by Dr. John G. Mitchell, Dean of Payne Theological
.Seminary, Wilbcrforce, Oiiio. Dr. MitclR'll said: "The Theological
Seminary is God's training school, in which those whom he has called
to preach the (jos|)el are cpialified for their high vocation.

"Christ, through the Holy .Spirit is the great teacher in the Theo-
logical .Seminary. He fills every chair. If there is a seminary on the
globe labeled Theological without, in which Christ does not teach, it
is labeled within, Anti-Christ. The great function of the Theological
Seminary is to flood the world with celestial light, to lift man into a
purer, nobler and higher life, is to lift him from earth to heaven."

"The Relation of the I'ulpit to the Pew" was a paper read b\-
Rev. John M. Henderson, Detroit, I\Iich. He said, among t)ther
things: " The ministry as an institute of the church holds a sacred and
divinely appointed relationship. The .Scriptures appoint four sacred
institutes. .Sabbath as a sacred ilay, the sanctuarj' as a sacred place,
the ordained means of grace as a sacred worsliij), and the ministry as
a sacred class or order in and through whose spiritual service the .Sab-
bath, the sanctuary, and the means of gracj are made available ami
useful to Christians."

"The function of ministry is twofold: on the one bandit is to in-
struct the church in the cU)ctrines and precei)ts of the (iospel, and to
give her the blessings of soimd, firm and beneficial government, and
to aid ami guide in the administration both of ciiarity and fellowship;
on the other hand, to proclaim to the world the faitli of the church, to
diffuse the Gospel ancl to extend its sway."

"The Place of Richard Allen in History," by Hon. Frederick
Douglas. "Among the remarkable men of African descent, who lived
in the earlier years of this republic, whose names have found deserved

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

lilt)

recognition in American annals, there is not one who is likely to be
remembered lon^jcr, or whose memory will be more sacredly cherished
by cominK^ K'f-"L'rations of colored Americans, than Richard Allen, a
citizen of Philadelphia, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal
church of 7\merica. Already this man has become an ideal character,
and his name has been invested with a sanctity which has seldom been
accorded to that of any man this side of the apostolic age. At the
simple mention of the name of Richard Allen, the heart of a great
religious organization is stirred with the highest and holiest sentiments.
Of him it may be truly said that, 'though being dead, he yet speak-
eth.' His audience are the reverent souls of millions of his race, and
his influence on the destiny of his people will continue as long as the
great church he founded shall endure.

"To measure men and deeds correctly, wc mu.st measure them not
by our times, but by the times in which they had their being. The
Atlantic is as broad and stormy to(la\- as when Columbus crossed it.
The distance between New Vcjrk and San Francisco is the same as
forty years ago. Hut both the sea and the continent are more easily
crossed today than when Columbus crossed the one and Fremont
crossed the other.

"The black man's horizon was without a star. Fie stood without
the pale alike of church and state. He was a child without a father,
a man without a counti)-, a denizen without citizenshi]), and without
popular sympath)-; a comnujii prey to insult and outrage from all white
men mean enough to take advantage of his weakness and destitution,
to abuse and insult him. The black man who could stand up tor his
rights in the face of sucli odds had the covirage of a hero and the con-
stancy of a martyr. And such a man was Richard Allen."

"The Race 'I'roblcm; What it is; Its .Solution," by Prof. W. H.
Council, president Normal school, Normal, Ala.: " li our thcjughts
be the thoughts of men, then we are men. If our speech be the
speech of men then we are men. If our deeds be the deeds of men,
then we are men regardless of classifications born of prejudice.
Tile negro has complied with every condition of civilization His
strong, black arms have hewn ilown the forests of the South, laid off
her broail fields, founded her magnificent cities, opened up her mighty
rivers, filled their banks with industries which join in unison to their
music as tiiey How on to the great ocean. He is not wanting in
patriotism, for he has beaten back the enemies of his country more
than once. His ability is acknowledged in all avenues of art,
science, literature, industry, and billions of wealth for the South,
and millions on millions in his own right, tell the story of his
thrift and frugality. His hospitality has no limit. He gixes the
white man at all times and in all places the best. Call it hospitality
or call it what you please, still it is to his credit. His fidelity is the
foundation of the broadest virtue of the South. He defended and held
as sacred as the Word of God itself the honor of innocent and help-
less white women and children committed to his ciiarge. while his
master was away trying to rivet the chains tighter upon him."

(5 f|' '!

Till- Knee
Problt'm.

Illil

\.\M

' r

I I

Home Bnd
ChriBtinn Tem-
perance.

S:i;:i

(Colored Do-
fenderH of the
Country.

■! •

1 ,

1120

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

" Christian Cooperation Essential to Race Education," was a paper
by Prof. H. T. Keeling, A. M., president Paul Quinn College, Waco,
Texas.

"The Genesis of the Work of Christian P'ducation," was a paper
by Rev. W. D. Johnson, D. D., secretary of education.

" What Can the Church do to Provide Land for the Landless and
Homes for the ilomclcss?" by Hon. L T. Montgomery, president of
J. P. Campbell College, Vicksburg, Miss., was an interesting document.

"The Relation of the Home and Christian Temperance," by Mrs.
Sarah Jane Woodson Itarly, A. M. "A wise and beneficent God has
instituted the family relation for tlic happiness and propagation of the
race, and has taught man to construct a home where he may nourish
and educate his offspring and make it the center of his care and hajv
piness, and thus become of all places the most sacred and cherished in
his heart of hearts. These are the reasons why the home needs espe-
cial protection from the influences wiiich would destroy its hajipiness
or counteract its teachings. We have inherited from our fathers what
is denominated a government of the people, with its chief corner-
stone a trinity of blessings, the home, the school and the church.
Under this government has grown up the greatest republic the world
has ever known, in which probably more than in any other land under
the sun every individual comes nearest having a fair ciiance in the
race of life. The perpetuity of this government with all its grand in-
stitutions depends upon tlie capacity of its citizens for self-govern-
ment. 15ut much de|)cnds on the early training of the people, and as
the home is prior to the school or the church, in it is laid the founda-
tion for the building \\p of all those great and noble principles which
constitute a free and happy people. The home is the safeguard of
the nation. It is the nursery in which only can be grown manly men
and noble women. In the home are planted and fostered the most
fruitful germs of all future interests. The teachings and practices of
home life are more durable than all others, and will be remembered
when all others are forgotten."

"Our Country's Defenders in Camp, at .Sea, in .School and in Prison;
What Can We do for Them?" by Rev. W. H. Veocum, D. D. The
total number of colored soldiers was 173,079, of whom 68,871 were
killed in battle, besides those who died in hospitals. And those loyal,
brave and patriotic black defenders of our country, without citizenship
and without a flag, upon two hundred and forty- nine battlefields pur-
chased tor themselves their freedom, their manhood and citizenship,
although a part of them were offered only $/ per month, Iiich they
manfully refused to accept, while their white comrades weii receiving
S13 per month, and their clothing.

"Many colored soldiers distinguished themse! 'cs on th : field of
battle as the bravest of the brave. In every ca-' , n every forced-
march, on the drill-ground, in the manual of a uis, on dress-parade,
and on every battlefield the negro always proved himself p man, to
the wonder and surprise of their white officers.

1' 1

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

1121

a paper
, Waco,

a paper

less and

ident of

)cumcnt.

by Mrs.

God has

on of the

r nourish

and hap-

rishcd in

cds espc-

appiness

icrs what

f corncr-

c church.

tlic world

xnd under

cc in the

p;rand in-

If-govcrn-

ile, and as

lie founda-

ples which

fcj^uard of

nanly men

I the most

(lactices of

membercd

1 in Prison;
3. U. The
38,871 were
;hose loyal,

citizenship
cficlds pur-
citizenship,

• hich they
It. receiving

th : field of
'cry forced-
ressparade,
:lf ? man, to

" Secretary Stanton was in a state of ecstasy over the behavior of
the colored troops at Petersburg, an unusual thing for him. In his
dispatch on this battle, he said: 'The hardest of fighting was done .stnnton on th«
by the black troops; the forts they stormed were the worst of all.' t-'oiu^JTrooiw
After the affair was over. General Smith went to thank, and tell them
he was proud of their courage and dash. He say r-: 'They cannot be
excelled as soldiers, and hereafter he would send them in a difficult
place as readily as the best white soldiers.' Another officer who was
with them on the field, says: 'The problem is solved; the negro is a
man, a soldier, a hero.' General Blunt speaks of the colored troops
at the battle of Honey Springs; he says: ' The negroes were too much
for the enemy, and let me say here, that I never saw such fighting as
was done by that negro regiment. They fought like veterans, with a
coolness and valor that is unsurpassed. They preserved their line per
feet throughout the whole engagement, and although in the hottest of
the fight, they never once faltered. Too much praise cannot be
awarded them for their gallantry.' "

CONGRESS OF THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS (HICKSITE).

The branch of " Friends," known by or recognizing the title at the
head of this article, appeared in the Parliament of Religions in one ses-
sion in the Hall of Washington, September igth, by an address before
the General Parliament, in the Hall of Columbus, September 23d, by
Aaron M. Powell, and by a denomitiational congress of three sessions,
the morning of the 19th, in the new Church Temple; the 20th, in Hall
VH. of the Art Palace, and the 21st, in Hall HI. Careful prepara-
tion had been made for the Congress during the year prior to the time of
assembling by a committee consisting of a central organization of
P'riends in Chicago, and an advisory council of members of the society
in the seven yearly meetings embracing the membership of this organi-
zation.

The important session of the afternoon of the igth in the parlia-
ment was devoted to the purjjose of a presentation of the faith of the
society through a paper prepared by Howard M. Jenkins, of Philadel-
phia, wherein it was shown that the distinctive ami all-important tenet g^c'l'j.J'y '„!
of the body is the doctrine of "The Inner Light;" "The Divine Im- FmnUs.
manence;" "The Light Within." This principle of faith means noth-
ing more nor less than the belief in the ever-continuing operation of
the divine illumination upon the soul of each of dod's children, de-
pending in its influence upon the willingness to recei\c the light of
truth revealed. It means more than a passive receptiveness. The
faithful Friend may not only hear the voice <)t God in his soul, but he
must obey if he is a consistent follower of his profession. It is thus
the Friend has become known for integrity and strictness of bearing
and a pioneer in the reforms inaugurated since the birth of the society,
71

'iiili^

11 I

IS, 'i

The Christ
Rule.

1122

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

two and a half centuries ago. Its chief principle is the Christ Rule irt
Daily Life. Desiring the guidance of the Divine Spirit which was in
Jesus, and embracing, from the force of His example and through
inward convincement, the infinite truth He illustrated and taught,
Friends see in it the ideal of a religious life, and have striven to make
real His teachings, the Spirit, not the letter; reality, not form; love,
not hatred; brotherly kmdness, not oppression; moderation, not
excess; simplicity, not ostentation; sincerity, not pretense; truth, not
deceit; economy, not waste; and out of their sincere, if unperfectcd,
endeavor to guide their daily acts by these Christian rules, liavc logi-
cally and directly come their "testimonies," and most, if not all, of
their " peculiarities."

" The faithful listener to the inspeaking word of God must be fore-
most in every good and righteous cause. George Fox, the founder of
the society, very early recognized the equality of woman, and was
instrumental in giving her a place in every concern and interest that
the world has only partially come to know and respond to at the close
of the Nineteenth Century. Elizabeth Powell Bond, of Swarthmore
College, ably showed this prompt recognition in a paper on " The
Position of Woman in the Society."

"The Mission Work of the Society" was presented by Joseph J.
Janney, of lialtimore. " The influence in this embraces many of the
most important fields in philanthropic labors. Friends had scarcely
organized ere they established among themselves as the right rule of
action the principle of the peaceable settlement of all difficulties by
arbitration — a principle that has grown in importance until it has be-
come a recognized power in the settlement of international tlifficulties.
The Society of Friends was not united by any general organization
before 1675, ■^"'^l V*^^ ^^^^ principle appeared in a testimonj- of the
founder in 1679, and was incorporated in the first book of discipline
published in 1692. In his work of self-examination the Frieiul was
quick to recognize the principle of oppression and moral depravity,
and hence his early stand against the wrongs inflicted upon the Indian
and negro. In the history of the former in this country the stand of
Friends has been uniform in meting out equal and exact justice. As
early as 1CS8 their testimony against the condition of negro slavery
began to be proclaimed, and, though a hundred years elapsed before
the weight of the society began to be generally cUclared in behalf of
the slave, there was no halting until the position taken became the rule
of practice. Members could not riin.iin in good standing and hold
slaves. Intemperance, the vice and inhumanity (A our prisons, claimed
their early interest and care."

"Kducation" was tri.ited by Dr. Edward II. Magill, e.x-president ol
Swarthmore College. Having presented an exhaustive history of this
work among Friends, evincing an interest in the subject coincident
with their rise, he showed in conclusion the marked peculiarities in their
system: " First. With the Friend education was a training of the soul
in religious knowledge, as well as culture of the mind. Second. This

ist Rule in
lich was in

'-it'ii

Jonathan W. Plummer, Chicago.

1124

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

In :i.;

Riliication.

i«(3

! .

training was for all classes, rich and poor; and their care made all pro-
visions that the latter class might freely enjoy the advantage of an ed-
ucation. Third. ICducation with the Friend made no distinction of
sex. Schools were provided for all, though the principle of mixed
classes was a process of evolution. Fourth. In their recognition of
the importance of the training they were in advance of the communi-
ties in moving to prepare those who should assume the duty of teach-
ing. And, fifth, their aim has ever been to make the training practical
and useful rather than ornamental."

"Robert S. Haviland, of Chappaqua, N. Y., in a paper on "Coop-
erative Labor," and Aaron M. Powell, in an address on the 23d, on
"The Grounds of Sympathy Among Religions," expressed the readi-
ness of Friends to join in this age of advanced thought and higher
conception of common brotherhood in the work of combating that
which is commonly recognized as evil.

During the session of the 20th, the needs and relations of the
younger members were earnestly considered, the topic being intro-
duced by papers presented by Isaac Roberts, of Pennsylvania, and
Edgar M. Zavitz, of Ontario. The one all-absorbing thought in the
mind of the Friend marked this day's proceedings — the need of indi-
vidual faithfulness to the light within. While organizations and out-
ward influences may act as helps, we must direct the young to this
one, all-important principle of obedience.

At the closing session on the 21st, the subject of The Relation of
Spiritual Devotion to Moral Progress was presented by papers from
Anna 1\I. Starr, of Richmond, Ind., and William M. Jackson, of New
York city. The leading thought of the papers was that the cultiva-
tion of moral and spiritual natures must go hand in hand. The love
Moral i'rogreBs of humanity comes first in order, and being absent, there can be no
love of God. " He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen,
cannot love God whom he hath not seen." This must not imply an
indifference to worship. The very foundation of the Quaker faith
demands a constant, consistent and reverential walk with God; but
this close relationship enforces the need of conscientious, loving devo-
tion to the moral welfare of all mankind.

" The congress closed with a period of devotional exercises after
the usual manner of Friends, reverential silence, supplication and brief
appeals from prominent members, that we might go to our homes
taking the lessons of this wonderful parliament, and especially the
growing thought of the common brotherhood of man."

Devotion nnd

M"'*1

dc all pro-
c of an cd-
tinction of
; of mixed
)^iiition of
comniuni-
y of tcach-
\r practical

on " Coop-
the 23d, on
the readi-
and higher
ibatins that

tions of the
beinjj intro-
L-lvania, and
ou\i;ht in the
iced of indi-
ons and out-
oun^ to this

L' Relation of
papers from
kson, of New
it the cultiva-
d. The love
:re can be no
he hath seen,
not imply an
Quaker faith
•it'h God; but
., iovinji devo-

ixerciscs after
Ltion and brief
to our homes
especially the

Anna M. Starr, Richmond, Ind.

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1120

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

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FRIENDS' CHURCH CONGRESS (ORTHODOX).

This Congress was held in the afternoon of September 22d (sixth
day, ninth month), in the Hall of Washington. It was prcsideu over
by VV. B. VVickenham, of Chicago.

"Our Church and Its Mission," by James Wood, of Mt. Kisco, N.
Y., showed that the key of the position of the Religious Society of
Friends as a separate branch of the church is the great truth taught
Friends' Mis- by our Saviour when He said: "If a man love Me he will keep My
'*""■ words; and My Father will love him and We will come unto him and

make Our abode with him." " I will pray the Father and lie shall
give you another comforter that He may abide with you forever, even
the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth
Him not, neither knoweth Him; but ye know Him, for He dwcUeth
with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless; I will
come to you." "This," the speaker said, "is the most exalting truth
ever announced to man as pertaining to his existence in this life. He
who fails to know and realize it, comes infinitely short of the glory
God offers to him here.

"The founders of the Religious Society of Friends, in laying this
corner-stone of a separate branch of the church, fully accepted the
Founded on foundation truths of Christianity. These were assumed as the common
heritage of Christian believers and fully recognized as the basis of all
organized Christian bodies. They assume as matters not to be ques-
tioned all the teachings of Christ, all that belonged to the cross and
the tomb of Calvary and the triumphs of the resurrection; all that be-
longed to the glories of the Ascension day and all that belongs to the
presence of Christ at the right hand of God— His mediation and in-
tercession. Faith in the crucified Saviour must precede faith in the
ascended, living Saviour. All this was assured and they went to the
church and to the world with the message that the historic part of
Christianity only produced its fruitage when the kingdom of Christ
was established in the soul, with the living King Himself, abiding and
reigning there. This message was gladly received by multitudes and
its triith, so long lost sight of, became a mighty power.

"The high-priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ and the priesthood
of all believers, who offer spiritual sacrifices and have free access to
God through the Lord Jesus Christ without the intervention of any
human instrumentality whatsoever, lies next to the corner-stone of
distinctive Quakerism. As there is nowhere in the New Testament
any recognition of classes or orders in the church, no division of be-
lievers into clergy and laity, no mention of any profession having any
peculiar privileges or special authority, so Friends have never recog-
nized any such."

On the subject of philanthropic work done by the Quakers, he
said: " The earliest formal protest against the system of slavery in
modern times was made by Friends near Philadelphia in 1688. The
uoted Pastorius was among the number. That movement was fol-
Igwed by official action in thq various Yearly Meetings on this conti-

H- i \''^''

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

1127

ncnt, until finally Friends were the first body of Christians in the land
not one of whose members owned a slave. From Tastorius to Whit-
tier the protest against slavery never ceased."

After setting' forth the special mission of the Society, in which it
was shown that it tended rather to spiritual matters than the world,
the paper concludes:

•' Apart from her doctrines, her history and her situation pecu-
liarly fit her for the position referred to. She has wronged no one.
She has never attacked any denomination. As a little Switzcrhind,
insignificant and harmless, peacefully abides among her towering
mountains and commands the respect and kind consideration of the
mighty nations of Europe, armed for each other's destruction, so it
may be that the Society of Friends, one of the best of all the tribes,
because of her harmlessness and the impregnability of her position in
divine truth, may become, in God's providence, the gathering place of
the mighty hosts who profess the name of Christ."

"Our Origin and History," by Joseph Bevan Hraithwaite, of Lon-
don, England, was the next paper. It was read by Timothy Nicholson,
of Richmond, Ind. It stated, in part:

"The Society of Friends, as is well known, arose in England
about the middle of the seventeenth century. IMany severe laws,
originally enacted tor the suppression of popery, remained upon the
English statute book, which even during the commonwealth, and much
more after the restoration of Charles II. were relentlessly directed
against those, who, like the early Friends, whilst opposed to popery,
were conscientiously restrained from public profession of religion in
accordance with the ritual and ceremonial generally recognized.
Thus the history of the Society of Friends, during the first forty
years of its existence, is a record of cruel persecution, and of patient
suffering. Several of its principal leaders died in loathsome dungeons,
whilst many others not only suffered grievous imprisonment, but took
joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing that they had in heaven
a better and an enduring substance. In the year 1662 there were at
one time more than four thousand two hundred Friends in prison in
England alone." (Sewell's History, vol. 2. p. 1.)

"Church Organization," by Calvin W. Pritchard, of Kokomo, Ind.
After reciting that the organization of the Friends was not the result
of a previously matured system, but was a development as needs ap-
peared, showed that the system of meetings for church discipline, es-
tablished in England before the close of the seventeenth century, has
since been followed by Friends in all countries.

"The Yearly Meeting," it says, "is a legislative body; it makes
laws for the regulation of churches and members, has a general over-
sight of all the great activities of the church, is the court of highest
appeal, and has jurisdiction over all the Quarterly Meetings and the
churches that compose them. The Quarterly Meeting is composed of
several Monthly Meetings, for conference between churches, and is a
convenient channel of communication between the Yearly Meeting

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r/^.f WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

and its subordinate branches. The Monthly Meeting is the executive
body of the church. Through it members are received and dismissed,
ministers are recorded, all the important officers of the church are
appointed, and the instructions of the Yearly and Quarterly Meetings,
and all the important activities of the church are carried out. When a
Monthly Meeting is composed of two or more churches, each separate
congregation is organized into a Preparative Meeting, which has
charge of its own local affairs, and gives preparatory attention to such
subjects as should go to the Monthly Meeting."

There are now 135 Quarterly and 477 Monthly Meetings with
1,174 churches in Great Britain and America.

" The church government is thoroughly democratic. Every mem-
ber, male and female, old and young, has a seat in all the meetings
and a voice in all the deliberations, and men and women alike are
eligible to all the offices, including the Gospel ministry. From nearly
the close of the seventeenth century until recent years men and women
sat in separate sessions for transacting business. Each sex had hnes
peculiarly its own, but all matters relating to membership, or concern-
ing the general interests of the church, required the concurrent action
of both bodies. The experience our sisters have gained in these
meetings has done much to fit them for the places of service they now
occupy with ability and true womanly grace in the Gospel ministry and
the wo"k of Christian benevolence and reform. In some of the Yearly
Meetings, and many subordinate meetings, men and women now do
business in joint session. Divine service precedes all business meet-
ings, the congregations being often large and the ministry very
searching.

"Friends believe that the call and qualification for the ministry
are from the Lord. Young men and women, who apprehend they are
called to preach, are expected to exercise their gifts in public speak-
ing at meetings for divine worship, many services affording them good
opportunity to do so. Godliness of life and the impress of divine
power give one a place in preaching the word independent of literary
acquirements. Many ministers who have wielded great influence and
brought many souls to Christ have been unlearned men. And yet
Friends are mindful that the highest culture consecrated to God greatly
increases the power and efficiency of the messenger of the Cross."

The paper concluded with statistics oi membership and evangel-
ization.

The other papers of the congress were as follows:

" The Position of Woman Among Friends," Anna B. Thomas, Balti-
more, Md. Paper read by Charlotte Vickers, Chicago, III.

"Missions, Home and Foreign," Josephine M. Parker, Carthage,
Ind. Paper read by Gertrude Hill, Chicago, III.

"The Philosophy of Quakerism," Thomas Newlin, Newberg, Ore.
Paper read by Dr. Sylvester Newlin, Indianapolis, Ind.

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C&Vin W. Pritchard, Kokomo, Ind. r cziSf'

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Cumberland
Presbyterian-
iam.

Origin and
Progress of the
Denomination.

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1130 2'//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

THE CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH CONGRESS.

The assembling of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church Con-
gress, in connection with the great Parliament of Religions, was an
event of great denominational interest and importance. It brought
the church, as a distinctive branch of the great Presbyterian house-
hold, before the world in a more pronounced manner than any other
kindred event in its history, and afforded better opportunity for com-
paring and contrasting its history, doctrines and genius with those of
other religious bodies than could have been accomplished by any
other means. This congress was among the best attended, and most
interesting in its proceedings, of the many congresses held on this
memorable occasion in the city of Chicago.

The president. Rev. Hugh Spencer Williams, pastor of the First
Cumberland Presbyterian church of Chicago, called the Congress to
order on Wednesday morning, September 27th, and requested the Rev.
L. D. Hendricks to conduct the devotional services. The president, in
his opening address, discoursed on the Parliament of Religions and its
accompanying congresses as the miracle of modern times, saying :
" This gathering of the representatives of the great religious systems
of the world in one place, for the purpose of holding a peaceful
parliament to compare and contrast these great systems of religions,
IS a thing unheard of in the history of the world; a thing never
dreamed of; a conception impossible under any conditions other
than those created by the triumphal reign of the all-conquering
Christ, 'The Prince of Peace.'" This great Parliament and its con-
stellation of congresses may well be termed "The miracle of modern
times," the crowning glory of the nineteenth century, and the inspir-
ing prophecy of what the future is going to be. We rejoice as Cum-
berland Presbyterians that we are here convened, and contribute our
mite toward making this august event in the history of religious prog-
ress the immortal monument that it is, of what God hath wrought in
developing the minds and broadening the sympathies of His people
through His spirit, so as to make such a gathering possible as has
brought the representatives of the religions of the world here at this."

Then followed a paper on "The Origin and Progress of the Cumber-
land Presbyterian Church, by Rev. J. G. White, D. D., of Stanford, 111."
The name is the result of dividing one of the large presbyteries in the
boundsof the old synod of Kentucky into two, assigning one to the terri-
tory called the Cumberland country, and giving the name to the presby-
tery occupying this section. In the year 1800 a great revival of religion
Erevailed with great power through that country. This revival found
oth warm supporters and bitter opposers among the ministers of the
Kentucky synod. The revival party, as it was called by the anti-
revival party, were for the most part members of the Cumberland
Presbytery, and were soon called by the people Cumberland Presby-
terians, The controversy between these two factions in the synod
soon became bitter, and the revival party was accused of preaching
docrines contrary to the Confession of Faith, especially God's decrees,

ss.

ch Con-
, was an

brought
n house-
ny other
for com-

those of
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and most
1 on this

the First
ngress to
i the Rev.
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IS systems
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religions,
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of modern
the inspir-
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ribute our
rious prog-
wrought in
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re at this."
le Cumber-
mford, 111."
eries in the
to the terri-
the presby-
1 of religion
vival found
sters of the
y the anti-
Cumberland
and Presby-
the synod
f preaching
id's decrees,

Rev. H. S. Williams, Chicago.

I ii

1132

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Extent of the
Denomination.

Doctrines and
UeniuB of the
Denomination.

election and foreordination, asserting that these brethren were preach-
ing that God loved all men, and that Christ died, not for the elect
only, but for all the world. This was the entering wedge of division,
and the ultimate cause of separation. This Cumberland Presbytery
was dissolved by the synod, and on the 4th of February, 1810, was
reorganized at the house of the Rev. Samuel McAdow, in Dixon
County, Tennessee, and consisted of three ordained ministers, and the
original name still adhered to them. This, in brief, is the history of
the origin of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Its progress has
been remarkable. It has grown in eighty-three years from this small
beginning of three ministers into a denomination of three thousand
ministers, an 1 about the same number of congregations, with nearly
two hundred thousand members in full communion. It covers a large
belt of territory, reaching from Princeton, N. J., to Puget Sound, owns
and operates a large and prosperous publishing house in Nashville,
Tenn., and is remarkably well equipped for so young a denomination
with colleges and universities. It has also been busy and prosperous
in missionary enterprises, both in our own country and in foreign lands."

Then followed: "The Doctrines and Genius of the Cumberland
Presbyterian Church," by D. M. Harris, D. D., of St. Louis, Mo., editor of
the St. Louis Observer: The distinctive doctrines which separate and
distinguish us from the mother church, and other branches of the
Presbyterian family, were clearly set forth, as the following extracts
from this able paper will show:

"All Cumberland Presbyterians hold that the provisions of salva-
tion are co-extensive with the ruin of the fall; herein we differ from
other Presbyterian churches, or, rather, from their standards;" Again,
as to the decrees of God, he said: "Therefore, Cumberland Presby-
terians reject the doctrine that God has decreed that some men and
angels are predestinated unto eternal life, and others foreordained to
everlasting death. We cut loose from all those doctrine^ of fatality
so dishonoring to God, and so benumbing and paralyzing to man. Our
philosophy, as well as our theology, compels us to the conclusion that
man is a free moral agent, moral because free. These doctrines were
the real cause of the separation between the mother church and her
young daughter, the Cumberland Presbyterian church, and are today
the only real distinction between them. " The genius or characteristics
of the church were shown to be Presbyterian of the purest and
simplest type." We hold that Presbyterianism is not Calvinism, or any
other doctrinalism, but distinguishes one form of government from
another, from sacerdotalism or priestcraft on the one hand, and from
individualism on the other, so we, though differing in doctrine from
other Presbyterian churches, are nevertheless Presbyterians, that is
the form of government under which we live and work as a com-
munity of believers in Christ. But the Cumberland Presbyterian
church has certain peculiarities, or characteristics, which seem to
make it more of an American institution than her sister branches of
the Presbyterian family. First, like th- country in which it was born,

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

1133

it IS especially tolerant. While holding firmly to the essentials of
Christian doctrine, it grants large liberties to its ministers and teachers
of theology in the fields of research; it is a noted fact that there never
has been a minister tried for heresy in the history of the denomina-
tion. Second, its cohesiveness is a characteristic worthy of note
which is shown by the fact that, although the late war swept that part
of the country where our church was strongest, and thus unavoidably
placed members in battle against each other on many a battlefield
and although the war leveled our churches, colleges and institutions to
the ground, yet it left our beloved church intact. No sooner was the
war over than the Cumberland Presbyterians from both sides of Mason
and Dixon's line were again meeting in fraternal intercourse in the
church courts. The war divided families and other churches, but
failed to sever the Cumberland Presbyterian church. Third, it is
peculiarly evangelistic and missionary in its spirit."

The next address was "The Institutions of Learning of the Cum- , .
berland Presbyterian Church," by the Rev. E. D. Pearson, D. D., of v^XlZi^
Louisiana, Mo. This paper revealed the previous fact that "while the "*"'
church was yet young and had been to a great extent an evangelistic
and missionary church, she had not neglected her duty of plant-
ing and fostering her educati ■)nal institutions. To the contrary, she
set about building schools and colleges as early as the first decade of
her history, and has kept pace with her growth in providing means
for the proper education of the youth, and it is safe to say that the
progress made during the last twenty years in this direction compares
favorably with that of any other denomination in die land. Cumberland
University, located at Lebanon, Tenn., has given more promnient bar-
risters, eminent jurists, statesmen and pulpit orators to the middle
southern states than any other institution of its kind in that region,
and ranks with the leading universities of the land. VVaynesburg Col-
lege, Lincoln University, Missouri Valley College and Trinity Univer-
sity are all prominent among the institutions of learning throughout
the country. Our theological seminary, as a department of the Cum-
berland University, is rendering a noble service to the church. " The
cheering words of Doctor Pearson rejoiced the hearts of all present
and inspired us with holy pride, while standing among the leading
denominational congresses and the representatives of the vast religious
systems of the world that we belonged to, a division of the Lord's
hosts, worthy of a place among the princes of Kis people. It is truly
marvelous, the work the church has accomplished along the educa-
tional lines, besides rebuilding nearly all her churches, which were
demolished during the war, and establishing our cause in so many new
states and territories. "The Lord hath done great things for us, and
it is marvelous in our eyes."

"The Mission of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church." The Rev. The Mission
C. H. Bell, D. D.,of St. Louis, Mo., President of the Board of Missions fn*a{J'o^n^«°°°'-
of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, said: "The first mission of
the Cumberland Presbyterian church had been, from the beginning, to

1 1

!i >

1134

THE V'ORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

promote revivals of j;cnuine religion. The church was born in a great
revival, and she seems to have retained the spirit ever since, and has
continued to be to an eminent degree an evangelistic church. The
seasons for large ingatherings seem to be looked for by the pastors
and official boards of the church throughout the denomination every
year. Second. It seemed to be a special mission of the Cumberland
I'resbyterian Church to modify the theology taught in the Presbyterian
standards. This she certainly has done to a remarkable degree. She
has evolved a system of theology that is neither hyper Calvinism, nor
Arminianism. The Scriptural middle ground between the two has
been possessed. The Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man
liave found a large place in her revised creed. And through her own
system of theology, her evangelical and spiritual preaching, she has
brought such pressure on the austere doctrines of Calvinism, that
while regaining the standards of the Presbyterian church, they arc
almost never preached from her i)ulpits. And it is safe to pretlict th;it
not another decade shall have passed before the mother church will
have revisetl her symbols, and mother and daughter brought to see
eye to eye. Third. It is a part of her special mission to break down
sectarian walls of prejudice, and bigotry, and bring together the Prot-
estant forces into practical union and fellowship. Her influence and
UnionUipOb- cxamplc among the mi.ssions of Japan, more than that of any other
ioctof tijo Do- denomination, helped to bring about the happy union of the Protest-
ants in tiiat country, and it looks as if in the providence of God,
it might be the happy medium ground, upon which all branches of the
Presbyterian church may meet and again unite their mighty forces,
and thus hasten the coming of the universal kingdom of our Christ."
At the close of the Cor.gress, words of cheer were brought from
Japan by our returned woman missionary, Mrs. Drennan and her native
helper. Mrs. Drennan has spent ten years of her life in Japan, and has
made a wonderful record as a worker in that interesting country. The
Rev. Dr. Darby, of Evansville, Ind., and Rev. Dr. Russell, of Alabama,
were also listened to with great interest by the Congress.

nomination.

Origia and
Hiatury of Ad-
TenUsm.

THE ADVF.NTIST CHRISTIAN CHURCH CONGRESS.

The Rev. D. R. Mansfield was chairman of the local committee
and the Rev. Mrs. K. S. Mansfield, secretary. The sessions were held
in Hall VII.

"The Origin and History" of this church is given by Mrs. E. S.
Mansfield. "The Advent Christian Church takes its name from a belief in
the second personal return of Christ to this w orld. The early Christian
writers speak of it as an awaited event; but during the middle centu-
ries but little prominence was given it. The Nineteenth Century wit-
nes.sed a revival of this subject, when a wave of prophetic research
swept over various parts of Europe, Asia aiid America almost simul-

t< H *

Rev. D. R. Mansfield, Chicago.

1136

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS*

= ', j

Five Distinct
Branches.

tancously. The proclamation, ' Behold, He cometh with clouds,' and
that speedily, sounded from thousands of pulpits all over the land.
Dr. Joseph Wolf, a converted Jew, became convinced, from careful
prophetic study that Christ would soon come. He bejjan to preach it
in England in 1821, and from there he went to Asia and through the
oriental countries, preaching to all classes for twelve years. A great
interest was awakened in the east, and in 1826 fifty young men, clergy
and lay, met in Albury, England, for the purpose of studying the
prophetic Scriptures. Among them were William Cunninghame, Ed-
ward Irving and John Cuming. These meetings continued five years
and the results were published in three volumes, entitled 'Dialogues
on Prophecy.' About the same time many in America became greatly
absorbed in the study of prophecy. Among them, William Miller, a
sturdy farmer, a Deist, became thoroughly converted to Christ, and
being a profound student of profane history, he was immediately at-
tracted to the study of prophecy as contained in the books of Daniel
and John. Becoming convinced that the Gospel age would soon close,
and burdened with the subject, he commenced to preach in 1833, and
thousands flocked to hear him. Mr. Miller's connection was with the
Baptist church.

"With Mr. Miller's labors commenced the first general av.akening
of the churches in America on this subject. It is estimated that one
•••"^Msand ministers of churches were led to preach Christ's immediate

ing, besides the many who came from farm, workshop, mill and

jhandise, imbued with this judgment message; while those who
engaged in it were mightily transformed, sanctified, and qualified for
Christian work as nev'er before,

"With a following estimated at two hundred thousand it is not
strange that many of emotional and sensational minds should cause
fanaticism or undue excitement to largely prevail, greatly to the injury
of the cause they sought to maintain.

." Regardless of press misrepresentation, and the trying ordeal and
tests which followed, and the dropping off of high-tide adherents, a
goodly number of trustworthy men and women remained steadfast and
true to their convictions. From this beginning has developed what is
known as the Advent Christian Church. With the blessing of God on
their unceasing toil their numbers have greatly increased, and they
have gradually learned the importance of organized and united effort.
They have no formulated creed, but accept of certain leading truths
which give them their identity, and upon which, by common consent,
they all unite, leaving a wide margin for difference in opinion upon
minor points. A minority favor a definite declaration of faith, but
the majority adhere strictly to their accepted church, covenant,
which enjoins 'Taking the Bible as the only rule of faith, and practice,
and church discipline,' making Christian character the only test of fel-
low.ship."

" There are at least five distinct branches of Adventists, each with
their separate organizations and publishing interests. All, however.

Ill

: 'I

Rev. A. H. Sibley, Haverhill, Mass.

1138

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

DiBtinctive
Doctrineo.

hold to the one doctrine which has made them a people, and believe
in the second personal coming of Christ as an event not far distant.
Having stated this, we shall speak only of the leading branch which
this Congress represents, known as the 'Advent Christian Association
and General Conference of America.'

"In this connection there are four publishing societies with houses
located in Maine, Massachusetts, Illinois and California, besides
several individual enterprises of greater or lesj. importance. From
these are issued three prominent weekly papers, several monthlies,
books, pamphlets, tracts, magazines and Sunday-school supplies. It is
said that more than fifty millions of publications bearing iJPon special
subjects of faith have been sent out through the press. This people
and their message to t'le world, now on a Scripture basis, are being pub-
lished worldwide; a.. . there are doubtless as many of their faith con-
nected .,ith other denominations of both clergy and lay as are at
present identified under the name Aoventist. Associated with this
people a class of ministers and laity, faithful, devoted and earnest, as
are to be found elsewhere, are engaged in the work.

" A belief in God as the creator of all things, faith in His Son Jesus
Christ, as the only Saviour for all classes of men, repentance, birth of
the spirit, reform, sanctification through the word of truth, holiness of
heart, purity in life, are tenets taught and enforced as indispensable to
Christian success here, and to a preparation for eternal life in the
world to come. In addition to these sentiments, which are in common
with other sects, are some important Bible doctrines which form the
distinguishing features of the faith of this people. Women are
recognized and admitted to all conferences as delegates and ministers,
and receive license papers as such upon real merit. A number have
been regularly ordained; this, however, is not universal, but optional
with the local conferences that receive them into membership. They
are strong and pronounced in favor of temperance, and would indorse
some prohibitory act in favor of the extermination of the entire
liquor traffic."

The distinctive doctrines of adventual faith are set forth in the
form of essays, read as their presentation papers in the World's Parlia-
ment of Religions, under the following topics:

1. " Basis of Faith," Rev. W. J. Hobbs, Minneapolis, Minn.

2. " The Kingdom of God," Rev. J. W. Davis, Bridgeport, Conn.

3. "Conditional Immortality," Rev. Miles Grant, Boston, Mass.

4. " The Resurrection," Rev. A. W. Sibley, Mendota, III.

5. " Extinction of P>il," Rev. William Sheldon, Brodhead, Wis.

6. " Restitution— Paradise," Rev. Mrs. E.S.Mansfield, Chicago, III.

7. " Proximity," Rev. A. J. Wheeler, Concord, N. H.

" Basis of Faith," the first paper, showed that the prophets of the
Old Testament announce the first and second advent of Christ, and
that their divinely inspired words were literally fulfilled in His first
coming. None but a divine being, Jesus Christ, meets the require-
ments of prophecy, and He literally fulfilled them. And it is just as cer-
tain that their prophecies will be fulfilled in His future coming.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

1139

" If God so literally fulfilled His word at the first advent of Christ,
in His birth, life, death and resurrection, and His covenant with the
Hebrew nation, why not believe He will as literally fulfill His word
relative to His second advent, and the promises under the New Cove-
nant made with all nations as set forth in the New Testament? The
apostles proclaimed to Jew and Greek the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
and predicated the hope of the race upon it, if we are to take their tes-
timony in its literal sense. The hope of secinp Jesus and bcin^ made
like Him has been stvled ' the blessed hope,' and has been the com-
fort of the church in all ages."

The third paper, " Conditional Immortality," by the Rev. Miles
Grant, wa . a learned document, bristling with proofs of his contention
that the Bible " uniformly teaches that only the righteous will live
eternally, and, therefore, comes the necessary conclusion that Condi-
tional Immortality is a Hible doctrine.'

The fourth essay on " Resurrection," i;y the Rev. A. W. Sibley, of
Mendota, 111., made the following points:

" First. The doctrine of a corporeal resurrection of all the dead is
clearly referred to and directly tanght in the Old and Nev»' Testament
scriptures.

"Second. In the New Testament the resurrection of the dead is rheRoeu*
ascribed to Christ Himself as being the agent by which it is wrought. 'o«t"«>-
(John v, 21 ; i Cor. xv, 22; Rev. xxii, 11.)

"Third. All the dead will be raiseil indiscriminately to receive
judgment according to their works, they that have done good, unto the
resurrection of life; and they thai have done evil, ' unto the resurrec-
tion of damnation.' (John v, 21-29; ' ^t»- ^v, 22; Rev. xx, 11.)

"Fourth, The resurrection will take place at the ' last day,' by
which is meant the close of the present world. (John vi, 40; i\, 24;
I Thess, iv, 15.)

" Fifth. The great event is represented as being ushered in by the
sound of a trumpet, a representation borrowed probably from the
Jewish practice of convening assemblies by sound of a trumpet. ( i
Cor. XV, 52; I Thess. iv, 16.)

" .Sixth. The resurrection of Christ was a pledge, a pattern, an
assurance of the physical resurrection of the sainted dead.

" Seventh. The immortality, eternal life and all the future bles-
sings of the righteous dead are dependent on the corporeal resurrection
of Christ from the dead, (i Cor. xv, 17, uS.)

"There is no event of which mention is made in the sacred oracles,
nor that has ever occurred in human history with which are associated
such tremendous consequences as that of the anastasis of the dead.
The eternal life, with all of its environments, will then bo reached, and
a ' forever with the Lord ' experienced.

"Then will the united voices of the redeemed as the sound of
many waters resound to earth's remotest bounds in songs of triumph
and shouts of victory, victory, victory, and all heaven and earth
respond, Amen."

ill

1140

■'HE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

Proximity.

Extinction of
KtU.

The paper on " Proximity," by the Rev, A. J. Wheeler, was an elab-
orate argument, based on sacred and secular history and Scripture, to
prove that the advent of Christ is near. The uppermost and constant
thought pervading the essay was, "The time is short."

"Extinction of Evil," by the Rev. William Sheldon, took the ground
that evil is to be extinguished by a stroke of divine power, at the end
of the Gospel armistice, by utterly exterminating evil-doers, includ-
ing the devil himself; for Christ has arranged that "through death he
might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil."
(Hev. ii, 14.) After citing the testimony of Scripture on the subject;
he closed by saying: "This carries us beyond the chronology of the
hell taught in the Bible to a time when evil is forever extinct, only
the good being left; and then the redeemed world will joyfully resound
the praise of Jehovah forevermore, not a sinner being left alive to in-
terrupt the sacred harmony by his plaintive wails or horrid blasphe-
mies. Only praise will be heard when saints only shall be left alive."

The secretary says: "The harmony visible in all the papers of
the day cannot fail to elicit notice. First, that Christ will come per-
sonally and literally at the close of the Gospel Dispensation; second,
that His coming will precede the resurrection of the dead and the es-
tablishment of His kingdom upon the earth; third, that the resurrec-
tion will precede the general judgment day, which God hath ap-
pointed; fourth, that the judgment must precede rewards and punish-
ment; fifth, that when evil-doers and evil angels are cut off and de-
stroyed, the earth will be restored to a state of original perfection, as
the future Eden of the redeemed, and be filled with the glory of the
God."

The Sabbath
Q'lcstion.

THE SEVENTH DAY BAPTIST CONGRESS.

The Seventh-day Baptist Congress was held in one of the halls of
the Art Institute, during the i6th and 17th of September. The pre-
siding officer was Prof. William A. Rogers, of Colby University,
Waterville, Me., and Prof. Edwin Shaw, of Milton College, Milton,
Wis., was secretary. "Although this denomination has existed in this
country for more than two centuries, many who attended the Parlia-
ment of Religions had not learned the significance of the term Seventh-
day Baptists, and much interest was manifest to know how they differ
from the Baptist denomination. For those who may not follow this
account to the end, we remark that Seventh-day Baptists are essen-
tially like other Baptists and might dwell with them in unity but for
the fact that they observe the seventh day of the week (Saturday)
as Sabbath, and regard it as the only Sabbath that is recognized
in the sacred Scriptures, either the Old or New Testament. They
challenge any one to prove that there is any warrant for the observ-
ance of Sunday in the commands of God, or the example of Christ or
His apostles. They hold that Christ and the apostles kept the Fourth

Seventh Day Baptists.

Ira J. Ordway, Chicago, Chairman. Prof. Edwin Shaw, Secretary, Milton, Wis.

Rev. Lester C. Randolph, Chicago. Rev. Booth C. Davis, Alfred Centre, N. Y.

D. E. TlTSWORTH. S. \V. Maxson.

«i

:i!V

Limitationa
of (/liriBtian
Fellombip.

1142

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

commandment, as well as the other nine, thus proving that it belongs
to the moral and not to the ceremonial law. They agree with most
Protestants that the moral law is of perpetual obligation, and can see
no reason for keeping a day not recognized by it. If the day of the
Sabbath has been changed there ought to be some positive statement
of such change in the New Testament, and no such statement, or even
implication, can be found. Pressed by failure to find a warrant for
Sunday keeping, some writers take the ground that the law, as given
in the Decalogue, is not binding on Christians, thus disposing of the
Sabbath, and then claim the restoration of the other nine command-
ments, they being ' written in the heart,' Why the fourth should be
an exception does not appear. If it be true that the fourth command-
ment has become void, then there is surely no obligation to keep the
first day of the week by virtue of the ' change of day ' theory. This,
then, is the dilemma in which Sunday-keepers arc involved. Kither the
moral law, as given in the Decalogue, is binding or it is not. If it is
not binding, any transfer to the first day of the week is impossible, for
no such obligation exists. But if it has not been set aside it binds all
men to keep God's commands, both in spirit and in letter. Either
horn of the above dilemma is fatal to Sunday-keeping. Therefore, Sev-
enth-day Baptists reject the claims of Sunday, because they do not
rest upon the Word of God, and because no amount of obligation to
regard Sunday, if it existed, could remove the obligation to obey God
and to follow the example of Christ in keeping the Sabbath. The first
day of the week is mentioned in the Bible but eight times, and five of
these references are to one and the same day — the day on which
Christ's resunection was made known to His disciples. The Bible
never connects the observance of any day with His resurrection. It
never draws any comparison between the ' work of creation and the
work of redemption,' nor attempts the impossible task of saying which
of the two infinite works is 'the greater.' All these assumptions have
been made by men to support a practice which has no foundation in
the New Testament, nor in the example of Christ.

The opening address, " The Limitations of Christian Fellowship,"
was delivered by Professor Rogers, President of the Congress:
" Diversity of opinion is so common in the world it must be the
result, in part, of the natural organization of the human mind. In
the recognition of a spiritual truth more than the unaided powers of
the human mind are necessary to its perception. It is natural for
those who think alike in religious matters to organize in one body. It
is no proscription of any to restrict the organization to those of like
faith. Yet Christian comity should and may prevail among those of
different, and yet positive, convictions. The proper aim of religious
organization is the application of fundamental principles of the Gos-
pel to our daily life. Seventh-day Baptists can do more good in the
world by remaining a separate organization than if they were merged
in the Baptist denomination."

The Rev. Steven Burdick, of West Hallock, 111., preached from

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

1143

the following' text: John xi, 21. "Hut he that docth truth comcth to
the lifjht that his deeds may be manifest that they are vvroucht in
God." Theme, "Loyalty to Truth. '

"Faithfulness to Our Cause," by the Rev. Hoolh C. DavLs, of Al-
fred Centre, N. Y., was the next paper.

A sermon was preached by Kev. R. M. Dunn, of Milton, Wis.
Text, Acts xxiv, iC. Theme, "The Education of the Conscience in
Christian Culture."

"Contradictions in the .Sunday Ar^ume:its" by Nathan VVardner,
D. D., of Milton Junction, Wis., a "convert to the Sabbath," for
many years a Seventh-day Haptist missionary in China. He ar-
rayed the contradictions which appear in the reasons jriven for observ-
injf Sunday; the Puritan theory of unabrogated lav/, and the popular
theory of abrogated law; of "church authority" and individual author-
ity; of a specific first day of the week, and of no day in particular, etc.,
etc. He argued that these mutually destructive contradictions arise
because men have departed from the plain and unifying law of God; a
house thus divided cannot stand,

" The Sabbath of the Future," by Rev. L. C. Rogers, Professor of
History and Economy in Alfred University, Alfred Centre, N. Y., inter-
preted the prophecies, especially those of Isaiah, as showing the final
and full restoration of the seventh day as the only and universal Sab-
bath at no distant period.

The following papers were presented in a symposiuni on practical
evangelical work: "Where Set the Battle, in City or Country," the
Rev. Lester C. Randolph, Chicago; "How to K(xp the Spirit of
Evangelism in the People," the Rev. E. A. Witter, Albion, Wis.; "How
to Use Students in This Work," the Rev. G. M. Cottrell, Nortonville,
Kan.; "The Element of Personal Work in Evangelism," the Rev. Frank
E. Peterson, New Market, N. J.; "How to Use the Business Men," W.
IL Ingham, Milton, Wis. Mr. Randolph urged that the battle be
forced in both city and country; neither district can be saved without
the other. Mr. Witter recommended simple and personal addresses
couched in terms of kindness and sympathy. Show that your work for
the Master is a sincere work. Mr. Cottrell thought that the Christian
Endeavor societies should be made evangelistic, and that evangelical
work and Bible study should be carried into regions inaccessible to
church privileges. Mr. Peterson said that religion is not a creed, but
a life; that it must be propagated by personal contact. Man general-
izes, but God particularizes. The best fruit is hand picked. Mr. In-
gham advocated the use of business tact, zeal anu perseverance in
God's service. He magnified the importance of the layman's \york.
The.se papers were by young men, who are practical "Evangelists,"
whose experience enables them to speak understandingly and enthusi-
astically on the various themes given.

" Review of Our Mission Work," by the Rev. O. U. Whitford, D. D.,

gave the history of both the home and foreign operations, from

. the beginning of the present century. Dr. Whitford showed that the

lit

Vurioaij Papers

Review of
Mission Work.

% '

1144

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

''•:■
\
I,

Taview ot
Tact Work.

Growth of
Serenth-Day
Baptisto.

mission work has engaged the attention of the Seventh-day Baptists
through all their history. At the present time they are prosecuting
the home work in about twenty different states, enlarging that work
year by year. The Sabbath reform work of the American Sabbath
Tract society is closely associated with home missions, and new fields
are opened by that work faster than the missionary society can fill
them. The foreign work at Shanghai, China, was begun about fifty
yearo ago. It is now in a very flourishing condition. It is carried on
under three departments: "General Evangelization;" "Educational,"
and " Medical." The first includes work in both city and country,
preaching, Bible reading and tract distribution, etc.; the second in-
cludes both day schools and boarding schools for boys and for girls;
the third includes private practice and extensive dispensary and hos-
pital departments.

The " Missionary Session," as a whole, especially the various de-
tails given in Secretary Whitford's paper, impressed the listener with
the fact that, according to their numbers, and through a history of
more than two centuries in America, the Seventh-day Baptists have
been, and now are, among the foremost in the work of evangelical
missions.

" Review of Our Tract Work," by Rev. L. E. Livermore, editor of
the Sabbath Recorder, gave a history of the publishing interests of the
Seventh-day Baptists. Mr. Livermore's paper was supplemented by
remarks from A. H. Lewis, D. D., Plainfield, N. J., editor of the Sabbath
Outlook, who emphasized the idea that history is an organic unity; that
great truths like the Sabbath cannot die; that Seventh-day Baptists
have been kept under God, to act an important part in the present agi-
tation concerning the Sabbath and the Sunday.

The Presentation session of the Seventh-day Baptists was held in
the large Hall of Washington on Sunday morning, September 17th.

" The Growth of Our Churches in America," by William C. Whit-
ford, D. D., president of Milton College, showed that the denomina-
tion now has one hundred churches, one hundred and ten active min-
isters, and about ten thousand church members, and that it has had a
history of two hundred and twenty-two years in this country. He
said: " Our churches do not lose heart in the prolonged and unequal
struggle of Sabbath reform. It is not alone our cause; it belongs to
our Master, and the final acceptance of His revealed truth by His
followers and the gainsaying world is absolutely certain. We believe
that as nature in any of its operations seems to care less for the quan-
tities than the intensity of the forces brought into requisition, so God,
in the prosecution of this Sabbath work, does not so much count on
the multitude of men as He does on the quality of their spirit and
their endeavors, the sincerity consecration, and intelligent service of
those who gain admission into His presence and desire to be obedient
to His will."

"Our Work for Education" was by Edwin H. Lewis, Ph. D., of
the University of Chicago. .

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

1U5

"Our Attitude on the Sabbath Oucstion" was the last paper, and
was by the Rev. A. H. Lewis, D. U, of Plainficld, N. J. He said:
"The closing decade of this century marks an important epoch of
transition touching the Sabbath question. Two prominent streams of
influence have aided in hastening the epoch: One the widespread
advocacy of the claims of the Sabbath (Saturday), as against the
claims of Sunday; the other, the rapid decline of regard for Sunday
and the inability of Sunday legislation, municipal, state, or national,
to check this growing disregard. We oppose the whole system of
Sunday legislation, because it is forbidden by the nature and purposes
of Christ's kingdom, as enunciated by Him. It had no existence in
earlier Christianity, apostolic or sub-apostolic. It was the product of
pagan influence. The first Sunday law, 321 A. D., had not the slight-
est trace of Christianity, in word or in spirit. It was issued by the
emperor as high-priest ex officio of an empire, in which all religious
laws and ceremonies were state regulations. It spoke only of the
' venerable Day of the Sun.' It was in all respects at one with the
prevailing legislation concerning the other pagan festivals. If it be
granted, for the sake of illustration, that Sunday is sacred under the
Fourth commandment, and ought to be kept in place of tlic Sabbath,
the reasons for rejecting Sunday laws are much intensified. The his-
tory of Sunday laws proves this, without exception. The civil power
from the time of Cromwell's parliament to the United States Congress
of 1892 has struggled in vain to save the failing fortunes of this Sun-
day engendered by Puritan and Roman Catholic compromise. We
mourn over the growing Sabbathlessness in the church and in the
world. We deplore the errors which have p: iuced it and the evils
which attend it. But we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that, in
attempting to avoid the claims of the Sabbath, Christian men have cre-
ated the influences whirls h"ve so nearly destroyed Sunday. When
the church compromises with the law of God until it is rendered nuga-
tory, and appeals to the civil law to support its errors, such results as
are at hand cannot be avoided. We appeal to Christians and ask that
the Sabbath question be wholly relegated to the realm of religion and
conscience, and to the arbitrament of the Bible. Settle it in God's
court, not in Caesar's."

Attitmlo on
t h Habbatb
Quustion.

THE CONGRESS OF THE EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION.
The Presentation was held on September 19th, in the Hall of
Washington. President C. C. Bonney, of the World's Fair Auxiliary
opened the session with an address, and the Rev. G. C. Knobel, as
Chairman, made an address of response and welcome. Thereupon fol-
lowed addresses upon the History, Doctrine and Polity of the Evangel-

I. "The History of the Evangelical Association." Rev. S. P ^^Htl«^«^>r.[i^<;J
Sprang, Cleveland, Ohio. : " Jacob Albright, under God the founder of Association.

■1: ^

1146

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

x\n

\4 '

! 'i

Doctrines of
the Evangelical
AMOciatioOf

this denomination, was born in 1759, and converted about 1790. A
few years later he began to preach. In 1800 he organized three con-
gregations in eastern Pennsylvania. In 1 803 the first General Council
was held. In 1807 the first Annual Conference was organized, and in
l8l6the first General Conference. The Evangelical Association is a
distinctively American product, the result of American religious con-
ditions as they existed at the time of Mr. Albright's ministerial labors.
He was born and reared in America, and the same is to be noted of
all the early leaders. During the first half century the activity of the
Association was confined to the United States and Canada. She was
called of God to meet the pressing needs of the German-speaking
population of this country, especially of the thousands of Germans in
Pennsylvania, by quickening spiritual life and emphasizing the impor-
tance of vital Godliness among them and others. Albright and his co-
laborers felt called to do for these what the Weslcyan and other mis-
sionaries were doing for the English-speaking population, lie and
his assistants preached repentance, and insisted upon the experience
of conversion through the energy of the Holy Spirit as the only true
beginning of a spiritual life. Although not converted in the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church, he would have found a congenial home in it if
that church had seen an open field for work in the German language.
As it did not, his path led him into an independent course after a brief
membership in that communion. He created no schism. He had no
quarrel with any church. He preached no new doctrine. He simply
entered an open field not occupied by others; and a separate denom-
ination, although not planned by him, was the necessary outcome of
his success; but it did not take permanent shape until after his death,
in 1808."

*' When, later, the necessity arose, services were held in the English
language as well as the German. At the present time at least one-
third of her membership worships in the English language, while most
of the ministers understand both languages. This church is repre-
sented on three continents — America, Europe and Asia. The mem-
bership numbers 145,829; ministers, 1,327; church edifices, 2,119;
parsonages, 722; Sunday-schools, 2,222; scholars, 167,000; annual con-
ferences, 25.

"The denominational publishing house is located at Cleveland, Ohio,
and is valued at over half a million dollars. The leading college is at
Naperville, 111., with a theological department called Union Hiblicai
Institute. A large orphan home is supported at Flat Rock, Ohio.
There is a prosperous branch publishing house at Stuttgart, Germany,
and theological training schools at Reutlingen, Germany, and Tokio,
Japan. Dcr Oimtlkhe Botschaficr (German official organ) has a circu-
lation of nearly twenty thousand, and the Evangelical Messenger ( En-
glish official organ), ten thousand. Her Sunday-school and missionary
work is extended, and in a most prosperous condition."

"The Doctrine of the Evangelical Association," by Bishop J.J.
Esher, of Chicago, was a paper setting forth the tenets of the church.

Rev. Prof. David Swing, Chicago,

(Vice President Qenerat Committee.)

■H\\

If!

(

The Organic
Stracture.

Tlie O e n i n B
uf the Charch.

'I'

1148

T//£ WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

under the following heads: — Doctrine Concerning God; the Creation;
Providence ; the Angels; Man ; the Fall of Man ; Redemption and the Re-
deemer; the Holy Ghost; the Christian Church and the Means of Grace;
the Order and Way of Salvation; the Christian Life; the Last Things.

"The Polity of the Evangelical Association," by Bishop S. C.
Breyfogel, Reading, Pa. The Evangelical Association is neither
hierarchical nor congregational in its polity, but aims at the golden
mean between these extremes.

" I. The Organic Structure. The authoritative rule in the
church is the Word of God. Her book of discipline contains the
fundamental law. Two orders are recognized in her ministry, "deacons"
and "elders." In the official duty and authority of her ministry there
is a gradation of oflfices; the "preacher in charge," the "presiding
elder" and the "bishop," the latter being authorized to make the annual
appointment of the preachers. There are three conferences ; the quarterly,
the annual, and the general, only the last of these having legislative
powers. There is no lay representation in the annual and general con-
ferences; but the quarterly conference, exercising authority over most
of the matters pertaining to the home charge, consists in the main of
lay members.

" 2. The Genius of the Church. The following characteristics
are to be noted in the individuality of this denomination: (a) The
system of the itinerancy, securing a distribution of gifts and a diversity
of service among all the churches, and cultivating a spirit of unity be-
tween the ministry and membership, as also between the different
congregations, (b) The simplicity of her spirit. No encouragement
is given to elaborate forms of worship, imposing ceremonies or archi-
tecture. Her very simplicity constitutes her grandeur, (c) Her
economy is intensely practical, preferring the shortest way for the
realization of her great purpose, and yet instinctively avoiding all
irreverent and vulgar methods, (d) Thoroughness of character.
Superficiality of religious experience and Christian life is repugnant
to the spirit of the denomination. Her stern sense of right, and hos-
tility toward shams of every kind, is associated with a loving spirit of
condescension and inercy to the erring. Her love of pure doctrine is
equaled by her love of pure life, (e) Aggressiveness of spirit.
There thrills through the church the spirit of conquest for Christ,
Her innate energy prompts to the occupancy of new fields at home
and abroad. The wheels of her machinery are made to go. Her spirit
gives birth to new institutions, new modes of organization and im-
proved methods of work, as the progress of Christianity requires."

The Denominational Congress was held in hall VH., September
19th to the 2ist. Addresses were delivered upon the following subjects
— Educational: The Relation of the Evangelical Association to the
Cause of Education, President H. J. Kiekhoefer, Northwestern College,
Naperville, 111. ; The Need of an Educated Ministry, Prof. S. L. Umbach,
Union Biblical Institute, Naperville, III. Missionary: Our Home
Mission Work, Bishop William Horn, Cleveland, Ohio; Our Mission

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

1U9

tion;
e Re-
race ;
lings.
S. C.
iither
olden

1 the
»s the
icons"
there
siding
annual
irterly,
slative
al con-
;r most
nain of

;eristics

) The

iversity

nity be-

fifferent

gement
archi-
Her
or the
ing all

laracter.

jugnant

md hos-

spirit of

ictrine is
spirit.
Christ,

at home
er spirit
and im-
res."
ptember
subjects
n to the

I College,
Umbach,

Hr Home
Mission

Woman's
Meeting.

Work in Europe, Rev. G. Gaehr, Cleveland, Ohio; Our Mission Work
in Japan, Bishop J. J. Esher, Chicago.

At the Woman's Meeting Mrs. G. C. Knobcl, presided and made
the address of welcome. Letters of greeting were read from Mrs. I.
Knapp, Elberfeld, Germany, and Mrs. F. W. Voegelein, Tokio, Japan.
Papers were read on the following subjects: The Heroines of the
Evangelical Association, Mrs. Kate Klinefelter Bowman, Des Moines,
Iowa; The Deaconess Movement in Our Church, Mrs. Jacobea Gaehr,
Cleveland, Ohio; Mothers' Work in Our Church, Mrs. H. C. Smith,
Naperville, III.; Missionary and Temperance Work for the Women of
Our Church, Mrs. E. M. Spreng, Akron, Ohio.

At the Reform Meeting Rev. J. C. Hornbcrgcr, editor of The Liv-
ing Epistle and Sunday-school literature, Cleveland, Ohio, made an
address on the Evangelical Association and Moral Reform, which was
followed by shorter addresses by Revs. C. F. Erffmeyer, Abilene, Kan ,
W. A. Leopold, Allentown, Pa., and C. C. Pfund, Des Moines, Iowa.
On Young People's Alliance Day, Rev. C. A. Thomas, the presi-
dent of the Alliance and editor of the Evangelical Mazagine and Sun- ,,ie"'S?y.^''"'
day-school literature, Cleveland, Ohio., made the opening address,
and further addresses were delivered on the following subjects:
Twentieth Century Responsibilities — How to Meet Them, Rev. J. B.
Kanaga, Marion, Ohio, with shorter addresses by Messrs. E. B. Esher,
Chicago, and H. G. Johnson, Reading, Pa.; Our Young People and the
Institutions of Our Church, Rev. G. C. Knobel, Chicago, with shorter
addresses by Bishop W. Horn, Cleveland, Ol io, and Prof. H. F. Kletz-
ing, Naperville, III.; Denominational Young People's Societies, Revs.
W. H. Messerschmidt, Naperville, 111., and George Husser, Chicago;
The Spiritual Element in the Young People's Alliance, Rev. M. L.
Wing, Berhn, Ont., with shorter addresses by Bishop S. C. Breyfogel,
Reading. Pa., and Rev. J. Alber, Washington, 111.; Practical Sugges-
tions for Alliance Workers, Rev. J. C. Hornberger, Cleveland, Ohio,
Corresponding Secretary of the Alliance; The Young Men of Our
Country— Their Perils and Possibilities, Rev. S. J. Gamertsfelder,
assistant editor of the Evangelical Messenger, Cleveland, Ohio, with
shorter addresses by Revs. H. I. Bittner, Portland, Ore., and George
Johnson, Buchanan, Mich. The music throughout, excepting the
Woman's meeting, was in charge of Mr. J. L. Lehman, of the Salem
church choir, Twelfth and Union streets, Chicago, supported by a
union choir from the several churches of the denomination in and
about the city of Chicago.

;i|:

'j'l ii

Rev. Dr. F. A. Noble, Chicago.
(Member General Committee.)

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

1151

THE CONGRESS OF WALES, AND THE INTKKN A TIONAL

EIS'IEDDFOI).

Never in the history of the Welsh people of the United States
was there such a gatheriii}; as was seen in cliicat^o the first week in
September, 1893. Representatives, not only from every state ami ter-
ritory of the Union, but also from Great Britain, Canada and Aus-
tralia were present. Rev. Rowland Williams ( 1 Iwfa IMon) of \M\n\^-
alien. North Wales; Rev, Iwan Rees (Dyfcd), Cardiff, South Wales,
represented the pulpit, and the Rhondda Glee Society, and I'enrhyn
Glee Society— 50 male voices respectively represented the musical
culture of the principality.

The first session of the Welsh Conjjress was held in the Memorial
Art Palace, at 11 A. m., September 3d, the Rev R. Tro^nvy ICvans, of
Chicago, presiding. The chief address of the session was made by
Rev. R. Williams (Hwfa Mon).

The second^ session was held at I p. m., at the First Methodist ICpis-
copal Church, and presidedovcr by the Rev. Ellis Roberts, Chicago. In
a large measure this sessionwas areligiousandmusical re-unionof Welsh
people of all sections of the church brought together from all parts of
the world. Addresses were made by Rev. David Harris, D. D., Rev.
II. O. Rowlands, D. D., Rev. J. Wynne Jones, Prof. John P. Jones and
Rev. D.J. Phillips, of Chicago; Rev. W. W. Jones and Dr. Williams,
of Nebraska; Hwfa Mon, and others.

The evening session, held at the same church, was presided over
by Rev. Dr. Harris. Addresses were made by the Rev. W. Fawcett,
D. D., of Chicago; Rev. Miss Rosina Davies, of South Wales, and the
Rev. R. Williams of North Wales. The official progranunc of the
Parliament of Religions announced the three following papers jirepareil
in connection with the Welsh congress: "The P'arly J5ritish Church,"
by the Rev. D. Parker Morgan, D. D., New York; "The Religious Char-
acteristics of the Welsh People," by the Rev. H. O. Rowlands, D. D.,
Chicago; "The P^ffects of the Protestant Reformation on Wales," by
the K ;v. John tlvans (Eglwysbach), Cardiff, South W^^les.

The following extracts arc from a paper by one of the foremost
preachers of Wales, the Rev. John P^vans:

"The history of the Reformation in Wales differs considerably in
several important respects from that on the continent of luirope, and
even in Pmgland itself. It really forms a chapter in the history of
Protestantism. # * » #

" The Welsh people, and probably all the Celtic races of Britain,
had received their Christianity from some other source than papal
Rome. This fact has an important bearing on the subject of this
paper, and presents Wales in a direct contrast to England with refer-
ence to the Protestant Reformation. Originally, the English people
were benighted pagans. This was their sad condition when Augustine
and his monks were sent from Rome, in 597. He found them totally
ignorant of Christianity, and was commissioned by Pope Gregory to
enlighten and convert them. Augustine was a Roman Catholic mis-

CoDKreM o(
WaloH.

Tho Early
nritish Church

If;

:|^

1152

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Tho Darkness
of Popery.

I H\

sionary, and when the Anglo-Saxons were converted under his minis*
try they simply accepted the popish, corrupt form of the Christian
religion. This was the only form of it that was f\tii taught them, and
they heard nothing else concerning Christianity for six hundred years,
when Wycliffe, the morning star of the Reformation, appeared.

" The effect of Wycliffe's awakening was partly felt in Wales also,
especially on the borders of England. John of Kentchurch became a
Lollard; Sir John Oldcastle, afterward Lord Cobham, and Walter
Krutc partook of the same spirit. These men and a few less illustrious
comrades were excellent Christians, and preached against the preten-
sions of Rome, denouncing the dogma of transubstantiation, opposing
indulgences and overv other priestly craft that endangered the salva-
tion of the people. But the effects of their efforts did not penetrate
far into the interior of the principality at any time, and at their death
the whole nation plunged itself into a state of unbroken indifference
for at least a century. The thick darkness of popery covered the
land like the shadow of death. This was the deplorable condition of
Wales when the trumpet blast of the Reformation was heard in Enf^.
land, about the year 1540. In fact, there was no preparation leadini^
up toward an outbreak in the Welsh mind. The Reformation, so called,
was only an outward change thrust suddenly upon the people by the
fitful will of the reigning monarch.

"At the same time, it is right to add that the conclusion of the
whole matter is this: That Protestantism, especially in its spiritual
blessings, was not established in Wales to a great extent or with great
force for nearly a century after its rise in England. Wales was isolated
and far from the center of influence. Great movements in London and
Oxford often exhausted themselves before they reached the inhabitants
of this distant country. The Reformation only touched its outskirts at
first, and took a long time to travel over the whole district. And v^^hen
it did, the effect was superficial and broken. It was a longtime before
it leavened the whole lump. Certain parts of Wales were regarded as
safe hiding places for monks and priests who were not willing to dis-
avow their adherence to Rome. Even during the reign of Elizabeth
this was the case.

*' So that, while the Protestant Reformation was an outside change
forced upon the people by the king at first and taken up by oflicial
laymen, while it only touched the outskirts of the principality by its
spiritual influence, and that only for a time, and left the country gen-
erally almost for a century in dangers and sin, yet it was a great bless-
ing to Wales. It delivered the country at once from the tyranny of
the pope; it led up gradually to the rendering of the Scriptures into
the vernacular; it prepared the way for the rise of non-conformity and
culminated in the outbreak of the Methodist revival. The Protestant
Reformation gave Wales an open Bible and a religious liberty that we
had not possessed before. The effect of the Reformation on Wales has
been good from the beginning, although for a long time it was limited
in its extent and shallow in its hold upon the people. It contained

THE WORLD'S CONG REUS OF RELIGIONS,

1158

minis-
ristian
n, and
years,

s also,
:ame a
Walter
strious
areten-
posing
: salva-
netrate
r death
fercnce
red the
ition of
in EnfT-
leadini^
) called,
: by the

n of the
spiritual
ith fjreat
isolated
don and
labitants
:skirts at
nd when
le before
arded as
ig to dis-
ilizabeth

e change
»y official
ityby its
ntry gen-
eat bless-
rranny of
tures into
rmity and
^rotestant
;y that we
Wales has
as limited
contained

the seeds of subsequent harvests, and became the reluctant hcniUl of
a coni'ng millennium."

A notable feature of the three sessions was the excellent and often
plaintive congregational music, the respective four parts being evenly
represented by the different choral societies that were in tlie city to
take part during the following week days in the most exciting choral
contests that probably ever took place in this or any other country. The
International Eisteddfod of the World's Fair was pronounced by the
Chicago press to be the most successful and interesting festival held
at the Exposition. The religious congress of the Welsh people had
its continuation in the choral and bardic exercises of their ancient and
unique festival. Here the religious life of the Cambrian Kelts exhib-
ited itself in a very marked degree. The subject of the chief alliter-
ative poem (Adwl) was "Jesus of Nazareth," and the greatest genius
among living Welsh poets. Rev. Evan Recs ( Dyfed), of Cardiff, .South
Wales, won the prize for the best poem on that subject, namely, S500,
a gold medal and the Bardic chair — the highest bardic honor of the
nation. The choral selections for the chief contest, and for the largest
prize ever offered— S5,()CXD, again brought to the front, in the presence
of an audience of over eight thousand, that filled every seat and aisle of
Festival Hall, the religious intensitv of the Welsh people.

"Mor o Gin Yw Cymru i Gyd, ' Wales is a sea of song. As long
as its musical language lasts, and as long as its love of song
wakes the echoes on hill and in dale, the religious fervor of Wales
will never die, and the intense religious and patriotic associations of
centuries can never be blotted out.

During the sessions eloquent addresses were made by Rev. W. C.
Roberts, D. D., of New York, late president of Lake Forest University;
Rev. D. Parker Morgan, of New York; Hon. David Richards, of
Knoxville, Tenn.; Hon. R.T. Morgan, of Oshkosh, Wis,; Hon. Samuel
Job, Pullman, 111.; Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones and Rev. H.O. Rowlands,
D. D., of Chicago; Judge H. M. Edwards, of Scranton, Pa.; Rev. T.
Cynonfardd Edwards, D. D.,of Kingston, Pa.; Rev. Fred Evans, D. D..
of Milwaukee; Mrs. Potter Palmer, of Chicago, and others.

Tlio Kitituild.

flHl.

CONGRESS OF THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.

This Congress occupied two days, the 13th and 14th of Sep-
tember. The first session was held in the Hall of Washington,
Rev. Dr. T. P. Haley, of Kansas City. Mo., presiding. In his presenta-
tion speech Mr. Bonney paid a very high compliment to the Disciples
for their work along the lines of Christian unity the past fifty years.
The latest statistics in the hand of the national secretary of the Dis-
ciples' Home Missionary society give this people a membership of
nearly one million, with six thousand ministers and nine thousand
congregations. According to the United States census reports of 1890,
7;j

.'t

ThoD
pleH of ( 'I

1 N (■ 1 -
iribt.

'..!

•'

1 154

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

111!'',

• M

•t

Clirietian
Uuiou.

they arc {^rowing more rapidly than any other religious body; In tert
years they increased eighty-three per cent, as against fifty-seven on
the part of their closest rival. It is, therefore, refreshing to know that
such a body of people is in hearty sympathy with all the great advance
movements of the age, and that for this congress they selected some
of their very strongest representatives, whose addresses have been
pronounced by their own people as among the ablest ever heard in the
councils of the church. There were eight of them, enough to fill a
volume; but in the space allowed only brief synopses, with occasional
excerpts from each, can be given.

Following happy introductory remarks by Dr. Haley, came the
first address, "The Church of Christ in the First Century," by Regent
H.VV. Everest, of the Illinois Normal University, Carbondale. Hesaid:
"The highest use of the great Columbian E.xposition is to be found
not in its industrial, national and international results, but in its dem-
onstration of man's value, of his value as he stands in nature's vast
Machinery Hall and lays his hand on all physical forces; of his value
as the arbiter of his own social and moral destiny; of his value in the
sight of God."

Dr. Everest spoke of the first century of the church as its heroic
age; and being under the immediate supervision of the Holy Spirit it
became the example most worthy of imitation in all ages to come,
both as regards doctrine and life. "The inspired record of this cent-
ury," said he, " is the only source of authority in religious matters.
Everything must be measured and approved or disapproved by the
divine standard of the New Testament. If creed and dogma, if sacra-
ment and ritual dt) not agree with these Scriptures, it is because there
is no light in them. I^piscopacy and papacy alike are unsupported
pretensions. The chain of succession lies in broken fragments which
cannot be welded, nor is it linked to the throne of Christ, No man
or class of men has been authorized and inspired to interpret the New
Testament for the rest of the world. That is no revelation which re-
quires another revelation. Thought is eternally free, and neither men
nor devils can put it in chains. In the first century all Christians were
kings and priests unto God. We do not read of the ' Right Reverend
John Mark ' or of ' Cardinal Timothy,' nor of 'Arch-Hishop Titus.'
There was no ecclesiasticism then, no speculative theology."

" Christian Union," by the Rev. F. D. Power, pastor of the Garfield
Memorial Church Washington, D. C.,and pastor of President Garfield,
came next: "Christian Union," said he, " is the one high, clear note
of this latter half of the nineteenth century. The need of it is press-
ing, the desire for it deep, the prayer for it fervent, the plea for it
powerful beyond anything that marks our present day Christianity.
Nobody now thanks God for sects. The flowing tide is with union;
the ebb with divisions." The speaker referred to the original unity of
the church, and deplored existing divisions. He spoke of selfishness,
competition, envy, hate, error, confusion, slander, distrust, weakness,
waste, disintegration, and death as a hellish brood of sectarianism,

y; in ten
seven on

now that
t advance
;cd some
ave been
ird in the

to fill a
iccasional

came the
)y Regent
Hesaid:
be found
n its dem-
ure's vast
: his value
lue in the

its heroic

ly Spirit it

to come,

this cent-
is matters,
i^ed by the
la, if sacra-
:ause there
^supported
cnts which
;. No man
et the New
ti which rc-
icithcr men
stians were
t Reverend
hop Titus.'

the Garfield
nt Garfield,
I, clear note
f it is press-
c plea for it
Christianity,
with union;
nal unity of
selfishness,
t, weakness,
ectarianisni,

Rev. W. F. Black, Chicago.

— «»«41iittt,

^***««MI«S,.,

lino

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

I t^f

Kible An-
thrupulogy.

and asked: "Why may not the church be one today as in the apos-
tolic age? And what can be done to remove the sin and manifold
evils of division, and to promote a closer and more effective coopera-
tion in evangelizing the world?" In reply he said: " Two things are
indispensably necessary — a loyal recognition to the fullest Scriptural
extent on the part of all believers of the authority of Jesus Christ, and
of the Spirit of Jesus Christ."

"The Church of the Future" was the third address delivered by
the Rev. Dr. W. T. Moore, of London, England. Mr. Moore is widely
known as the editor of the Christian Commoinvealth, one of the most
influential religious papers in Great Hritain. The address was more
than twelve thousand words in length, but being very interesting in
both its matter and manner of presentation, was received with intense
interest. "The future is hope's paradise," began the doctor, "the past
is full of disappointment, and in nothing is this disappointment more
distinctly realized than in the achievements of the post-Apostolic
church. It is impossible for any student of church history to be satis-
fied with what the historic church has accomplished. In view of what
the past has been, it is not surprising that many arc turning their faces
to the future and anxiously looking tor the realization of the church
which has so far existed in the world only as an ideal." Proceeding,
the speaker drew a sharp di.stinction between the church of history
and the church of the New Testament. He said it is true that one
e.xtreme begets another, but it is not true that one extreme justifies
another. The church of the future will believe something definite and
recognize the importance of right thinking. That something definite
will not be merely a sj'stem of theology, however perfectly wrought
out; it will be belief in Christ. In the future Christians shall not only
walk together, but they shall meet together, worship together and work
together. In the past there has been entirely too much isolation, too
little conference, and by far too little cooperation. Denominational-
isnl is. bad enough, but sectarianism is even worse. The former may
exist without the latter, but neither can e.xist without injury to the
cause of Christ. When the church has reached its highest develop-
ment (and this will be its congressive period), then such a religious
congress as the one in which we are taking part will be regarded as a
normal sign of our religious development. This will bring a new era
of ^'rotherhood, a new era of consecrated service, and a new era of
peace."

Wednesday evening the second session of the congress was held
in Hall XXVI., Prof. W. F. Black, of Chicago, presiding. The paper
was "Biblical Anthropology — the Key to some Religious Problems,"
by the Rev, J. H. Garrison. Basing his remarks on Genesis i, 26,
27, the s|)eaker said, "Perhaps the sy ol or character that
would most fitly represent this age is the interrogation point. It is
an age of profound questioning of everything in the heavens above
and in the earth beneath. The three great questions of this age, and of
the ages, are: I. What is man? What kind of a being is he? 2d. Who

trfjOfiUrctmii

111

Rev. H. W. Everest, Carbondale, 111.

' : ' I')

%
I

1158

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OE RELIGIONS.

The rimrnli
nml the MassvH.

is Christ and the God whom He reveals? 3. What salvation or des-
tiny has He prepared for man? The man that is not interested in
questions jrives proof of partial, or total, obscuration of that these
which is distinctive of our human nature — its rational and moral
faculties. It is proof of the superiority of the Bible to all other books
in the world that it is the only book that furnishes satisfactory
answers to these f;reat questions." With these thouj^hts as a key, Mr.
Garrison proceeded to discuss the possibility of the incarnation, the
motive of the incarnation, the necessity of the incarnation and soteri-
olof^y, or the naturo and scope of the salvation promised to man in
the Gospel, concluding with a vision of man in his redeemed slate and
completed development.

"Christianity the Only .Solution of the Problems of the Age" was
the subject of the first address on Thursday morning by I'rof. H. .J
Radford, of Eureka, 111., editor of the Christian Standard, of Cincin-
nati, Ohio. The speaker proceeded t:) make good hi.s claim by
showing that Christianity was as necessary for man's higher intel-
lectual as for his moral and spiritual development. " It is a singular
fact," said he, " that outside of the influence of Christianity, as shown
by the late M. de Candolle in a survey of the science and scientists of
the last two centuries, there is none of that high intellectual progress
of which we boast, and that within the sphere of this influence
progress and high achievement are observed most where that influenrc
is greatest. During the last two centuries the majority of leaders in
scientific thought have been clergymen or the son.; of clergymen.
The development of the species runs parallel with the individual. In
intellectual development thereare four distinct stages: i. That in which
the mind busies itself with the world of space. 2. That in which the
phenomena are grouped and studied by likenesses and contrasts.
3. That in which the mind takes hold of the more hidden asso-
ciational threads of cause and effect. 4. That in which the mind is
not satisfied with the half explanation of things which the scientific
setting forth of causes affords; when the doctrine of beginnings must
be supplemented and complemented by the doctrine of ends; when
the genetic lines which have been traced backward until they have
converged in the great I'^fificient Cause must be traced forward until
they converge in the great Final Cau.se." The speaker outlined these
stages as far as they have appeared in the intellectual evolution of the
race, and in conclusion urged that Christianity be allowed to have its
perfect growth, for " in Christian philosophy, going on to perfection is
griKviiii; on to perfection."

" The Church and the Masses," was the theme of the si.xth address
by Hon. W. D. Owen, of Indiana. He said that "one of the charges
against Socrates was that he corrupted the Athenian youth by teach-
ing them a disrespect for the gods. But he did not teach them a dis-
respect for virtue, or truth, or rcli^' n, and he was the greatest bless-
ing Athens ever had, till Paul got to Mars Hill to tell the best of them
that they were too superstitious. Athens was not suffering from infi-

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

linn

dclity,i)ut from too much religion. Superstition is religion gone nuul.
They had not learned that the history of the race has been an inclined
plane. Men have been going up all the time. The temple is at the
top, and the top is God's White City!" Mr. Owen expressed his ardent
faith in the church as the friend of humanity, declaring that it is the
greatness of the church that it makes the largest offer ever made to
man, an offer that goes farther, addresses more faculties, satisfies more
aspirations, and promises more assistance than any other. If there is
such a thing as the philosophy of history, its grandest fact is the
influence of the Bible on the character of man. In the coming century
it v/ill be necessary for the church to disclose the human side of
Christianity as never before."

"The Creed that Needs no Revision," by President 1'^. V. Zollars,
of Hiram College, Ohio, was the .seventh address. "We hold," said
he, "that there is an all-embracing dominant creed that needs no
revision, under the influence of which the best human conditions arc
realized, the highest character developed, and the happiest destiny
secured," The several characteristics of this creed the scholarly
president enumerated as follows: First. It possesses universality.
A class creed would never d((. Second. It is simple, coming down
to the level of the humbkvt mind. Third. It is profound, .satisfying
the most grasping and comprehensive mind. Fourth. It has vitality —
is a living, growing reality, meeting man at every point of his upward
progress with satisfying power. Fifth. It is life-giving and practi-
cal. Sixth. It serves as a sufficient bond of fellowship between all
Christian hearts. Seventh. It furnishes a model for imitation. Eighth.
It is an incarnation of God. Ninth. It is of such a nature that every
man can readily translate it into his own language without loss. Tenth,
It is a full and complete revelation of the glory of God. Eleventh,
It is perfect, and incapable of improvement as an objective reality.
What, and where is this creed? Necessarily the demands cut us off
from all human sources. They are so broad that only Jesus the Christ
can satisfy them, and lie is indeed the creed that needs no revi.sion.
The general acceptance of this creed would produce a feeling of rest-
fulness and confidence, deprive infidelity of its most powerful weapon,
make the modern pulpit apostolic, marry in divorcelcss union faith
and action, destroy the apparent necessity for all other creeds, oblit-
erate all artificial and arbitrary distinctions that dishonor and degrade
our common humanity, and unite the children of God in the strong
bond of universal Christian fellowship."

"The Promise of Christian Union in the Signs of the Times," by
the Rev, B. B. Taylor, D. D., of the Church of Disciples, New York
city, was the eighth and closing address delivered. In speaking of
Christian union he said he desired " to place the emphasis on the word
Christian, for it is not denominational union that is needed so much
today as "Christian union— union in Christ, union on Christ, union
around Christ, union under Christ! In secular affairs the tendency is
toward union, and the tone of present day sermons indicates approach-

Tiio ('rood

lllllt, N<«'liH uo

Iti'vision.

1(50

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

"! " I

iiifj union in Christ. Disciples say the way to the reunion of Christen-
dom is by a return in faith and in practice, in letter and in spirit, in
doctrine and in ordinance, to the religion of Jesus as He gave it to
men — the religion of Christ as it is described in the New Testament.
Among the prominent signs of union enumerated by the doctor were
the Parliament of Religions, the International Sunday-school con-
ventions and lesson series, the Young Peoples' Society of Christian
luuleavor, the Brotherhood of Christian Unity, and last, but not least,
Discitjles of Christ, are coming to understand themselves better.

Thus closed the Congress of this people, a people that rejoices in
every good word and work, and longs with one impulse for the coming of
thatbettcr day so forcibly promised in this great series of meetings — the
like of which the world has never seen before — the Parliament and Con-
gresses of Religions — the day for which the Great Master prayed so
fervently, in which His followers might be one, and in which the
world might believe that He was sent of God.

This body began its existence under the lead of the Rev. Thomas
Campbell, who, in 1809, began his labors in Pennsylvania.

ConKrpBH
MissionH.

THE CONGRESS OK MISSIONS.

This remarkable gathering had three daily sessions for eight days,
beginning on September 28th, in the Hall of Columbus. Missionaries
and the friends of missions from all parts of the world were in attend-
ance. The Rev. Walter Manning Barrows, D. D., presided. After an
address of welcome by President Bonney, Dr. Barrows responded. In
the course of his address he said: "It is true that Charles Dickens
once said contemptuously: 'Of what use are missionaries? They
leave the countries which they visit far worse than they found them.'
Such remarks, however, are seldom heard in our day. Dickens made
one exception, however, to his general statement, and that single ex-
ception was that great and glorious missionary whom we all reverence
and admire, David Livingstone, who penetrated the jungles of darkest
Africa. Livingstone was a great and noble man, of wonderful attain-
ments and perseverance; a man whom no dangers could intimidate, no
hardships defeat, in his march to spread the belief of Christianity
among the heathen and pagan tribes of the dark continent. But
David Livingstone was only the noble representative of a noble band
of martyrs. And the monument erected in his memory is a monument
also to all of the unknown heroes who have died in the cause of Christ
and humanity. This Congress of Religions would never be complete if
provision had not been made for a Congress of Missionaries. We
gather here to discuss the best ways to spread the Gospel. T^ach of
us can gain many points from our brother's experience. But the
world will never be Christianized by a church divided into a hundred
sects and creeds, torn into fragments by internal dissensions, ex-

I S-

Prof. H. M. Scott, President Chicago Hebrew Mission.

.if

1162

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

hausted with bitter fights between one another. The church must be
a common unit to do its God-appointed work. It must stand together
in one brotherhood, in one cause for the good of one humanity."

Papers were read on " Denominational Comity and Cooperation,"
by the Rev. George W. Knox, D. D., Tokio, Japan; " Cooperation Ap-
plied; Practical Methods," by the Rev. Edwin M. Bliss, New York;
" The True Aim and Methods of Missionary Work," by the Rev. George
Washburne, D. D., of Constantinople; " Native Agencies the Chief
Hope of National Evangelization," by the Rev. J. T. Gracey, D. D.;
"Educational Agencies in Missions," by the Rev. William Miller, of
Madras, India; "Missionary Societies; Their Place and Function in
the Church," by the Rev. Alvirus N. Hitchcok, Ph. D.. Chicago;
"Environment of the Native Convert; Caste, Polygamy and Other
Hereditary Customs," by the Rev. C. P. Hard, of India; "A Geograph-
ical Survey," by the Rev. George Smith, LL. D., Edinburgh; "Obstacles
to F"oreign Missionary Success," by the Rev. H. C. Haydcn, D. D.,
LL. D., Cleveland, Ohio; " Reflex Influence of Foreign Missions," by
the Rev. F". F. Ellinwood, D. D., of New York; "Citizen Rights of
Missionaries," by the Rev. W. Elliott Griflis, D. D., Ithaca, N. Y.; "The
Responsibilities of Christian Governments as to Human Rights," by
Gen. B. R. Cowan, Cincinnati, Ohio; "Christian Government and the
Opium Traffic," the Rev. S. T. Baldwin, D. D., of New York; "Science
and Missions." by Prof. G. F.Wright; "The Century of Modern Mis-
sions; a Prophecy of P'inal Triumphs," by Joseph Cook, of Boston.

Reports from the field were very numerous and encouraging:
Africa, Bishop William Taylor, Prince Momolu Massaquoi, Miss Mary
G. Burdettc; Aborigines in America, Bishop Whipple, of Minnesota;
the Rev. E. R. Young, of Canada; Miss Mary C. Collins, Mrs. Amelia
S. Quinton; China, the Revs. Geo. T. Candlin, Gilbert Reid; P'rancc,
the Rev. Charles Faithful, Miss de Broen; India, the Rev. Geo. I"'.
Pentecost, D. D.; Japan, President Kozaki; Mexico, the Rev. J. M.
Green;, Ottoman Empire, the Revs. H. H. Jessup,
Port. D. D., James S. Dennis, D. D.; Siam, the Rev.
South America, the Rev. Thomas B. Wood, LL. D.
Fritz Flicdner.

Valuable reports were given from Bible Societies, and Home
Missions, and other cooperative agencies. The final addresses were
by Rev. Arthur T. Pierson, D. D., of Detroit, on "Thy Kingdom
Come," and Mr. Dwight L. Moody, on "The Power of the Spirit." In
the course of a stirring address by the Rev. Dr. Frank Bristol, of Chi-
cago, he said:

" It is useless to talk of saving the heathen abroad, if we do not
save those at home. If we cannot save Chicago, we cannot Calcutta;
Save Chicago, "unless you Can savc San Francisco, you cannot save Bombay. We
plant our altars among the silks and satins, and not amidst the rags of
Chicago. We plant them among homes whose tables groan with every
luxury, and we do not plant them in the midst of homes that are empty,
where little children are pinched with want and hunger. Go over

D. D., Geo. Iv
Dr. McGilvary;
Spain, the Rev.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

1103

to Halstcd street, or visit 'Little Hell' on the North side. Look
at the street Arabs — the shoeblacks and newsboys on our streets— the
city waifs, who sleep under dry-goods boxes. These boys are growing
up to be voters and, in a few years, they will be settling political ques-
tions, not only for Chicago, but for the United States. God help us
and open our eyes to see the field we have right here in our midst in
Chicago. Here we have forty thousand Bohemians, more than are in the
city of Prague; we have seventeen thousand Italians, and very little is
being done for their evangelization. And what shall I say about the
Indians? If we have taken from them this country and driven thcni
out by our superior intelligence, we owe them at least the Gospel of
Jesus Christ."

An International Missionary conference was chosen to arrange
for united missionary effort, consisting of: Chairman, Dr. VValtcr Man-
ning Harrows, D. D., of Chicago, Presbyterian; Dr. James B. Angel),
of Michigan, Congregational; Archdeacon Mackay Smith, D. I^^, of
Washington, Protestant P^piscopal; Bishop Charles P2. Cheney, of
Chicago, Reformed P^piscopal; Dr. Luther F. Townsend, of Boston,
Methodist F2piscopal; Dr. A. J. Gordon, of Boston, Baptist; Dr. John
Brown, of Bedford, England, Congregational; Dr. Oswald, of Chicago,
Evangelical Lutheran; the Rev. J. Lummenbell, D. D., of Lewisburg,
Pa., Christian; the Rev. David J. Burrill.D. D., of New York, Reformed
Church of America.

Dr. Hayden's paper on "Obstacles" named those indigenous to the
countries where the Gospel is preached, those indigenous to human
nature; unfamiliar languages; hostile foreign governments; but the
most damaging are those within the evangelizing force, indifference
and even hostility toward missions; sectarian differences among mis-
sionaries; and greatest of all, "defective faith, defective loyalty, defect-
ive apprehension of and sympathy with the divine plans and purposes."
He said: "I am, myself, much more deeply impressed with the
significance of the obstacles which are to be met within the evangel-
izing force — the church, herself, inclu.iive of her missionaries. The
morals of the army, its chivalric loyalty to the captain of salvation, its
enthusiasm, its grasp of the situation, its sympathy with the heart and
purpose of God as toward all men — these things are of utmost conse-
quence. Failing along these lines, the church hopelessly obstructs
her own way.

" It is certainly quite possible that we have done scant justice to
the messages of other faiths, and so have failed to utilize them as step-
ping-stones to the larger, freer, complete faith of our Christianity.
They are probably not wholly of the devil, and instruments of impos-
tors, as once we were too ready to believe, but they tell us how, in all
ages, men have been feeling after God, if haply they might find Him;
— thev broaden our conception of the meaning of the Master's word —
this is the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world; and
emphasize the witness of the Spirit that in every age and nation there
have been true "seekers after God." If this be true, its generous recog-

Missionary
Obsluclts.

11«4

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

IP
mm

The Breadth
of the Gospel.

nition will certainly work as well in modern as it did in apostolic
times. It is also quite possible that westerners, taking the Gospel to
orientals, have been too strenuous in insisting upon a western cast of
thought and church life for eastern peoples. If so, this is surely a hin-
drance.

" Is there any reason to suppose that an occidental people, even
after so long a time, has found out the onlv mode of expression which
the true life of the church may adopt? fs it not fairly presumable
that orientals may come at the faith of Christ and the sacred books,
themselves of oriental origin, in a somewhat different, and possibly,
even a better apprehensioti than an occidental mind? At any rate,
may not the informing spirit and word be wisely left to a larger liberty
than has ever yet been thought expedient in determining, not only the
inner life, but the outward expression of that life? And is it not more
than possible, is it not highly probable, that thus a freer course would
be given to the Gospel among many intelligent peoples, say, of Asia?
May not a tenacity for our own forms of worship, church polity and
creed statements be a serious obstacle put by the missionary himself,
or by the church that sends him, in the way of the progress of the
Gospel ?

" But chiefly and with emphasis, it is a lesson ever thrust before our
eyes, never fully learned, that, defective faith, defective loyalty,
defective apprehension of and sympathy with the divine plans and
purposes, are the only really great hindrances in the way of the
world's conquest — the greatest embarrassments to the leaders of the
Lord's hosts. It was so in Moses' time. The great kings of Judah;
the great prophets of Israel and Judah; the Christ, Himself, found
it so.

•' The glory of the Gospel is its breadth of purpose. The appeal
to a world-wide humanity commands our admiration. A kingdom all-
embracing, in which all kindreds, tongues and peoples have a place,
is an inspiring vision. The mission of Christianity to the race is as
grand as it can be. How it fires the heart and touches the face of
Isaiah, to sketch those glowing pictures whose colors fade not though
the centuries pass over them ; nor are they thrown into shadow by the
brightness of the Gospel day."

Gen. Cowen, after an able and elaborate argument said: " My
conclusion then is that the laws of a properly constituted govern-
ment will be simply responsive to the law of humanity; that their
warp and woof will conform to the basal laws of our mental and
moral constitution. Our only reliable protection from oppression is
in our right to look beyond the letter of the written law, to that
diviner work the law of our being. In proportion as we neglect to
invoke that protection when need is, we are traitors to our kind in our
blind submission to the powers that be, for

' Man is more than constitutions; better rot beneath the sod

Thin be true to church and state, while we are doubly false to God.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

nor)

"The responsibility of government as to human rights, then, is
declaratory and protective. It simply lets a man alone to work out
his own happiness in the protected development of his own capacity
and the guaranteed exercise of his own faculties, which I take it is
all that the most pronounced advocate of human rights can reasonably
demand.

"That our systems of government are yet incomplete should not
discourage effort. The retrospect is especially inspiring. Those sub-
lime heights whereby our great historical epochs are indicated- Sinai,
Thermopylae and Marathon, Bethlehem, Runnymede, Wittenberg,
Geneva, Oxford, Yorktown and Appomattox— stand as perpetual
memorials of the superiority of justice and moral power and holy
enthusiasm, over mere political intrigue and human ambition, as battle
winners.

" The recognition of the power of this moral sentiment, however,
fixes and emphasizes the personal responsibility of the citizen for the
denial, or limitation of human rights. It is the citizen alone who can
be punished for neglect of duty. The state cannot be reached. Under
the homely dialect of Hosea Bigelow, Professor Lowell hid this pro-
found truth:

' Gov'ment ain't to answer for it,
God'll send the bill to you.'

Individual effort and the influence of social and religious organ-
izations operating independently of civil duties, have lifted the world
into the light far more than have organized governments and written
laws. The higher law is the only law that binds the heart and con-
science, and by its reaction upon the national life governments live.

'How small, of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure.'"

Dr. Roberts, on the " Problems of our Scattered Population and
their Probable Solution," said: " The first great problem that confronts
the church and state at the present time is that of immigration. The
number of persons that land annually on our shores is beginning to
create uneasiness in the minds of our best men. It rose, in 1880, to
the enormous figure of eight hundred thousand souls, and fell only a
very little below that during the year ending with June of this year. p^j,u"'t'on
The annual accessions to our population from this source alone would ProWmB. '
make a city nearly as large as Brooklyn, or a state with a larger pop-
ulation than that of Nevada, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Delaware,
North and South Dakota, Vermont, Rhode Island, Washington, New
Hampshire, Florida, Colorado or Maine. If all the immigrants who
have landed on our shores during the last ten years were put in the
state of Pennsylvania, they would make within 11,401 as large a pop-
ulation as that of that commonwealth, which, according to the last
census, is 5,258,014.

"This tide of immigration has not only been increasing in volume
but growing worse in quality. If it were made up, as in former years,

lt((((

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REUUJONS.

of people from the Ikitish Isles, IlollancI, Germany, France and north-
ern Europe, the increase in number would probably excite no special
alarm. For multitudes of them spoke our language, professed the
Christian religion, admired our civil and social institutions, revered
our Bible and respected our Sabbath. They came to us in order to be
of us. Hut those who flock hither in these days are entirely differ-
ent in character and purpose. They are largelv Jews from Russia,
Italians from the Sicilies, Bohemians, many of whom arc of the baser
sort, Poles long taught to dislike every kind of regularly constituted
government, Hungarians looked upon as revolutionists, Armenians,
Greeks and Bulgarians who have had the best elements of their nature
stamped out by the iron heel of Turkey, British trade-unionists, French
socialists, Austrian nihilists, German anarchists and idol worshipers
from China, India and the islands of the sea.

*' Kven this is not the worst feature of the immigration problem.
' There are,' says a United States commissioner, ' from eighty to one
hundred discharged prisoners' aid societies, in Great Britain and I'-e-
land, to the care and custody of one of which every discharged pris-
oner is committed. When discharged, the government pays to the
society from £2 to £6, the money which the prisoner is supposed to
have earned during his confinement, and these sums are increased by
the society with which the prisoner on leave, if a felon, is gener-
ously assisted to the United States, if he can be persuaded to go; and
he is generally only too glad to go and leave behind him his trouble-
some record." An officer who had the best facilities for knowing,
made an estimate for me,' adds the same United States commissioner,
'of the number of all the felonious criminals imprisoned in Scotland
who were assisted to emigrate to the United States, and his estimate
was that one-half of them went to the United .States by the assistance
of the discharged prisoners' aid societies.' This is not confined to the
United Kingdom, but evidences of the same practice have been dis-
covered in Germany and other laiids. The United States consul at
Bremen writes: * Criminals and paupers have, to my knowledge, been
shipped to the United Sates by the benevolent societies whose leader
in one case has been a government officer.' Europe is making our
couiitry a dumping ground for her refuse.

"The jjolitical and religious views of multitudes of these immi-
EnemiBB of grants remain the same after (.hey come to us. A few quotations from
papers well known and extensively read by the different nationalities
named will suffice to show that we arc at this moment standing on a
threatening volcano. A blasphemous sheet entitled the Frciheit de-
clares that 'authority and state are all carved out of the same piece
of wood,' and relegates both to the tender mercies of the devil. The
same paper says: 'The revolutionist is the irreconcilable enemy of the
world, and, if he continues to live in it, it is only that he may thereby
more certainly destroy it. He knows only one science, namely, de-
struction. For this purpose he studies day and night. For him, every-
thing is moral which favors the triumph of the revolution; everything

Iho Hoiiublic.

The WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Il(i7

is immoral and criminal which hiiulois it. Day and ni^ht may he cher-
ish only one thought, only one purpose, namely, inexorable destruc-
tion. Whilst he pursues this purpose without rest, and in cold blood,
he must be ready to die, and equally ready to kill everyone with his
own hands who hinders him in the attainment of this purpose.' An-
other paper called Truth, published on our Pacific coast, says: 'VVhen
the laboring men understand that the heaven which they are promised
hereafter is but a mirage, they will knock at the door of the wealthy
robber with a musket in hand, and will demand, now, their share of
the goods of this life.' Another cries, ' War to the palace, peace to
the cottage, and death to lu,\urious idleness. We have no moment to
waste. Arm! I say, to the teeth! for the revolution is upon u.s.' The
pijiers in which these sentiments appear are read in thousands of our
German, Bohemian, Polish and Scandinavian homes. Is it strange,
then, that we should begin to see, already, some of the fruits of such
teachings in revolutionary speeches, lawless outbreaks and anarchical
rebellions in Chicago and elsewhere? Many of the men who seek to
destroy society and overturn our most cherished institutions, 'come to
us,' says Dr. Hulbcrt, ' having neither money enough to pay their
passage, nor learning enough to write their names, nor virtue enough
to prize their liberties, nor manhood enough to use their opportuni-
ties. These are the people who desecrate our Sabbaths, who corrupt
our elections, who misrule our cities, who foment our strikes, who ap-

f>eal to bludgeons, the torch, dynamite, social and political rcvo-
ution.'

"The solution of this problem must be the joint work of the church
and the state. The latter should restrict immigration to those only
who promise to become law-abiding, industrious and desirable citi-
zens; compel their children to ;ittend the public schools where they
may learn what the privileges and duties of American citizens are;
deny the elective franchise to all who have not a sufficient knowledge
of our language and political issues to cast an intelligent vote; and to
suppress with a strong arm all disloyal demonstrations as not only
absurd, but supremely wicked in a country governed by its own peo-
ple."

Dr. Roberts treated the evangelization of the Indians, Mormon-
ism, and the alarming growth of our cities. On the last topic, he said:
" For many years there has been a rush of people, both native and
foreign, to our great centers of population. This is a serious menace
of our best interests. The cities seem to possess a peculiar attraction
to our foreign fellow-citizens. 'Our fifty principal cities contain,'
according to Dr. Strong, '39.3 per cent, of our entire German popula-
tion, and 45.8 per cent, of the Irish. Our ten largest cities contain only
nine per cent of the entire population, but 23 per cent, of the foreign.
Whilst a little less than one-third of the people of the United States
arc foreign by birth or parentage, 62 per cent, of the citizens of Cincin-
nati are foreign, 69 per cent, of Cleveland, 70 per cent, of Boston, 88 per
cent, of New York, and 91 per cent, of Chicago."

'.'I'ntcrH
PoiHilutioii.

'^**^*"*»*...„v;,

1108

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Deterioration
(if Sciittered
Po|iulationB.

" The effect of this is the introduction into our centers of mental
activity and civilization of a large infusion of customs which arc
exotics on this soil, and destructive of our morals and simple habits;
the opening on the corner of nearly every street and alley of the bril-
liantly lighted liquor saloon, whose pauperizing power and demoraliz-
ing influence on the old and the young alike cannot be competed; the
planting in every ward of low theatres and gambling dens in which
characters are ruined and fortunes lost; the fitting up of garrets and
cellars where murderers and assassins may meet and forge their weap-
ons of burglary and death; thv? opening of halls in which treason is
hatched and incubated until it brings forth anarchy and treason; the
erection of club houses where the unprincipled politician makes up his
slate for nominating conventions, his plans for the distribution of
offices and his bargains for votes; the building of palaces in which is
crowded everything that dazzles the eye and tempts the appetite; and
the springing up of numberless dens of poverty and wretchedness.

If this is allowed to continue, we need no prophet to foretell some
of its blighting effects upon the fairest and the most highly favored
portions of our country. The withdrawal from the active business of
the farming community and of the country villages will make society less
attractive and property less valuable. Mortgages will multiply,
sheriffs' sales v. ill increase and everything that has a market value will
tumble. Business will go to the large places, to the detriment, if not to
the destruction, of the small towns and villages. This decrease in the
population of the country will tend in the near future to isolate those
that remain, so that they will deteriorate physically, morally and
religiously. We have an example of this "
North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee,
among them of such names as McDowell,

McManus it is believed that they were originally of Scotch and Scotch-
Irish origin. But, being widely scattered and living for many years
beyond the great currents of travel, they have sunk almost into bar-
barism. ' Their present conditiof. is acknowledged not to be due
to their antecedents, but to their isolation. "Like conditions,"
says Dr. Strong, "have produced like results in many other parts of
the world, and would prove as operative in Massachusetts and New
York as in eastern Tennessee and northern Alabama. Indeed," he
adds, "I know of a town in one of the older New England states where
such conditions have obtained for several generations and produced
precisely the same results — the same large families of twelve or fifteen
members, the same illiteracy, the same ignorance of the Christian
religion, the same vices, the same marriage and divorce without refer-
ence to the laws of God or man, which characterize the mountain
whites of the south." Shall this be allowed to become the general
condition of our rural districts?

I am unr.ble to name the persons or the bodies that are to solve
this problem. For no practical solution of it occurs to me at
the present time. I can only call the attention of my hearers to its
importance, that efforts may soon be made to find the true solution.

in the mountain whites of
From the large number
McClean, McCurdy and

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

11G9

THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON SUNDAY REST.

Among the latest of the V/orld's Fair Congresses was the Congress
on Sunday rest, held the last three days of September. International
it was.not only because representatives from foreign countries appeared
upon its list of officers and among its speakers, but also because it is
one of a series of congresses upon this subject which have been held
mostly in Europe, and which have been international in character.

The Congress was arranged for by a committee, of which the Rev,
W. W. Atterbury, D. D., secretary for many years of the New York
Sabbath Committee, was the chairman.

At the opening session the Hon. C. C. Bonney, president of the
World's Congress Auxiliary, made a brief address of welcome, in which
he declared that the Sunday Rest movement mace for the abolition of Sunday iieet.
a vast oppressive system of human slavery. The v/eekly rest is the vital
condition of true civil and religious liberty everywhere, and is necessary
to the fair distribution of the opportunities and fruits of labor among
the wage-earners. Mr. Bonney then introduced as officers of the con-
gress: Maj.-Gen. O. O. Howard, U. S. A., president; the Hon. James
R. DooHttle, ex-United States senator; Henry Wade Rogers, LL. D..
president of the Northwestern university; the Rt. Rev. Archbishop
Ireland, of St. Paul; Mrs. Charles Henrotin,of the Woman's Ikanch of
the Congress Auxiliary, and the Hon. John Charlton, M. P., Canada, as
vice-presidents of the congress, and the Rev. John P. Hale as its sec-
retary.

Genera! Howard, in taking the chair, expressed his early and con-
stant convictions of the value of a Sabbath day for each man and for
all men, and his sympathy with the movement to give the blessings of
a Sunday rest to all God's children.

After a prayer by the venerable Robert W. Patterson, D.D,,of Chi-
( ago, Dr. Atterbury, on behalf of the committee of arrangements,
briefly reviewed the history of the movement in Europe and this coun-
try. Communications were presented from Count Bernstorff, delegate
from Germany, who had unexpectedly been called home by the death
of his mother; from the Glasgov Workingmen's Lord's Day Rest As-
sociation; from the International Federation of Geneva, and from va-
rious associations for Sunday rest in England, the Netherlands and
America. M. Leon Say sent a personal letter, and introduced M. de
Velmorin, of Paris, as a delegate to the congress. He and Chevalier
Matteo Prochet, of Italy, made brief addresses, giving some accou it
of the movement for Sunday rest in their respective countries. Com-
munications were also read from Samuel Gompers, of the American
Federation of Labor; E. P. Sargent, of the Locomotive Firemen's
Brotherhood, and the officers of other labor organizations, expressing
cooperation and sympathy.

The argument for the universal observance of a weekly rest

day was approached upon the side of man's physical necessities. It is

e.sscntial to the maintenance of bodily and mental vigor. Dr. T. B.

Lyon, medical superintendent of the Bloomingdale asylum, N-^^nv York,

1170

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Physical
Need of a Rest
Day.

^■iMi ;

I !:' U

1^ !

llti

■'

pointed out in a sugfjcstive paper that medicine is now largely direct-
ing its efforts to promote healthy conditions by giving men power to
resist the attacks of the micro-organisms which have been generally
recognized as among the chief causes of disease. Since immunity from
germ disease is largely in proportion to the vigor of the individual, it
is of immense importance to secure favorable hygienic conditions,
among which periodic rest is most important. He quoted numerous
testimonies from recent medical authorities in Europe to show the dire
effects of uninterrupted labor in lowering the vitality and impairing the
power of resisting disease. He showed the direct bearing of these facts
upon the liability to mental disorders which have been greatly increas-
ing among us of late. Institutions for the insane all over the world are
filled with people to whom the stress of life has come with a weight
too much for their frail nature, beneath which they have broken. The
physician may not from his professional standpoint say what particular
day may be observed as a day of rest. He may only insist upon the
great necessity of periodic intermission of labor.

In the same general line was the address of Dr. N. S. Da v in. of
Chicago, former president of the International Medical Associui.ou.

A large and intelligent audience gathered at the session at which
the legal bearings of the problem were discussed. Judge Doolittle
presided, and he and President H. W. Rogers both spoke. The princi-
pal paper was by William Allen Butler, LL. D., of New York, who
discussed in an able and exhaustive manner our Sunday laws, their
grounds and limitation. He fairly met the objections which in various
directions have been brought against our American Sunday legislation.
While the root of the weekly rest as an institution is found not so much
in natural law as in moral obligation, its incorporation into the gen-
eral order of society is a result of civilization, aided by Christianity,
both combining to give to it;' support the consent of the community
and establishing it as an institution favorable, if not indispensable, to
the physical, moral and social needs of mankind. It is therefore alike
the province and duty of the government to maintain it for the public
use and enjoyment. Sunday laws are properly maintained as civil
regulations governing men as members of society Obedience to such
laws is properly claimed and enforced. The vital principle which gives
strength and stability to the world's day of rest, at once the pledge and
guaranty of its perpetuity and its beneficicnt power, is the faith of
humanity that it is a gift of God.

Papers were read by Major-General Howard and from ex-Post-
master-General Wanamaker, presenting the laws and regulations gov-
erning the public service, especially the army and the postoffice de-
partment, with reference to Sunday labor, and comparing the usages
of the British postoffice service.

The social and moral bearings of the subject were presented in
several papers and addresses, some oi them by women. M. Prunicr.
secretary of the P^rench Association for Sunday Observance, showc '
how the moral condition of the man of the family is elevated by the
right use of Sunday.

Rev. John P. Hale, D. D., Chicago.

i.'l

T ' 1 '
tl w

NeetiB of
WorkinK Wo-
men.

The Movf>-
ment in Fiunce

1172

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

The session in which most of the women s papers were rend was
presided over by Mrs. Henrotin. Alice L. Woodbridge, secretary of
the Working Women's Society, of New York, pleaded the cause of
women in factories, stores and domestic service. She urged that
thousands of these workers weredeprived of their Sunday rest, or were
so overworked during the week that they were unable to use Sunday
when it was given them for its highest uses. She dealt largely with
the question of child labor, and stated that in the United States alone
in i88o there were 1,118,356 children between the ages of ten and six-
teen, employed in mines, factories and stores. Three-fourths of the
yarn manufactured in this country is spun by children under sixteen,
while in the tobacco factories and sweating shops children as young
as six were o'^ten employed. These views were enforced by Mrs.
Florence Kelk "'" ois inspector of factories. There is great need
of a quick public iment that will protect working people again.st

unreasonable houi- i labor, as well as preserve their Sundays for
improvement and rest. Miss Jane Addams.of the Hull House, Chicago,
spoke of the necessity of weekly relief from it\cessant toil, and Mrs. J.
H. Knowles, of Newark, N. J., presented a beautiful picture of Sunday
in the home, and, the effect of such home training upon the public life
of our country.

The largest amount of time given to any branch of the subject
was devoted to the Economic and Industrial Relations of Sunday
Rest. George E. McNeill, the Boston labor advocate, made an earnest
plea for a workman's weekly rest, basing his argument both on econ-
omic and ethical considerations. Then followed a series of able re-
ports on the results of Sunday rest in various industries in this
country and Europe. Two of these were from Messrs. Gibon, of Paris,
and Haumgartner, of Rouen, giving results of experiments in Sunday
closing in some of the iron and glass furnaces and mines of France.
In most of these it was found to result in a distinct profit to the man-
ufacturer, insuring better work from men who had but six days of labor
a week.

M. Deluz, v-i the French International Federation, who has per-
haps had more to do with the progress of the cause on the continent
of Europe than any other living man, reported the striking results
which have been obtained in France, Germany, Austria and Switzer-
land, within a recent period for the relief of large classes of wage-
earners from the burden of uninterrupted toil, while as yet the work
seems only to have begun. Mr. Hill, who for many years has been
the secretary of the Workingmen's Sunday Rest Association, of Eng-
land, reported the features of the contest in Great Britain to maintain
the ground which has long been held against the influences which in-
sidiously are invading the weekly rest in that country. Thomas Weir,
who has large practical experience in the management of silver and
other mines in the west, reported some striking facts from certain
mines in the state of Washington. Similar testimony as to oil indus-
tries was presented by W. J. Young, vice-president of one of the largest
oil-producing companies in the country.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIC fONS.

1173

a carefully prepared paper, Mr. K. C. Heach, of the freight de-
partment of the Pennsylvania railway, who has long given special at-
tention to the subject, presented from the side of the railway man-
agers the recognized evils of Sunday labor, and at the same time the
difficulties in the way of further restricting it. The principal practical
difificulty in the way of restricting Sunday traffic he declared to be the
public demand for that traffic. He presented responses in answer to
a circular letter of inquiry, received from railways operating iiS.ooo
miles out of a total railway mileage of 196,000. These replies showed
a disposition on the part of the railway managers to restrict Sunday
traffic to the lowest i)racticable limit; but make an exception of live
stock and perishable freight, and certain mail and passenger express
trains.

In criticism of the positions taken in this paper, L. S. Coffin, for-
merly member of the .State Hoard of Railway Commissioners of Iowa,
and who appeared before the congress as the authorized representative
of various orders of railway employes with an aggregate of nearly one
hundred thousand members, presented the employes' side of the ques-
tion. He argued that it would be a gain to all classes in the community
if Sunday work were almost entirely suspended on the railways. There
was no real necessity for it. Hy the use of refrigerator cars the necessity
of Sunday trains for i)erishablc freight was obviated. In the instance
of live stock, it would be an actual gain for the shipper to take the
stock from the cars on a long run for a day's feeding and rest. It was
the profit to the roails, not the necessities of the case, that caused
Sunday traffic. There should be federal legislation to stop the trans-
portation of Sunday mails' and to restrict through traffic under the
provisions of the intor-state commerce regulations.

The religious side of the question was presented with great ability
and from various points of view. Cardinal Gibbons gave the view of
the Roman Catholic church in a broad and fair-minded paper. The
I.utheran view was presented in a paper by Professor Spaeth, of Phila-
delphia, and by Dr. L. M. Heilman, of Chicago. The common Evan-
gelical view was presented by Dr. Atterbury, and the Jewish side of the
question was set forth by Rabbi B. Felsenthal, of Chicago. He showed
that the Jewish Sabbath, both in ancient and modern times, was far
from being that narrow and burdensome institution which it was so
often regarded, that it had endowed that people with strength to with-
stand the almost unceasing and pitiless attempts to exterminate their
race and religion. It had blessed and dignified their family life. The
laws of our American states ought to protect every congregation
assembled on their Sabbath for divine worship, mi a church ora chapel,
or a .synagogue or mosque, or any other place, against being disturbed
in their worship; and they can and ought to guarantee to each person
in our land, even to the poorest, one day of perfect rest in each week
of seven consecutive days. All further legislation is unnecessary and
would be un-American.

In a discriminating paper Rev. W. R. Huntington, D. D.,of Grace

TlioKcligioas
8id«.

I !

1174

THE WORLD'S Cn\'GRESS OF RELIGIONS.

PorilR Mon-
acinij SuDiliiy
Rent.

church, New York, traced the perils which menace Suiulay rest. The
history of Sabbath associations in this country was presented by the
Uev. G. S. i\Iott, D. D., and a thou^ditful and sugf^estive paper from
Rev. W. J. A. Stewart, of Rochester, N. Y., set forth the relations of
.Sunday observance to the individual religious life. Brief and eloquent
addresses were also made by Drs. Arthur Little and Joseph Cook, of
Boston; E. P. Goodwin, P. S. Henson, and Y. M. Bristol, of Chicago,
and others.

The closing address was made by Archbishop Ireland. He
regarded the weakening of our reverence for the Sabbath as a princi-
pal cause of the freiiuent infringements upon its observance. Chris-
tians should remember that every weakening of Sunday tends to its
total obliteration. We are making our citizens pure money-making
machines. We arc too anxious to be rich, too willing to sacrifice to
that end every tradition, and to reduce men to the level of the beasts.

An immense mass meeting was held Sunday afternoon under the
auspices of the Chicago Clerks' Sunday Association, marshaled by
Mr. W. J. H. Niestadt, and was addressed by speakers of the Con-
gress and others. It was announced that a petition signed by eighty
thousand clerks and many store keepers, asking for a city ordinance
to forbid Sunday retail selling, would soon be .sent to the Chicago
Common Council.

It was not within the province of the Congress to pass resolutions
or inaugurate new movements. The permanent results of the meeting
will be secured by the circulation of the papers and addresses, which are
published by James H. Karle, of Boston, and by the closer sympathy
which this Congress fostered, between the various forces which are
seeking to secure the observance of Sunday as a day of rest and im-
provement. The Congress brought together Protestants and Cathol ics,
wage-earners and capitalists, reformers and conservatives, lawyers,
doctors and philanthropists, upon a common platform. It urged upon
the attention of the nation the importance of the movement to secure
a weekly day of rest for the world's toilers; and upon Christian men
of all names their common task in laying upon the minds and hearts
of all classes the duty so to use this day of privilege as will promote
the spiritual and intellectual, as well as the physical well-being of
society.

ChriBtian
Science.

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CONGRESS.

An audience of over four thou.sand people completely filled the
Hall of Washington on September 20th, and many others were unable
to gain admission. The Congress was conducted by the "National
Christian .Scientist Association," and was presided over by the presi-
dent, Dr. K.J. Foster Kddy. Delegates were present from all parts of
the country. President Bonney, who gave the address of welcome,
iaid that no more striking manifestation of Divine Proxidence in hu-

■ ■ •-! ■ . ■

j^iBBS^,

■

*. '■"

^^L ^ ~'*'*^ " ^ ^^^H

■

' ' ?■■

•■

Rev. Alfied Farlcw,' Kersas Cily, Mc.

1176

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

I)T. E. J. F.
Eddy's Addrest)

man affairs has come in recent years than that shown in the raising
up of the body of people known as the Christian Scientists who were
called to declare and emphasize the real harmony between religion
and science, and to restore the waning faith of many in the verities of
the sacred Scriptures.

Dr. E. J. Foster Eddy, president of the " National Christian
Scientist Association," delivered an opening address. He said: "The
ages have had their prophets who foresaw and foretold. The world
has had its revelators and discoverers, and by them the downtrodden
and oppressed have been bidden to rise and go forth from the tliraldoni
of evil into the liberty of the sons of God! Through these prophets
and discoverers the light of revelation has reached the dark places of
earth; ignorance has been forced to yield to intelligence, and the
physical, moral and spiritual status of mortals has been improved.
* * * Jesus proved His words by His deeds, and His life was a con-
stant demonstration of the principle He taught thereby, giving evi-
dence that He was the one sent of God to do His work among men, for
their example. His work was destructive of sin, sickness and
death.

" In America has sprung up the " Great Light," again conceived and
brought forth by woman, who has made it possible for all men to come
to it and be freed fiom sin, disease and death, the enslavement of per-
sonal material sense, and be renewed in the likeness of the Spirit, God.
This greater light is Scientifically Christian or Christian Science, a re-
ligion 'with signs following.* Wise ones are being guided to it and
when found it is seen to be of heavenly origin, begotten of the Father, His
voice of love to men. That it is of God is proven by the hundreds of
thousands of hopeless invalids who have been raised to health by its
saving principle, and by the rnany who have been lifted from the
misery of sin and its consequences into a knowledge of and obedience
to God.

"This is an epoch in the history and progress of Christian Science.
Our beloved cause and leader have been accorded a more deserving
place in history. Many misconceptions which have obscured the real
sense of science from the people are disappearing and its holy, hvnefi-
cent mission is being manifested to sick and stricken humanity.
People who are searching for the iruth are turning more genendlj- to
Christian Science because it reveals the natural law and power of God,
available to mortals here and now, as a saviour from sickness and sin.
As a denomination of Christians our growth has been rapid and wide-
spread and now presents in a large degree all the external aspects of
useful and successful operation."

A paper by Mrs. Eddy was read by Judge S. J. Hanna, editor of
the Christian Science Journal, and addresses were made by the Revs.
D. A. Easton, A. E. Stetson, J. F. Linscott, E. M. Buswell, I. M.
Stewart, and Mesdames R. B. Ewing, A. M. Knott and Messrs. E. P.
Bates, A. Farlow, Gen. E. N. Bates and Judge S J. Hanna.

The papers read are partially presented in the following synopses

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

1177

which to some extent set forth the religious beliefs of the Christian
Scientists and the nature of their work.

Christian Science was discovered and founded by Reverend
Mary Baker Eddy, who was born in the town of How, N. II. She
established the "First Church of Christ (Scientist)" in Hostoii, and the
MassachusettsMctaphysicalCollcgc.at which several thousand Students
were taught the principle of Christian Science mind healing. In her
work "Science and Health with Key to the Scrijjtures;" the sole text
book of Christian Science, the author says; "No analogy exists jjetwecn
the vague hypothesis of Agnosticism, Pantheism, Theosophy, Spirit-
ualism or Millenarianism, and the demonstrable Truths of Christian
Science." In this book, the author has also exjjlained the nature of
her discovery, including the Principle of Christian Science and the
rules for demonstration.

It is in the discernment of the real natureand infinity of Spirit, and
its absolute non-relationship to matter that the originality, truth and
efificacy of Christian Science consists, and it is this which confers upon
it the distinction of a great discovery. Not that Truth included in the
scientific statement is new, for its presentation is by way of discovery
not of creation; but because it is a new discernment and apprehension
in the human consciousness of things which are eternal, and this is the
greatest joy, wonderment and glory that can ever, by an>- possible
means, appear unto us, the revelation and true knowledge of God.

Nearly all men believe in God. They at least believe in a being
or power or force which they call God. But who or what Gotl is or
whether He is personal or impersonal, corporeal or incorporeal are
questions concerning which there is great diversity of opinion, and
little scientific or demonstrable understanding. The majority of re-
ligious people would say that God is personal without any definite
opinion as to what personality, as applied to infinite God, means.

The great need of the world today is, "to know Him whom to
know is life eternal," and this need is not met by the substitution of
human opinion, dogma and beliefs. Man knows nothing of himself
without this knowledge, for he is made in the image and likeness of
God. But eye hath not seen Him and material sense cannot give us e"*""'
any information concerning the character, attributes or substance of
the Infinite One. The material sense tells us nothing of natural sci-
ence, so-called, except the material phenomena. If we are confined
to these senses, we are as ignorant of true Science as we are of God.
We must learn of God, not through any material sense, but througii
spiritual sense, which alone is and must be our guide. Human intel-
lect and the philosophy of mortal man have exhausted themselves in
the vain and futile attempt to fathom the mysteries of the Infinite.
Christian Science, as the words imply, means the knowledge of Christ,
or the knowledge of what Jesus taught. This Science is as old and
changeless as God Himself, but interpreted as it is, by our text-book,
"Science and Health," we are led along by it, step by step, toward and
into the knowledge of Him " in whom we live and move and have our

MrR. Mary
Hiiker Kdd.v's

TllOQffllt.

Tho God of
ChriBtion Sci-

1178

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Th.. Origin
fif Life.

being." It gives us a new understanding and clearer view of the
Scriptures which wc receive as the Word of God and upon which all
Scientists rest.

The definitions of God as found in the Methodist Episcopal Article
of Faith, the Westminster Confession of Faith, and our text-book, "Sci-
ence and Health," page 556, incontrovertibly establishes God as All,
as "Infinite Principle, eternal Individuality, Supreme Personality, incor-
poreal Being, without body, parts or passions." Upon this common
definitional platform we arc content to stand, and to the contcmiila-
tion of this God we invite all nations, peoples, kindred and tongues.

The Scientific Statement of Being on page 452 of "Science and
Health," gives this primary postulate of Christian Science. There is no
life, substance or intelligence in matter. All is Mind. If it be a fact
that all is Mind it precludes the possibility of the existence of matter
as an integral part of the universe. All agree that Mind is Intelligence.
There can be no intelligence apart from Mind. Mind or Intelligence
must be Life. Non-intelligent Life is an impossibility.

It is admitted that matter is not intelligent; but while this is
admitted, it is maintained that it is substance and contains life. It is
not generally maintained that it is Life. The attempted distinction is
that it contains life. If it were true that it contained life, but was not
itself life, it would follow as a necessary logical conclusion that the non-
intelligent can contain the intelligent. Is this possible? If only that
which is intelligent, or intelligence is Life, it follows by equally inevit-
able logic that the non-intelligent is Lifeless. If matter contains Life
it must be true that matter is the base of Life. If mankind is the off-
spring of matter — matter being non-intelligent- -inert matter must be
the parent of mankind. Like can only produce like. Then only Life
can produce Life. Hence, if matter is the base of Life, matter must
be Life. Is there any escape from this conclusion?

If material atoms are intelligent and are the base of life, then
matter must be the creator of all forms of life, and thus matter would
be God. Can we imagine a grosser pantheism than this? Were this
true, mortal man would be the only man, and man would be the child
of dead matter rather than the child of the living God.

As Christian Scientists we look for the origin of Life in the living
God, rather than in dead matter. We accept the Scriptural definition
of His character and refer all Life to Him. The Bible distinctly
declares Him to be Spirit. If He is Spirit He cannot be matter, either
in whole or in part. It declares Him to be Love. If He is Love He
must be Mind. Mindless Love is not conceivable. Nor can Love be
lifeless matter. It declares Him to be Truth. Can there be Mindless
Truth; or, can matter be defined as Truth? It declares Him to be all
and in all; that He fills all space; that He is infinite, eternal, everlast-
ing. If He is these and is Spirit, where in infinity shall be found that
which is opposite to or apart from Him?

All revelation teaches that God is Spirit, not cognizable to material
sense. Is matter, therefore, like unto Him? Spirit is eternal. Can,

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

1175)

therefore, anything that is material and finite emanate from or return
to eternal Spirit?

ChristianScicncescparatesclearly, distinctly and entirely between
Spi.it and matter, Divine Mind and carnal mind, Truth and all evil.
This new statement ot Truth comes not to destroy, but to fulfill every
jot and little of the law, and to fill full of significance and power all
the "glad tidings" of "theglorious Gospel of jesus Christ" inbo.ththc
letter and the spirit. It d'spcls mystery by removing ignorance and
misconception regarding that which was always true, but not rightly
apprehended in human consciousness. If there is perfect and uv.-
changeable Truth, that must be the Infinite wisdom, the Deific con-
sciousness. Then what Deity knows must be exact, demonstrable
Truth, Divine Science, or true knowledge of God, and nothing contrary
thereto can be true.

When men fully comprehend this it will be seen that the universal
God can only be worshiped through one universal religion, or common
understanding of Him and Mis laws.

Christian Science is a universal religion, with a universal Principle a Uuivoraal
and capable of a universal i)ractice. Its origin is God, Infinite Mind. "''''B'"!!.
Infinite Mind is expressed in the Christ. The Christ was never born,
but was manifest through the human Jesus. Jesus is the i^attern for a
true humanhood. lie was, as Christ Jesus, a manifestation of (iod.
He knew that Mind was God. This makes 1 lis teaching a study of the
Mind that was in Christ Jesus. Jesus did the will of omniscient God,
and said, "I and my Father are One." The Mind which created and
governed Jesus was the Divine Mind. The Apostle writes, "Let that
mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." Mortals have a very
degraded sense of Mind. The medley of opinions and erroneous and
sinful thoughts which encumber human consciousness are neither Mind
nor evidence thereof. It is simply a falsity; it is foolishness with God;
it is evil, and cannot, by any process now or hereafter, be transformed
into Truth. Error must be cast out and utterly destroyed before indi-
vidual consciousness shall be in the likeness of God.

Jesus' message was from God, and Mis message was His theology.
This theology is Divine Science, and antidotes all human theologies.
All that mortals will ever know of Truth they will know as Jesus knew
it, by demonstration, revelation or reflection from the infinite Mind.
The study of His teachings is a Science. Our great Master said, "If
any man shall do His will he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be
of God, or whether I speak of Myself." .Scientific Theology is not from
the human Jesus, but from God. It can all be Staled in one sermon,
but takes eternity in which to completely demonstrate it. The state-
ments of its letter are of the human intellect, but when reason and
affection arc moved by divine love the message is from God, and the
messenger is sent from God. His theology as set forth in "Science and
Health with Key to the Scriptures" is being practiced by more than
one hundred thousand of His loving disciples today.

There is this one possibility for mankind through the practice of

1180

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS,

! > ''

How <o Stu-
dy Man.

the scientific tlieolo<;y of Jesus as taught and practiced by the
students of tlie Scriptures and "Science and Health." It crowns
every man vith the love of the Messiah, makes him a theocrat, a (jod-
ctowned citizen. It is a practical Christianity. We recogni/e all that
is true, honest and pure in all the world's relig.ons, yet all suggest
this most excellent way of demonstrating God's power among men.
lietter the understanding to heal the slightest malady strictly on the
basis of (jod as the Principle of Science, than all the material Knowl-
edge of the world.

There is one study of universal interest, and that is man. How is
he to be studied? Kxperience replies, from the testimony given by
the five senses; and yet such knowledge is at best only relative, and
can never reveal the absolute facts of being. We are told in the Bible
that, " man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble,
lie Cometh forth like a flower and is cut down; he fleeth also as
a shadow, and continueth not." This relates only to the physical.
When we come to the moral, the idea of freedom is thought and de-
clared to be impossible of realization. This mortal man is by his own
confession a prisoner in a house of clay, struggling to realize some-
thing, he knows not what; the seemingly helpless victim of sickness,
sin and sometimes unmerited misfortune.

And is this man? Nature as we know her has no answer; hums
reason says I know no other; but above the discords of the sen'
Divine Science lifts up its voice as the sound of many wat
and in the name of Almighiy God declares that this is not man; anu
revelation coincides with this declaration and affirms that man is the
image and likeness of God.

The ideal brotherhood of man is that state in which the individual
loves and serves God supremely, and loves all mankind with a perfect
love. This is the only state that can bring peace, and to reach it each
one must do an individual work. Left to their own resources, mortals
are in constant strife, socially, politically and religiously. Each
individual has an opinion as to what is needed to afford harmony and
satisfaction, but because of conflicting minds many, and the great
variety of abnormal, carnal tastes, there is little agreement.

The Divine Mind can and does supply all things. A knowledge
of this fact changes our desires and affections. If we learn to avail
ourselves of God's supply, there will be plenty for all, and no occasion
for disappointment, contention or want. There will be no occasion for
strife as to who shall be greatest; for we may all be great, even
the perfect likeness of a perfect parent. There will be no strife as to
who will have the greatest possessions for we will all receive in
perfect fullness from God Himself. There will be no conflicting
opinions for all will see alike. The very moment mortals touch in
unison upon the right, there is an agreement, harmony prevails and
discord ceases. We must each be in harmony with Truth itself, then
we will be in harmony with each other.

A material government with sufficient variety of provisions to

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

1181

meet the demands of a world of iiulividii.ds witli various abnormal
ilesircs, is an absolute impossibility. Such a {government would neces-
sitate myriads of conflicting laws, and would be utterly impractical.
It is more practical that each individual be conformed to the stamlard
of rifjht, than that we devise a government that is adai)table to
mortals in all their various conditions.

The Rev. Mary Haker Kddy has given, in her book "Science and
Health with Key to the Scriptures," an ample explanation of the cause
of disease and the method of scientific healing. Jesus' followers
eighteen hundred years ago demonstrated that the principle Ik- taught
was scientific and therefore practicable. The healing of the sick by
Jesus, according to the infinite will and purpose of God, was neither
supernatural nor miraculous. Nothing that is done in obedience to
God can be unnatural.

Christian Science is the revelation of the Science of the Christ
mission, and shows that this mission is a complete, perfect illustration
of the only way in which mortals can overcome the world and the
evils of every kind that are unlike God, and therefore contrary to God,
and that separate man in belief from llim.

It shows that the healing of the sick is a natural phenomenon of
"Scientific Christianity" or the undt 'standing of Jesus' teachings.
This declaration is confirmed by the fact that, as his followers perceive
and understand the real significance of His work, they are able to man-
ifest that knowledge by healing disease. The healing of the sick in
compliance with the teachings and command of Jesus was the natural
phenomenon of primitive Christianity. It was never regarded by
Jesus or His followers as being miraculous or spectacular or as the
local intermittent action of God's will for the limited benefit of a few
people or for a brief period of time. Jesus said: "Preach the
Gospel" and "Heal the sick," and He promised that, "These signs
shall follow them that believe; they shall take up serpents; and if they
drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands
on the sick and they shall recover." Christian Scientists understand
and are demonstrating that this command and promise arc for all time
and all mankind.

Christian Science healing is wholly unlike what is called "Faith
Cure" or "Prayer Cure." It is not the operation of a supposed fluctu-
ating capricious interposition of God, but in accord with His infinite ins'
law. Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I am," referring clearly to the
universal and infinite nature of the Christ Mind that preaches the Gos-
pel, heals the sick, raises the dead and casts out evils.

Jesus came to do the will of the Father and destroy the works of
the devil. He destroyed fear, sorrow and suffering. Even death was
met and overcome by Him. He expres.sed God's will in healing the
sick and reforming the sinner.

If we will study the Gospels with special reference to this sub-
ject, it will be found that the "healing of multitudes" was a continuous
work with Him. He said, "I am the way!" and "Follow thou Me!"

Rov, Miiry U.
E(l<Jy.

ChriHtiiU'
Science Hciil-

1182

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

\y'\

The Resnr.
rection.

and when humanity awakens to the great Truth that has been revealed
to this age, it will know that this mandate was not outside of the imi-
versal, divine order. If it was ever good to heal the sick as Jesus and
the early Christians did, through the power of an impartial God, it is
good now, for God is infinite. If the way of salvation includes the
healing of the sick, may we not lose the way and limit the possibili-
ties of salvation by assuming that we cannot follow in this way or that
obedience to this explicit command is sacrilegious?

The reasons for accepting the Christian Science statement of the
resurrection of Jesus are: First, because in common with the greater
part of Christendom it teaches that the historical record of the resur-
rection is trustworthy. There are those who call themselves Christians,
who say that the resurrection story is a myth. But they think, also, that
all the miracles are myths, and reject all the supernatural element in
the Bible. Christian Science has nothing in common with this line of
thought.

"Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," written by Rev.
Mary B. G. Eddy, the discoverer, founder and leader of Christian
Science, which, with the Bible is the sole text-book, teaches unequivo-
cally the historical accuracy of the resurrection.

Secondly, Christian Science teaches explicitly that all of the
experiences of Jesus fron. the time He was placed in the tomb to the
time that he emerged from it, occurred on this plane of thought, and
that the body with which He came forth from the tomb was identically
the same body that was put in the tomb.

Thirdly, Christian Science teaches that Jesus' resurrection differed
only in degree, not in kind, from Jesus' other miracles. They were
all designed to prove that Spirit is All-powerful and matter power-
less.

F"ourthly, the resurrection and all the other so-called miracles
are divinely natural rather than supernatural. When Jesus came forth
from the tomb it was not because He had supernatural assistance. He
was only asserting a great fact of man's being, viz., that man cannot
die. He was demonstrating His birthright as a Son of God. He
proved that the law of man's nature was Life, and that death was a
false claimant. Those who maintain that the resurrection and Jesus'
other demonstrations over matter were exceptional assertions of God's
power, and tha*: they interfered with the natural order of things, are
forced to admit, that sin, disease and death are natural and that Life,
Truth and Love are abnormal. Admitting the reality of evil, they
have to admit that there is another power than God, viz., a god of evil,
who at present at least shares God's throne. They also have to account
for the origin of evil, and how can that be done without impugning
the benevolence of God? This line of thought leads also to the asser-
tion that man is not entirely a child of God, that he is in part a child
of the devil. These admissions are paralyzing to spiritual growth, and
lead us away from the simplicity of Jesus' Gospel into a never ending
maze of human speculation.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

1183

Fifthly, we can have part in Jesus' resurrection now and here, by
obedience to the law of Spirit and denial of the seeming law of matter.
According to "Science and Health," the central thought and efificiency
of the resurrection was not the mere rising of a physical body from a
material grave. The Bible records other instances of physical resur-
rection; but as factors in the Christian life, they are not to be compared
with the resurrection of Jesus, And even as to the physical resurrec-
tion of Jesus, it may be said, that a zealous belief in it may be consistent
with an un-Christian life. It is evident then, that if we would know the
secret of the transforming power of the doctrine of Jesus' resurrection,
we must look elsewhere than at its physical and material aspects.
This doctrine was very prominent in the Apostles' preaching. They
seemed to realize that to this they owed in a large measure the spirit-
ualization of their thought, their control over the lusts of the flesh and
worldly ambitions, their solid assurance of the great facts of Life, Truth,
and Love, and deliverance from the beliefs of sin, disease and death.
The ultimate and ideal of Christian Science is to overcome death in
the same way that Jesus did, and when we follow His life perfectly we
shall do it. We do not claim that Christian Scientists have at present
sufficient spiritual realization to demonstrate over the claim of death
as Jesus did, but we do claim that we are using Jesus' method success-
fully in destroying the claims of disease and sin; and in all reverence
we maintain that that same method faithfully adhered to will enable
us, at some time, to demonstrate over the claim of death as Jesus did.
He said that His followers could do all the works that He did and
greater, and we rest confidently on this promise.'

Christian Science is presented before the world today, the happy
suppliant for recognition of its claim to be what its name implies, both
Christian and Scientific; it voices an imperative demand that these two
be made one henceforth in faith and practice, for otherwise there is
no satisfactory proof, no final evidence of the validity of the claims of
either. In no other way than through actual demonstration of Truth
can mortals learn whether they are obeying God, or their opinions
about Him. Faith not buttressed by demonstration is always in danger
of changing to skepticism. It is always possible to change one belief
for another, the belief in immortality for the belief in annihilation;
but a demonstrated knowledge of God is ph' nted on a rock and cannot
be moved.

The message of Christian Science I the world is, that in propor-
tion as it is understood and demonstrated, the mysteries of religious
theories and conjecture will be effaced; man's true relation to God
will be revealed; sickness and sin will be extinct; "'man's inhumanity
to man" will disappear and he will "awake in the likeness of God
(good) and be satisfied."

The Rennr-
roctioD of

Jesna.

Rev. L. P. Mercer, Chicago.

THE WORLD S COXGKESS i^I- REI.IGIOXS.

1 1 sr)

TMKXKW IKRrSAl.I.M CllLKCH CONC-.RKSS.

This conirrcss was of deep interest to tlie disciples of Sweden-
borg. It was well attended dnrins^r the five days of its sessions. The
procccdins^s were participated in by the Revs. James Reed. Massachu-
•setts; Thomas A. Kin<:j, Illinois; John Presland, London, Fnt;land;
Frank Sewell, W cishini,'ton; L. H. Tafel.Ohio; G. N. .Smith, Michigan;
John Goddard, Ohio; S. S. Seward, New York; C. J. N. Manby, Sweden,
James .Speis, Knj^land; T. F. Wriyht, I'h. I)., Massachusetts; Thomas
Child, Fn<i;land; C. L. AUbut, Canada; A. F. Frost, IMichij^an; W. II.
Hinkley, Massachusetts; I''edor Gorwitz, Switzerland; Adolph Roedcr;
New Jersey; John Worcester, Massachusetts; J. J. Thornton, Canada;
J. C. Ager," New York; S. C. ICby, Illinois; P. B.'Cabell, Delaware; C.
H. Mann, New York; J. K. Smyth, Massachusetts, and other members
of the denomination. The Rev. Dr. L. P. Mercer, who pvisi led, de-
clared that he believed that Christ had accomplished Mis second ad-
vent in opening the spiritual sense and divine meaning of the written
Word, through ICmanuel Swedenborg, and that the New Church stands
for a new revelation from the Lord, "The New Church," he said, " is
as wide as human need, and as universal and impartial as divine
love."

Miss A. PI Scammcn welcomed the women ol th.e church.
Papers were prestiited as follows: "One Lord. One Church, with
its Successive Ages," the Rev. P'rank .Sewall, Washington, 1). C; "The
Church Hefore Christianity," the Rev. G. N. Smith, Michigan; "The
Church of the P'irst Advent," the Rev. J. Reed, of Massachusetts;
"The Church of the Second Advent," the Rev. L. II. Tafel; "The
Catholic Spirit of the New Church," the Rev. Thorias A. King, Chi-
cago. "The Doctrine of the Lord" was treated by the Rev. John (iod-
ilaVd, Ohio; "Redemi)tion," the .. J. I'resland, P'ngland, "Salvation,"
the Rev. S. S. Seward, New Yoiw; "The Futme Life," the Re\ H C.
Dunham, Kansas; the ".Science of Cnrrespondences," the Rt John
Worcester, .Massachusetts; "The Opened W.rd in Relation to the Gen-
tile Nations," the Rev. .\. Roecler, New Jersex and othei lojiics

CONGRESS OF RF.I.IOK^rs rXITV

The friends of uni\ersal religious unity held an inleresting session.
Among those present were Llizabeth Boynttm Ilarbert. ot !''.vanston,
111., L\'dia II. Talbot, Mrs. MarylMsk, of Denver, Nama Si; Chari, of
India, Swanii \'i\ekanaiida anil the Rev. C. P-. IIuHh' .)l Detroit.
The creed adopted was: "Recognizing the unity of interest in the
hum;in family, we welcome the light from every source and earnestly
desire to con'stantl\- grow in the knowUilge of truth and the spirit of
love, and to manifest the same in lulijful service."

mimmm

118G

T//E IVORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

RoligioQB
liiberty.

EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE 'CONGRESS.

Little more tiian a programme can be given of the proceedings of
this organization which occupied the Hall of Columbus from October
8th to the 15th, including two Sundays, with three sessions daily,
attended by large congregations. Freedom, union, cooperation and
conversion were the keynotes.

Addresses on Religious Liberty were made by Bishop Charles H.
Fowler, D. D., James H. King, D. D., and Hon. J.L. M. Curry, LL. D.;
On The Condition of Protestant Christendom, by the Rev. H. B.
Macartney, the Rev. George Monro Grant, D. D., Prof. Jean C. Bracq,
Count Andreas Von Bern, Lord Kinnaird, the Rev. Comm. Prochet,
D. D., Col. R. Roosmalc Nepocn, the Rev. M. Falk Gjertsen and
Prof. Edouard Naville; On Christian Union and Cooperation, by
President W. De W. Hvde, D. D., the Revs. Arthur T. Pierson, D. D.,
A. Cleveland Coxe, D' D., LL. D., James McCosh, D. D.. LL. D.,
Philip Schaff, D D.. LL. D., Josiah Strong, D. D., and Mr. A. J. Arnold,
secretary of the British Alliance; On Church and Sociological Ques-
tions, the Revs. John C. Flaville, Kerr B. Tupper, D. D., Russell H.
Conwell, D. D., Prof. C. R. Henderson, D. D., W. S. Rainsford, D. D.,
Mrs. Lucy Ryder Meyer, Miss Grace H. Dodge, Mr. James L.
Houghteling, Miss Jane Addams, the Rev. VVillard Parsons, and Mr.
Alfred T. White.

President Hyde said: "A city Is better off for variety in its
churches when it can afford it, but the attempt to get up variety
of this kind in a country town is ruinous. Have we any right to spend
money providing country towns with these ecclesiastical lu.xuries
because these towns cannot support them themselves? Yet that is
what we have been doing for years, and in consequence we find every-
where in these communities empty churches, half-paid ministers,
divided forces, wasted strength and scattered resources. Statistics
show us many things in this connection. There are eighteen towns in
Maine, with an average population of 244, and yet these eighteen
towns have f(^rty-nine churches. A town of 407 has three churches,
and another of 143 has two churches. It is the same in many other
parts of the country. In view of these facts Christian cooperation in
church extension is a duty from evei y point of life. We owe it first
to the contributors who support home missions; second, to our devoted
missionaries; third, to the people we seek to evangelize; fourth, to
Christ and the truth of Christianity."

Dr. Williams admitted that " the Baptists have not made the
contribution to church unity that they ought to have made. The
Have Not''p?5! trouble was that they had forgotten the due co-ordination of the truths
moted Unity, f^j. which they believe themselves to stand. They had emphasized
too much the lines of denominational demarkation, such as the close-
communion principle and baptism by immersion, rather than the general
principles of Christianity. There should be grem or and more earnest
cooperation among the denominations. Let every man pursue the
truth as God gives him to see the truth, but let liim never forget that
the very first thing he has to do is to make mon. Christians."

ThP Baptists

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

1187

Rev. Dr. Clark observed: " Congregationalists arc more than
willing; they are ready and eager to coopc itc with Christians of
every name in church extension or, if need be, in church extinction.
Show us anywhere in the wide field that a Congregational church has
unjustly crowded upon its neighbors, and whatever can be done to
withdraw it will be done. Prove to us in fair and mutual conference
that our presence in any community is a cause of weakness or division,
and that our retirement will strengthen the interests that remain, and
we will esteem it our first duty to retire."

The work of the Alliance was divided into departments, thus,
Evangelistic, Reformatory, Educational, Social and Miscellaneous, and
each department was subdivided and each topic assigned. Thus — A
. Working Church, Dr. Kerr B. Tupper: Evening Congregation, the
• Rev. John C. Flaville, etc. The programme was broad, comprehensive,
practical and full of the Christian spirit and purpose. It was one of
the notable gatherings of the century.

YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION CONGRESS.

This congress was held October 7th, presided over by Mrs. J. V.
Farwell, Jr. Lord Kinnaird, as president of the British Young Women's
Christian Association, spoke at length of the allied branches of the
British association.

Mrs. Joseph Cook was unable to remain in Chicago to present her
paper on " Young Women as Agents in the Evangelization of the
World," and it was read by Prof. Louise M. Hodgkins, of Wellesley
College.

Mr. J. H. Elliott gave a most straightforward and convincing
address. His topic was, "The Opportunities for Work for Young
Women in Our Great Cities." Mr. R. C. Morse, General Secretary of
the International Young Men's Christian Association, and Mr. Robert
Weidinsall, their first traveling secretary, both gave -Tiost hearty in-
dorsements of this parallel work for young women. Mi. Gaylord,
recently secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association in Paris,
spoke of the deep necessity for a similar and aggressive movement for
the young women of France. Miss R. F. Morse and Miss Efifie K.
Price spoke during the different sessions of the actual work accom-
plished by the associations, and among other things gave the following
information of the birth and work of the Young Women's Christian
Association:

The Secretary states that "The Young Women's Christian Associa-
tion points to the year 1872 as the date of its birth, and to a prayer-
meeting in a little college in the state of Illinois as its birthplace.
Out of this prayer meeting there grew the first Young Women's Chris-
tian Association. Other colleges heard of this organization. Other
associations came into existence and, naturally enough, there came to

Yonns[Wo-
men in Cities.

Yoang Wo-
men's Christ-
ian Association

11S8

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Object of the
Associatiou.

be a desire for an intercollegiate bond. A little later there came to
be, too, a desire for an interstate bond, and out of this cjrew what is
now known as the International Committee of Younjj Women's Chris-
tian Associations, a body composed of thirty-three women, having its
headquarters in Chicaj^o and with the majority of its members resi-
dents of Chicago. It is the province of this committee to study the
work of Young Women's Christian Associations throughout the
United .States and the Dominion of Canada; to plan for the organiza-
tion of new associations, and to watch and direct the growth of asso-
ciations already organized. It is its duty to study the philosophy of
the work as a whole; to guard its ideals; to preserve, in short, in all its
work, a distinct unity of plan, of purpose, of aim. This it does by the
dissemination of association literature upon different phases of assq-
ciation work, by the publication of a monthly organ called the
Evangel, by conventions, by secretarial visitation and by summer con-
ferences, lirief as has been the existence of the international com-
mittee, its work has grown so rapidly and .so powerfully that it covers
in its territory of affiliation fifty-four associations in cities and two
hundred and fifty-eight associations in colleges, the city associations
having a membership of ten thousand young women and the college
associations having a membership of ten thousand.

The constitution of the Young Women's Christian Association
says that the object of this organization is to develop yoimg women
along four lines — the physical, the social, the intellectual and the
spiritual. In a city association the development of young women
physically means that the association shall have a gymnasium, with
every equipment of gymnasium work; that it shall have also a physical
director who shall be a master of the science which she teaches ^nd who
shall be more than this, an earnest, magnetic, consecrated Christian
woman. The development socially means in a city association that
there shall be provided a pure, uplifting, wholesome, and, at the same
time, thoroughly happy social life. This means, then, that the asso-
ciation shall have a delightful parlor; that it shall have a beautiful
reading room; that it shall have a commodious and cheery lunch roon\
and that there shall be provided from time to time delightful enter-
tainments of a social as well as intellectual character. The develop-
ment intellectually means that there shall be in the city association
educational classes comprising in their curricula not only the simplest
branches, l)ut, if there be need or rct[ucst for them, the most abstract
and difficult ones. It means that there shall be provided instruction
in millinery, in ihcssmaking, in cooking, in stenography and in type-
writing, classes in Mnglish grammar and arithmetic, others in French
and (icrman, university extension courses of lectures, indeed, ever)-
opportvmity for young women to secure for themselves knowledge
which shall open to them not only new avenues of usefulness, but, too,
new avenues of eiijos-mcnt and culture.

The improvement of the spiritual condition of young women is
named in the constitution as the fourth department of our work, Al-

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

1189

training

though there arc classes in inductive Bible study, Bible „

classes and Gospel meetings for young women, yet if the association
fulfills entirely its purpose it must reach young women through every
department of its work to bring them ultimately to the knowledge of
Jesus Christ.

EVOLUTIONIST CONGRESS.

On September 28th and 29th, tlie Evolutionists commanded great
interest. Theopening address, "The Progressof Evolutionary Thought,"
was by Benjamin F. Underwood, of Illinois, and other papers were read,
as follows: " FuturcCivilization," by Dr. James A. Skilton; " Beastliness
of Civilization; Evolution the Only Remedy," by Gail Hamilton; "A
Sketch of the Astronomer, Richard A. Proctor," by his daughter, Mary
Proctor; "The Marvel of Heredity and its Meaning," by Rev. John C.
Kimball, of Hartford, Conn.; "The Relativity of Knowledge; Spen-
cer's Unknowable," by Benjamin V. Underwood. " The P^volution of
the Modern Family," by Mrs. Florence G. Buckstaff, of Wisconsin;
"Evolution as Applied to Disease in the Progress of Social Develop-
ment," by Bayard Holmes, M. D., of Illinois. " Relations of the
Feelings," by Dr. Herman Gasser; "Constructive Forms of Intuition,"
by Dr. John E. Purdon, of Dublin, Ireland; "Psychology in its Re-
lation to Ethics," by Harvey C. Alvord, of South Dakota; "Con-
structive Power of Plvolution," by Franklin H. Head; "The Evo-
lution of the Muscular Fiber." by Dr. Martin L. Holbrook; "The
Weissman s Theory Reviewed," by Edwin Montgomery.

Gail Hamilton said: "Evolution agrees exactly with Augustine oaii Hamil.
and Jonathan Edwards as to the wickedness of the world. The differ- ton's ideas,
ence simply is that the Edwards men come down from a saintly plane,
and the evolutionists go up from a beastly plane to explain it. But in
the beastliness of civilization, using the word beastliness definitely and
not descriptively, lies our hope of the future. Science is the true
interpreter of salvation. Modern science has reduced the Augus-
tine imagination to an absurdity; has expressed the sweet juices of
truth from the Hebrew drama, and has organized the Greek imagina-
tion into a demonstrable probability. Evolution is not proved, may
never be proved, but it tits the facts as no other theory has ever done,
and is infinite in encouragement for the human race."

Great interest was created by the reading of a paper sent by
Herbert Spencer, on " Social involution and Social Duty," Mr. Spencer
says: "At a congress which has for its chief purpose to advance
ethics and politics by diffusing evolutionary ideas, it seems especially
needful to dissipate a current misconception respecting the relation in
which we stand individually toward the process of social evolution.
Errors of a certain class may be grouped as errors of the uncultured,
but there are errors of another class which characterize the cultured,
implying, as they do, a large amount of knowledge with a good deal

1190

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

Herbert
Spencer's
Thoaghto.

of thought, but yet, with thought not commensurate with the knowl-
edge. The errors I refer to are of this class:

"The conception of evolution at large, as it exists in those who are
aware that evolution includes much more than ' natural selection,' in-
volves the belief that from beginning to end it goes on irresistibly and
unconsciously. The concentration of nebulae into stars and the forma-
tion of solar systems are desermined entirely by certain properties of
the matter previously diffused. Planets which were once gaseous, then
liquid, and finally covered by their crusts, gradually undergo geological
transformations in virtue of mechanical and chemical processes.

" Similarly, too, when we pass to organic bodies — plant and
animal. Enabled to develop individually, as they are, by environing
forces, and enabled to develop as species by processes which continue to
adapt and readapt them to their changing environments, they are made
to fit themselves to their respective lives, and, along certain lines, to
reach higher lives, purely by the involved play of forces of which they
are unconscious. The conception of evolution at large, thus far cor-
rect, is by some extended to that highest form of evolution exhibited
in societies. It is supposed that societies, too, passively evolve apart
from any conscious agency; and the inference is that, according to the
evolutionary doctrine, it is needless for individuals to have any care
about progress, since progress will take care of itself. Hence the as-
sertion that ' evolution erected into the paramount law of man's moral
and social life becomes a paralyzing and immoral fatalism.'

" Here comes the error. Everyone may see that throughout the
lower forms of evolution the process goes on only because the various
units concerned — molecules of matter in some cases, and members of
a species in another — respectively manifest their natures. It would be
absurd to expect that inorganic evolution would continue if molecules
ceased to attract or combine, and it would be absurd to suppose that
organic evolution would continue if the instincts and appetites of indi-
viduals of each species were wholly or even partially suspended.

" No less absurd is it to expect that social evolution will go on apart
from the normal activeties, bodily and mental, of the component indi-
viduals, apart from their desire and sentiments, and those actions
which they prompt. It is true that much social evolution is achieved
without any intention on the part of citizens to achieve it, and even
without the consciousness that they are achieving it. The entire in-
dustrial organization, in all its marvelous complexity, has arisen from
the pursuit by each person of his own interests, subject to certain re-
straints imposed by the incorporated society; and by this same spon-
taneous action have arisen also the multitudinous appliances of
industry, science, and art, from the flint knives up to automatic print-
ing machines; from sledges up to locomotives — a fact which might
teach politicians that there are at work far more potent social agencies
than those which they control.

" But now observe that just as these astonishing results of social
evolution, under one of its aspects, could never have arisen if men's

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

1101

egoistic activities had been absent, so in the absence of their altruistic
activities there could never have arisen and cannot further arise certain
higher results of social evolution. Just as the egoistic feelings are the
ne.edful factors in the one case, so the altruistic feelings are the need-
ful factors in the other, and whoever sup|)oses the theory of evolution
to imply that advanced forms of social life will be reached, even if the
sympathetic promptings of individuals cease to operate, does not
understand what the theory is.

" A simple analogy will make the matter clear. All admit that we
have certain desires which insure the maintenance of the race, that
the instincts which prompt to the marital relation and afterward sub-
serve the parental relation make it certain that, without any injunction
or compulsion, each generation will produce the next. Now suppose
someone argued that since, in the order of nature, continuance of the
species was thus provided for, no one need do anything toward further-
ing the process by marrying. What should we think of his logic;
what should we think of his expectation that the effect would be pro-
duced when the causes of it were suspended?

"Yet, absurd as he would be, he could not be more absurd than the
one who supposed that the higher phases of social evolution would
come without the activity of those sympathetic feelings in men which
are the factors of them; or, rather, he would not be more absurd than
one who supposed that this is implied by the doctrine of evolution.

"The error results from failing lo sec that the citizen has to regard
himself at once subjectively and objectively — subjectively, as possess-
ing sympathetic sentiments (which are themselves the products of
evolution); objectively, as one among many social units having like
sentiments, by the combined operation of which certain social et'fccls
are produced. He has to to look on himself individually as a being
moved by emotions which prompt philanthropic actions, while, as a
member of society, he has to look on himself as an agent through
whom these emotions work out improvemeiics in social life. So far,
then, is the theory of evolution from implying a ' paralyzing and im-
moral fatalism,,' it implies that, for genesis of the highest social type
and produciion of the greatest general happiness, altruistic activities
are essential is we. I as egoistic activities, and that a due share of them
ii jbiigatory cpivi each citizen."

Social £to*
lution.

II!) J

IHE WORLD' S COXCRESS OF R/:/JU/OA'S.

Unit»«(l
Jrutlircn.

ITXITED IJRETHRKN IN CHRIST CONGRESS.

On Sc|)tcnibcr 14th this brxly assembled aiul lielcl but one morn-
inj,' session, in the Hall of Washin^jton, Bishop J. Weaver piesiclinf,^.
Papers were read as toiiow s; " The Origin of the Church of the Uniteil
lirethren in Christ." by the Kev. A. W. Drury, D. D.; "The Polity of
the Church," bv Hishop J. S. Mills, D. I)., Ph. 1).; "The Doctrines of
the Church," by the Rev. J. W. JCtter, I). D.; "The Educational Work
of the Church," by President T. J. Sanders, Ph. IX; " The Mission and
its Claims Upon the Denomination," by the Rev. Wm. McKec; " Tiie
Sunilay-school Woik of the Church," by the Rev. J. A. Wilier, D. D.,
]'h. D.': "The Church and Questions of Moral Reform," by the Rev.
I. 1.. Kephart, D. D. Resolutions were adopted exjjrcssive of appro-
bation of the World's Parliament of Relitjions. The attendance was
lar^e in proportion to the si/e of the denomination.

KING'S 1)AI'(;H TERS' CONGRESS.

An interesting^ presentation of this excellent association was
addressed by several of the prominent workers in its behalf. "Inter-
national b ;ard of Women's Christian Association " was ji^iven by Mrs.
Howard Ingham; "The Religious Mission of the Order of King's
Daughters and Sons," by Mrs. Isabella C. Davis; " Hible Class Work
of Women's Christian Associations," by Miss Clarence IJecbe. Mrs.
Mary Lowe Dickinson also spoke.

GERMAN EVANGELICAL CHURCH CONGRESS.

The presentation of this body was on September 24th and 25th.
Addresses were made on "The Faith and Distinguishing Character-
istics of the Evangelical Synod of North America," by Rev. J. K.
Zimmerman, of Louisville; " What the Evangelical Church Has Done
for Mankind," by Rev. J. G. Kircher, of Chicago; "Our Mission in
India," by Rev. Julius Lohr, of Bisrampur, India. Also addresses were
made by the Revs. J. Lueder, D. Irion, Paul L. Menzel, E. Otto,
H. Wolf, J. Pister and E. Holke. The American branch of this
church originated in 1840, in Missouri, and it has grown to eight
hundred ministers and nine hundred and sixty congregations. It is an
earnest, devoted people.

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

1!)3

TIIK THKOSOIMIISTS' CONT.RF.SS.

This body was presided over b>- Gi-or^re \\, Wrjirlit, of Cliicajjo.
The leadin<f spirit was Mrs. Annie lU-sant, of lMii;lanil, and thi- distin-
^uished and picturcsciue ICasl Inilians, l)harinai)ala anil Chalaa\arti,
were markeil fi;j;ures. Iiicisi\c ami ahvax's well-received words were
fretiuent from William O. jndi^a', of New Vork. I'rof. C. II. Cliakra-
varti, of AUaiiabad, defined Tlieosopli)- in a eomjilete statement, as far
as definition is possible. 1 le said, however, that only Ions:: ilisciplinc
and contemplation ami study ot the Sc-riptures in the Kast woulil enable
anyone to understand its lofty transcendentalism. He declared it only
ncc'.'ssary to insist on its sublime doctrine of brotherhood, as a scien-
tific tenet, .md that all creatures came from one soince and return to
whence they came, which arc really it.-; only essential truths. He
added tliat all animals are journeying toward man's estate. Dharma-
pala, Chakravarti, Mrs. Mercy M. Thirds, of Chicajro; Dr. Jerome A.
Anderson, of San Francisco; Mrs. F. Henrietta Muller, of Lontlon;
Dr. J. D. Huck and others, took part in the proceedings, Theosophy
was pronounced to be in harmony with science, and the foundation of
the Old and New Testaments, and that all Scri])tures contain truths,
and that all saviors are Christs. Great stress was laid on the doctrine
of reincarnations and the law of Karma.

Thcogophy.

BUDDHIST CONGRESS.

A brilliant spectacle was seen on the eveninfr of September 26th,
when Buddhism had its presentation and its gorgeously appareled
advocates were grouped on the platform. The Rev. Dr. Momerie, of
London, presided, and Y. Naguchi made the address of welcome, in
the course of Vv'hich he said: "I cannot think that this congress of the
various faiths of the world has been a mere show of different races,
but it has done a grand work, by which the different faiths of the
globe come and will continue to embrace one another in a cordial
fraternity; and if our oriental thought shall give an additional tint to
the material civilization of America and increase her natural beauty
and grace, we shall be greatly satisfied."

Shaku Soyen.Zitsuzcn Ashitzu, Kinza Riuge Hirai and the always
popular Vivekananda gave addresses, the last named the closing
one. He said: "I am not a Buddhist, as you have heard, and yet I
am. If China, or Japan, or Ceylon follow the teachings of the Great
Master, India worships Him as God incarnate on earth. You have

The Baddhist

1104

THE WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

'/Bste 18 a So.
o i a 1 Distinc-
tion.

just now heard that I am going to criticise Huddhism, but by that I
wish you to understand only this. Far be it from me to criticise him
whom I worship as God incarnate on earth. But our views upon
Buddha are that he was not understood properly by his disciples. The
relation between Hinduism (by Hinduism 1 mean the religion of the
Vedas) and what is called the liuddhism at the present day is nearly
the same as between Buddhism and Christianity. Jesus Christ was a
Jew and Shakamuni was a Hindu, but with this difference: The Jews
rejected Jesus Christ, nay, crucified Him, and the Hindu has exalted
Shakamuni to the seat of divinity and worships him.

"The religion of the Hindus is divided into two parts, the cere-
monial and the spiritual. The spiritual portion is especially studied
by the monks. In that there is no caste. A man from the highest
caste and a man from the lowest may become a monk in India, and
the two castes become equal. In religion there is no caste; caste is
simply a social condition. Shakamuni himself was a monk, and to
his glory he had the iarge-heartedness to bring out the truth from the
hidden Vedas and throw it broadcast all over the world. He was the
first being in the world who brought missionarizing into practice; nay,
he was the first to conceive the idea of proselyting.

*' The great glory of the master lay in his wonderful sympathy for
everybody, especially for the ignorant and poor. Some of his disci-
ples were Brahmans. When Buddha was teaching, Sanskrit was no
more the spoken language in India. It was then only in the books of
the learned. Some of Buddha's Brahman disciples wanted to translate
his teachings into Sanskrit, but he steadily told them, 'I am for the
poor, for the people; let me speak in the tongue of the people.' And
so to this day the great bulk of his teachings arc in the vernacular of
that day in India."

Addressing the picturesque group of Buddhists on the platform,
he said: "We cannot live without you, nor you without us. Then
believe that separation was shown to us, that you cannot stand without
the brain and philosophy of the Brahman, nor we without your heart.
This separation between the Buddhist and the Brahman is the cause of
the downfall of India. That is why India is populated by three hun-
dred millions of beggars, and that is why India has been the slave of
conquerors for the last one thousand years. Let us, then, join the
wonderful intellect of the Brahman with the heart, the noble soul, the
wonderful humanizing power of the great Master."

FREE RELIGIONISTS' CONGRESS.

This was a small gathering. It held but two sessions. President
Rev. Wm J. Potter; Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Francis EU-
ingwood Abbot, the Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Rabbi Hirsch, the Rev.
Minot J. Savage, and Mrs. Anna Garlin Spencer, discussed "The Free

THE WORLD'S COXC.KESS OF KEUUIONS.

111)5

Religious Association as the Kxpounder of the Natural History of
Religion," "Unity in Religion" and "The Scientifir Method in the
Study of Religion."

YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION CONGKKSS.
This useful organization held a session on October 6th. Tht pre
siding officer described its purpose to be "to make the best men in the
class-room, on the bench, in the home and at the ballot bo.\." It was
shown that 450 American colleges and 30,000 students are identified
with it, and that night schools and university extension work are
accomplishing immense good. Addresses were given by the presi-
dent, John M. Coulter, of Lake Forest; K. S .Shuey. of Dayton, Ohio;
E. L. VVishard, C. M. Hobbs, Luther Gulich, M. D.; A. A. Stagg' Lord
Kinnaird, of England, and Cephas Jirainerd.

ETHICAL CULTURE CONGRESS.

At the meeting of the Ethical Culturists, Prof. Felix Adlcr. the
founder of the society; S. Burns Weston, of Philadelphia; Prof. Paul
Shorey, of the Chicago University; Stanton Coit, of London; George
C. Rosenblatt, of New York; Joseph W. P^arrnt, of Chicago, and P'rank
Tobey, participated. A letter was read from Professor P'oerster, of
Berlin. The topics treated were: "PIclps to Moral Life from Greek
and Roman Lit'.>rature;" "The Practical Work of the Neighborhood
Guild," etc. It was stated that it is the province of ethical science to
adopt all that is good in all religions, and that religionists of all mcxles
of thinking can approve the purposes of the l^thical Society and
should encourage it.

SWEDISH EVANGELICAL MISSION COVENANT.

Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant in America; Presentation.
This meeting was in the Hall of Washington, September 25th. Papers
were read by Rev. N. P>ykman, vice-president of the Mission Cove-
nant ("The History of the Free Evangelical Mission Movement in
Sweden and America") and by Prof. D. Nyvall, president of the
Swedish Evangelical Mission College and Seminary; Rev. Otto Hog-
felvt, secretary of the Mission church, and Rev. \i. Skogsbcrgh, of
Minneapolis, Minn. This body originated in Sweden about a half-
century ago. It numbers in Sweden one hundred and thirty thousand
members and fifty thousand in America. It has no fixed creed, but
works for the promotion of P^vangelical Christianity. Its basis is
church life.

Swc<l i(<h
Evangelical.

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1100

T//E WORLD'S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.

REFORMKD CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES.

Reformed Church of the United States; Presentation. Ihur.sday.
September 2ist, *\\c Reformed church gathered its representativc.'s in
the H'lll of Washington. Rev. Amb.ose M. Schmidt, of Pittsburg, was
the chairman. The first topic was "The Reformed Church and Her
Creed," which was read by Rev. Wm. Rupp, D. D., of Pittsburg, Pa.
The other speakers were Rev. Joseph 11. Dubbs on "The Progress of
the Century;" Rev. Dr. T. G. Appel, D. D., on "The Progress of
Theology;" Rev. Dr. Edward R. Eschbach, of Frederick. Md., on
"Practical and Bene\olent Operation of the Reformed church," and J. A.
Peters, D. D., on "The Literary and Theological Institutions of the
Refer Tied church in Amerija." Dr. Rupp declared that the Reformed
church is both conservative ai d progressive, having the true historical
sense, and yet looking to the future. When there shall be an Ameri-
can church, the Reformed church will be at the front. Dr. Appel said
the theology of his church, in its spirit at least, is independent and
distinctive. Christ is its center. Dr. Peters gave the statistics of his
chirch as nineteen literary institutions, with $700,000, and one hun-
dred instructors and sixteen hundred students. Dr. Eschbach':, paper
gave the home missions as 137, with 140 congregations and '-;,2io com-
municants. Foreign . ssions: — eight missionaries, twelve churches,
thirty-two preaching lalions, 1842 native coinmunicants. T.'ie Re-
formed church was organized in Lancaster, Pa., April 27, 1793. ' It has
now nine hundred ministers and two hundred and fifteen thousand
communicants. It occupies the most advanced ground in favor of
Christian union, and felt entirely at home in the World's Parliament
of Religions.

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